Asset Management is one of the most difficult processes to understand and implement. The pressure on capital costs and replacement costs continually drives the water industry and the maintenance of long term assets as well as the development of new assets all make up the critical asset management process. As new technologies with materials, measuring equipment, monitoring equipment together with cost constraints ensure the asset management role needs to continually evolve.

Asset Categories

Within any asset management system there is a need to have assets effectively categorised. In typical water and sewer networks they have been traditionally catergorised under the  product they are transporting. As recycled water and stormwater systems are introduced to the networks there is a need to clearly identify those categories and how best they are to be applied to the operational activity.

There are of course health and safety issues related to all these components and perhaps some long term  and more broadening of the types of asset categories is appropriate for improved asset management.

Asset Performance

The development of an effective asset management process relies heavily on understanding how an asset has been preforming. The water industry has utilised many methods and technologies across its network of pipes, pump stations, treatment plants, valves, hydrants and manholes to measure the performance of its assets. Pipe breakage rates and sewer blockages are just a couple of the performance measures used widely within the industry.

The ability to monitor, trend, assess and then develop an affective management plan has relied heavily on experts or experienced practitioners to both interpret and then decide on the best development plan. Risk models have been used widely to understand the risk profile but these rely heavily on past performance and interpretation.

The ability to have more online and real time data will assist in developing broader options that may previously not have been considered.

Planned Maintenance

Many maintenance planners consider that planned maintenance will lead to significant reductions in the reactive maintenance activity. With the traditional maintenance of equipment and process plants this is no doubt the case. However with assets that are have a life span of 50 to 100 years it may not be the most appropriate method of maintenance. Certainly some elements of planned maintenance activities follow the traditional approach, however the longer term assets may require a different approach.

In line with most of the focus of the group the ability to more effectively monitor  and respond to changes in trends as they are occurring, will lead to more effective maintenance planning in the future.

Reactive Maintenance

One of the high costs of undertaking any maintenance activity is the unpredictability that this type of maintenance requires on call response teams to follow the just in case principle. Many of the drivers of KPI’s, centre around the ability to perform reactive maintenance and as improvements in asset performance are achieved the impact of  those KPI’s instead of lessening can create a greater burden through the continuous improvement process.

Reactive maintenance within the water industry is one aspect that needs continual review and analysis and developing ways to restrict and eventually remove this costly component should be a focus of all in the industry.

The increases in both technology and information and more extensive SCADA systems may allow a significant reduction in the reactive maintenance activity.