Welcome to the Iamdata Solutions Asset Management Newsletter - May 2024
During my time working in various Asset Management roles, when it came to Maintenance Management, my main focus was on implementing a strategic approach. This involved deploying practices and processes to enhance the availability, reliability, performance, and lifecycle of the infrastructure assets.
My key objectives encompassed minimising unplanned downtime and maintenance costs, boosting operational efficiency, mitigating asset failures, improving asset reliability, and ensuring compliance with safety regulations. Things have certainly evolved over the years in this area and now, as well as what we consider traditional preventive maintenance, we include predictive, proactive, scheduled and planned maintenance frameworks.
Developing an Asset Management Management Strategy
We are living in a time where we are lucky enough to have access to an abundance of data about our assets. Utilising the data for analytics is at the core of the Asset Maintenance Management strategy. This allows us to assess different scenarios and determine which course of action best suites the organisation and allows us to optimise maintenance strategies by balancing cost-effectiveness with risk reduction.
What are the Key Activities Associated with Maintenance Management?
Activities includes:
Regular inspections
Preventive and predictive maintenance
Root cause failure analysis
Plant & equipment / materials / resources optimisation
Personnel training
Tracking key performance indicators
Effective Asset Maintenance Management requires coordination among maintenance teams, reliability engineers, plant managers, and Council leadership.
Preventive Maintenance
Many Councils will initiate a preventive maintenance program. For example, Council may have a regular maintenance program in place for crack sealing and patching road surfaces. This proactive approach extends the road's life by preventing water and debris from causing more extensive damage avoiding more costly rehabilitation in the future.
Predictive Maintenance
Councils utilise road sensors to monitor vibrations from traffic loads. Analysing this data predicts when pavement requires overlay or reconstruction, enabling just-in-time maintenance before failure occurs.
Reliability Maintenance
Statistical modelling is used to determine optimal inspection intervals for road assets. This ensures maintenance is frequent enough to prevent failures but not overly conservative.
Root Cause Analysis
Despite repeated repairs, a road section experiences recurring potholes. The engineers conduct a root cause analysis, discovering improper construction in the sub-base and drainage. Addressing the root cause prevents repeat failures.
I think it’s worth exploring this deeper, here’s an example of what this process can include:
We gather data from various sources, including historical maintenance records, pavement design specifications, construction details, and traffic patterns. This information provides a comprehensive overview of the road's life cycle and any deviations from the original design or construction.
Implementing road pavement sensors becomes instrumental in non-invasive assessing the condition of the road without disruptive testing. These sensors can monitor factors such as vibration, temperature, moisture, and load-bearing capacity. The collected sensor data helps in creating a real-time profile of the road's condition, allowing us to pinpoint areas of concern without resorting to invasive methods.
By combining sensor data analysis with on-site inspections, the engineers can identify the root causes of recurring potholes, including poor drainage, inadequate sub-base, traffic overloading, and reactive soil. This information guides us in implementing corrective measures.
Implementing Corrective Measures
Armed with a thorough understanding of the root causes, the engineers can develop targeted corrective measures, such as improving drainage systems, reinforcing the sub-base, or implementing traffic management strategies to reduce stress on the pavement.
Monitoring and Iterative Improvement
Continuous monitoring using pavement sensors helps in evaluating the effectiveness of implemented measures. The data collected over time supports an iterative improvement process, allowing for adjustments based on changing conditions and ensuring the long-term resilience of the road.
Utilising Technology for Maintenance Management
I've utilised many technologies to help me be more efficient in my Maintenance Management tasks. Here are some I believe are worth a mention:
iAuditor for Mobile Inspections and Risk Assessments
This tool enables real-time mobile inspections, data collection, issue logging, and report generation, improving efficiency and data quality.
Power BI for Data Analytics
Customised dashboards, data consolidation, mapping visualisations, predictive analytics, and mobile access enhance data-driven decisions, proactive maintenance, and continuous improvement.
Asset Management System
Obviously the most important of all! The Asset Management system provides a centralised asset register, maintenance scheduling, work order management, plant and equipment/materials integration, mobile access, resource planning, and performance analytics transform maintenance into proactive, data-driven approaches.
GIS Integration
Visual asset mapping, location intelligence, fieldwork management, spatial analysis, analytics integration, and lifecycle management support effective maintenance planning, execution, and asset visibility.
Fostering a Data Driven Culture
I cannot stress enough how important it is for any organisation, but especially Councils to adopt a healthy data culture. A healthy, data culture is crucial for success.
What does a Data Driven Culture Look Like?
A data culture refers to the behaviours, processes, and norms within an organisation that encourage leveraging data to inform decisions and drive progress at all levels.
Key aspects of a healthy data culture includes:
Data accessibility
Data must be available and understandable to employees across departments.
Data literacy
Employees should have the skills and knowledge to correctly analyse and interpret data to turn insights into action. Training and mentoring are crucial.
Cross-department data sharing
Insights should be consistently shared between departments, leading to breakdown of silos.
Data-driven decision making
From executive team (usually CEO and Divisional Managers) strategic planning to front-line process improvements, data should guide policy, governance, operations and service delivery. By championing a data culture, councils can fully capitalise on their data.
Let's Explore the Role of Data
We've had a look at what key aspects are needed for a healthy data culture, now lets look more closely at the actual data - what data is needed and how can we ensure we're leveraging it to help us manage our assets more efficiently?
At the very least, we need accurate, up-to-date data about our infrastructure assets, like condition, inspection dates, acquisition dates, expiry dates, material types, location and maintenance history. This information is essential for planning and prioritisation.
Leveraging The Data We Have Available
Data Analytics
When we conduct analysis on our data, we can identifies failure patterns, optimises preventive maintenance frequencies, and predicts future costs, supporting data-backed decision-making.
Integrated Data
Avoids siloed datasets and manual processes by integrating data from various sources as shown below: This could include data from many different sources including inspections, sensors, etc.
Technological Adoption
We should recognise the need to leverage technologies such as mobile apps, IoT sensors, and AI for data generation.
Data Transparency and Governance
Critical for responsible data sharing, with role-based access and privacy controls ensuring collaboration.
KPI Tracking
Monitoring KPIs around asset availability, maintenance backlogs, overtime, and costs provides detailed metrics for continuous improvement.
Training and Leadership
Staff training and leadership buy-in are essential to foster a data-driven culture, communicate benefits, and drive change.
I hope this blog has been interesting and helpful. I have endeavored to emphasise the importance of adopting a data driven culture within the workplace, as well as deploying innovative practices and technologies to optimise the availability, reliability, and performance of the infrastructure assets.
I firmly believe that by encouraging and embracing data utilisation, technological integration, and a proactive mindset in your organisation, you will achieve cost reduction, enhanced safety, and improved efficiency for your infrastructure assets.
I have worked on many different projects with my Local Government clients, from designing and developing Power BI Reports, to building SQL Server databases for spatial data, to managing and maintaining the GIS and the Asset Management systems. If you'd like to discuss how we might work together, then please email Jill at ➡️ jill.singleton@iamdata.solutions
If you would like to receive the latest Newsletter Blog straight to your inbox, please subscribe here: ➡️ https://www.iamdata.solutions/subscribe
You can read all our Newsletters and Blogs here:➡️ https://www.iamdata.solutions/blog
You may also be interested in our Projects Page:➡️ https://www.iamdata.solutions/past-projects
Check out what our clients say about us here:➡️ https://www.iamdata.solutions/reviews
If you would like to see a particular topic covered in these newsletters, then please let me know about it. The chances are other people will be interested and would like to hear about it too! Please email me at: ➡️ jill.singleton@iamdata.solutions with your suggestions.