An asset management plan helps asset owners and utility operators manage asset networks in five ways:
- Estimating the real service life of assets
- Predicting the location and severity of asset failure
- Providing network visualizations to key decision-makers
- Budgeting for asset rehabilitation and replacement
- Identifying opportunities for synergy among multiple projects
Estimating the real service life of assets
Water, sewer, stormwater, pavement, building systems, and other assets all have an expected service life. Manufacturers typically calculate expected service using a combination of factors such as:
- Material – What materials is the asset made with, and how durable are those materials?
- Design – How will the asset be constructed or installed, and where do potential points of failure exist?
- Process – How frequently and how intensely should such an asset be used? How often should the asset receive maintenance?
Improper installation, heavy use, and irregular maintenance are all deviations that can affect service life.
An asset in use, however, is also subject to other variables that could extend or shorten its service life. Environmental conditions like temperature, humidity, pH levels, seismic activity, and exposure to contaminants can all impact asset longevity.
An asset management plan uses the manufacturer’s expected service life as a starting point and then adjusts it based on local conditions to provide a more accurate estimate of asset service life.
Predicting the location and severity of asset failure
Once asset owners and utility operators have a more accurate estimate of asset service life, they can begin to predict where and when assets are likely to fail.
For example, pavement managers in places that experience icy winters understand that pavement contraction and expansion caused by freezing and thawing tend to shorten pavement life. An asset management plan not only addresses how much shorter pavement life may be but also highlights how the risks from winter weather are worse for some assets than others. A pavement failure on a bridge to a coastal island or along the single emergency access road to an isolated community can have far worse consequences than on a multi-lane collector road in a suburban neighborhood.
An asset management plan enables asset owners and utility operators to anticipate failures and plan how to prevent them or mitigate their negative impacts on people and the environment. Proactively addressing asset network issues also increases overall customer satisfaction.
Providing network visualizations to key decision-makers
An asset management plan is not simply a to-do list of asset maintenance and replacement needs. It is a roadmap for achieving asset network goals, including improving service level, increasing service life, reducing maintenance costs, and maximizing infrastructure investments.
An effective asset management plan couples action items with justifications, often in the form of charts showing budget breakdowns and service level over time. These charts provide clear—sometimes stark—demonstrations of how insufficient investment will lead to declining network quality and higher long-term costs.
The visualizations in an asset management plan are a powerful tool for helping local government officials and stakeholders see where investments are needed and why. The story these graphs tell can move the needle from “we can’t afford to do that” to “we can’t afford NOT to do that.”
Budgeting for asset rehabilitation and replacement
Historically, asset management has been reactionary: when something breaks, asset owners and utility operators rush to fix it. If a repair or replacement was not expected for several more years, then owners or operators may have to delay other projects or borrow funds to cover the expenses. Reactionary approaches also frequently involve higher costs from expediting emergency repairs and greater negative health and safety consequences.
An asset management plan is proactive: asset owners and utility operators predict when an asset is likely to break, then lay out a plan for how to fix it and how to pay for the fix. It provides a budgeting framework beyond routine maintenance costs and a rainy-day fund. It may provide justification for seeking increased budget allocations, new revenue generating activities, or outside financing from grants and loans. It can even drive long-term savings by cutting down on the number and severity of emergency repairs.
Identifying opportunities for synergy among multiple projects
When pursuing asset repair and replacement projects, many communities default to a worst-first approach. They take a list of assets and sort them by condition from most distressed to least distressed and then work their way down the list.
The trouble with the worst-first approach is that it offers no economy of density. The most distressed assets aren’t always next to each other, but an asset in “serious” condition could easily be surrounded by assets in “poor” condition. By focusing on all the “serious” assets before moving on to the “very poor” and then the “poor” assets, local governments crisscross the community deploying crews and materials for projects. Doubling back to the same neighborhoods over and over again takes longer and costs more money, which means fewer assets being addressed each year.
An asset management plan looks for opportunities to combine projects—sometimes across asset classes—to eliminate redundant tasks or services. This not only saves money but also prevents disruptive re-work such as repaving the same road twice.
Ask an Expert
