Moving Up a Level: Charleston Water System's Journey to Update its Strategic Asset Management Plan

This presentation will describe best practices on how to grow and evolve an existing asset management program. This will be shown through the experience of Charleston Water System (CWS). Specifically, it will detail the effort and journey of CWS to update its Strategic Asset Management Plan (SAMP) and plan out its asset management growth over the next five years. Charleston Water System is a water and wastewater provider for the City of Charleston, South Carolina and surrounding areas. Asset management has been a focus at CWS for over 10 years. Asset Management excellence is part of Charleston Water System's corporate strategic plan. Back in 2018, CWS took its asset management program to a new level by creating an initial SAMP and Asset Management Policy. CWS also conducted an internal asset management maturity assessment using the Institute of Asset Management Self-Assessment Methodology+ (SAM+) tool to assess maturity against the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 55001 asset management standard. The purpose of the SAMP was to guide CWS in growing its asset management program from 2018-2023. In 2023, CWS knew it was time to not only update the SAMP and maturity assessment but also take a moment to understand the best path forward for growing the asset management program in a way that best aligns with the needs of the organization. This presentation walks through the journey of updating the SAMP and maturity assessment, and how this aligned with the parallel initiative to update the CWS Strategic Plan. It explores lessons learned for organizations not just creating a SAMP for the first time but updating one from an existing asset management program. Participants will walk away with a better understanding of: Differences, benefits, and challenges of conducing both in-house and consultant-supported maturity assessments and ways to align them. Ways to link effective utility management (EUM) strategies into a SAMP update as well as other best practices to align corporate strategies and incentives with your asset management program. Messaging and lessons for moving an asset management program from the initial creation stage to one focused on tangible outcomes for stakeholders. The challenges and options for scheduling asset management projects faced with limited internal resources. How best to engage internal stakeholders and address their needs as part of the SAMP update. The benefits of having a structured process for strategic planning (for both a Strategic Plan and the SAMP), and the benefits of an established management system for the asset management program. One of the unique aspects of CWS' assessment is the fact that CWS is ISO 14001 certified. In 1999 CWS became the first public water or wastewater utility in the nation to become certified under the ISO 14001 standard for environmental management. There is close alignment between ISO 14001 and 55001. This presentation will describe how a mature environmental management system supports asset management practices by having well documented and managed procedures, governance and audit processes, and environmental risk management. CWS is unique among most US water utilities in having a Compliance and Auditing Services group that is responsible for strategic planning and improving the organization's governance processes and operational controls. Through this presentation, participants will gain a better understanding of how an asset management program can grow and the challenges of moving up to another level. For CWS, the 2018 maturity assessment showed an average score of 1.5. The score increased to 2.4 by 2023, showing the success of initial efforts to build this program. But the projects and resource needs identified in the 2023 study reflect the challenging climb ahead. Lessons learned from this project include: The importance of the executive leadership commitment to developing the asset management program. Ways to improve collaboration when performing an update to a SAMP through engagement and communication across the organization. The need to show tangible, value add, projects within asset management to retain buy-in of the program. How a change management program can support the implementation of asset management initiatives. This presentation is ideal for utility staff that oversee asset management programs, utility leaders who are significant stakeholders of these programs, and consultants that support utilities in their asset management journeys.