AM core responsibilities
Asset Management Plan (AMP) The original definition of AM in practice was the co-ordination of a short/ medium/ longer-term integrated Asset Management Plan, and this remains the core activity of an AM team. They do not produce the AMP on their own, because input both on requirements and constraints has to come from other functions. But someone has to ensure it comes together.
Asset Management Implementation Main responsibility for leading and program managing AM implementation and development overall.
AM Policy and SAMP Developing key AM drivers such as the AM Policy, and the Strategic Asset Management Plan, in other words the high-level summary Asset Management Strategy
Asset Management System Implementation or coordination of the overall AM management system, as described in ISO 55000, either as part of a larger management system, or in some cases as the first management system.
Consider how the organization schedules, reviews and improves asset strategies, plans, process and procedures; sets system scope and develops maturity plans; coordinates across management systems (it is essential that all management systems at least don’t conflict); and sets AM system objectives and measures
This is likely also to involve acting as secretariat to AM steering committees, and generally managing the governance process.
AM Training and Communication Explaining what AM is and why it is important, continually; building agency AM understanding and specific competencies through formal and informal training programs.
Asset Management Objectives Development and measurement of SMART asset objectives and other targets for AM.
Asset Class Strategies Facilitation, development and management of asset class or family strategies: these need to make full use of field and engineering experience, but again someone has to define, co-ordinate and often actually write them.
Other Asset Strategies Asset site, system and network strategies, which tend to be harder to coordinate. Making sure people look at system as well as lifecycle interdependencies, and not just on the class of assets or phase of the lifecycle they are responsible for – a major issue in what we call ‘stupid’ decisions, like buying a train fleet that doesn’t fit on the tracks, or building a plant that can’t be maintained. ‘Joining it up’ is a key responsibility in good practice Asset Management.
Asset Information Strategy Very commonly, there is no-one else in a good position to lead on a better strategy for asset information, which in the absence of a strategic approach is expensively scattergun in many organizations. AM decision-making must be the main driver of investment in asset data and asset data system, as using information to make better decisions is the only thing that gives data any value.
Asset Analysis and Modelling Data analysis and modelling of assets (for example, whole life cost models), and generally leading on asset decision techniques and tools.
Maintenance optimization – a well-established set of techniques centered on RCM – can usefully be done by a trained small team within Maintenance, but replacement and refurbishment program optimization is generally a core AM team capability. Note that both Operations and Engineering come with their own views and interests on investment, and as AM pioneer Jim Kennedy put it, are ‘poachers’ rather than ‘gamekeepers’; you need a more objective, unbiased focus for prioritization.
AM Practitioners also need to play a key role in helping define any corporate risk framework – for an asset-intensive organization, asset risks make up a high proposition and a very wide range of business risks. In US transit agencies, generally the major AM team responsibility in the past few years has been the production of the TAM Plan to meet FTA rules under MAP-21 as well as National Transit Database (NTD) data.
Someone needs actively to bridge between managing assets and Asset Management. Managing assets is vital, but it is not the same as Asset Management.