June 2011 - Parsons Brinckerhoff

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safety and customer service standards,
there were differences by sector in
their overall priorities. As shown in
Box 1, organizations in the energy and
mining sector were more driven by
production continuity, while the water
and transport sectors shared common
drivers with only minor differences
in how they ranked them. To a lesser
extent, new client demands and an
uncertain global economic climate
presented consistent challenges for
all the organizations in the study.
Water organizations highlighted
emerging technologies (including
asset management systems and the
increasing use of desalination) as an
important focus for the long term.
All of these issues are complicated
by Australia’s increasing population
and demand for services—whether
in congestion on rail and roads
or increased energy and water
consumption.
While most organizations were looking
to better understand the long-term
challenges so as to improve their
asset management strategies, they
were immediately focused on aging
assets and significant maintenance
backlogs. In this context, establishing
and implementing an effective risk
management framework is a high
priority for the water, energy, and
mining sectors. Transport organizations
identified the challenge of tight labor
and material markets. The shortterm
challenges tended to be more
diverse, and highly dependent on local
geographies. For example, government
structural reform presented significant
challenges for water organizations in
Queensland, Australia, but was not
highlighted nationally. Please see Box 2.
Effectiveness of asset
management
Most of the organizations in the study
forecasted they would see substantial
new funding, allowing them to increase
the size of their total asset portfolios
in the short term (three to five years).
They are also forecasting reduced
Top Three Drivers for Asset Management, by Sector
Ranking Transport Energy and mining Water
1 Maintaining customer service
standards
2 Ensuring workers’ safety*
Delivering the most efficient use
of funds*
funding in the longer term (more than
five years). As a result, they indicated
an increased need to improve their
overall asset management programs
with a stronger focus on asset
performance and total lifecycle cost—
particularly in the public sector.
In the survey, organizations were asked
the question: “How effective are your
asset management tools, processes and
systems?” In the reply, organizations
tended to have a broad spectrum of
operational tools and systems in place,
and generally described them as at
least “somewhat” effective. This was
particularly true across the range of
operational tools that support practical
operational and maintenance decision
processes. When organizations selfassessed
their level of competency
Ensuring workers’ safety
Ensuring a continuity of
production
Maintaining customer service
standards
Delivering the most efficient use
of funds
3 Ensuring regulatory compliance Ensuring regulatory compliance Ensuring regulatory compliance**
Ensuring workers’ safety**
*Issue ranked equally by transport organizations
**Issue ranked equally by water organizations
Short-Term Challenges for Asset Management, by Sector
Ranking Transport Energy and mining Water
1 Aging assets with significant
maintenance backlogs
2 Rapid ramping up of staff and
systems/processes to deliver
increased capital programs
Effective risk management
Aging assets with significant
maintenance backlogs
3 Tight labor and materials market Greater compliance and
regulatory requirements, e.g. high
reporting requirements
Aging assets with significant
maintenance backlogs
Governance and sound decision
making
Effective risk management
Long-term challenges for asset management, by sector
Ranking Transport Energy and mining Water
1 Unknown impact of climate
change and carbon trading
2 Uncertain global economic
climate
3 Increased private ownership of
public infrastructure and PPPs
Unknown impact of climate
change and carbon trading
Changing client demands and
expectations
Increased private ownership of
public infrastructure and PPPs
Unknown impact of climate
change and carbon trading
Governance and sound decision
making
Unknown growth in technology
against 13 major asset management
criteria there tended to be more gaps
in their management tools, with fewer
systems in place to support their
strategic decision processes.
A fifth of the participating
organizations either lacked or had
ineffective strategic asset management
plans and formal asset risk assessments
or management plans. All organizations
reported having somewhat or very
effective computerized maintenance
management systems (CMMS), which
included asset registers and condition
assessment data. However, many
indicated they often fell short in the
effective use of the CMMS systems and
tools. Organizations with condition
monitoring and reliability systems,
GIS enterprise tools and performance
1
2
64 | The Future of Asset Management in the AAPSA Region