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Asset management is a continuous process that guides the acquisition, use, and disposal of infrastructure assets, to optimize service delivery and minimize costs over the assets entire life. Components are regularly maintained over long planning cycles, and finally replaced when deterioration outweighs the benefits of further maintenance. Costs should be well distributed over the life of the asset.
An infrastructure asset is any long-lived capital asset that is operated as a system or network such as a sewer system. The sewers, manholes and pump stations are the primary asset components of the collection system. The key elements of asset management are: level of service definitions, selection of performance goals, information management, asset identification and valuation, failure impact evaluation and risk management, condition assessment, rehabilitation and replacement planning, capacity assessment and assurance, maintenance analysis and planning, financial management, and continuous improvement planning. These complex and inter-related elements must be implemented by everyone in the organization, including management, financial, administrative and field staff, to ensure the optimal life of an asset. An emphasis on asset management ensures that the key components of a strategic plan, such as level of service definition, rate setting, budgeting, financing, and value-engineering are taken into consideration.
An effective infrastructure management system prolongs the life of valuable assets, and prevents premature deterioration of the inter-related components. Planning should be performed annually and updated throughout the year as needed to address changing conditions. Maintenance activities are either planned i.e. inspecting all major sewer lines every 15 years, cleaning all major lines on a rotating basis every five years, or unplanned i.e. defect repair, emergency blockage removal.
The asset management goal is to maximize cost-effective planned maintenance and minimize costly unplanned maintenance, thereby improving system wide performance and to preserve asset condition as long as possible. Dynamic capital asset planning is used to target maintenance, repair, or build activities to meet these goals.
Asset management includes financial forecasting/budgeting that should be performed over a period of five to ten years, and be updated annually. Understanding the “condition/grade” of all assets under management drive financial considerations, such as user fees, cash flows, debt financing, and financial reserve activity.
Asset managers are the ones who are responsible for managing the substantial maintenance, repair, and renewal work projects. It is their responsibility to optimize expenditures and maximize the value of assets over the asset’s life cycle. In addition, asset managers are faced with many difficult decisions regarding how and when to repair or replace assets, with few “intelligent” tools to assist them in the decision making process. A lack of knowledge of the conditions of the “built” environment means that scarce resources that are available for maintenance or repair are often used ineffectively.
These challenges affect everyone through increased health and safety risks, reduced economic competitiveness, inefficient maintenance strategies, a reduction in the value of built assets and a need to increase funding to maintain the “built” environment. It is becoming “dangerously” obvious that municipalities are not funding/spending enough on maintenance and repair of assets and municipalities (owners) are accumulating an ever-increasing maintenance deficit, which is leading more and more to premature failures and premature renewals. This financial deficit has prompted strict new government spending guidelines and compliance regulations that municipalities must report on annually. Preventing catastrophic infrastructure breakdowns, such as the public safety of the water supply, is the asset managers’ prime directive. In the past, the public has taken for granted that the integrity of the system would always be safe. In today’s environment, governments are scrambling to bring accountability and visibility back to the system, and restore the public’s lost faith.
For information about MapFusion’s solution for this industry, please contact our sales department at sales@mapfusion.com.
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