Asset Management Made Easy – Applying Best Business Practices to Develop Practical Asset Management

With the downturn in the economy, utilities are facing even more limited funds to upgrade aging infrastructure to maintain utility services. At the same time these utilities are facing the reality that their underground sanitary and storm sewer assets are deteriorating and many have reached the end of their useful lives. Consequently, many engineers and utility managers are struggling to get their head around how to properly and cost-effectively manage and renew their assets. Utility managers are also typically facing CSO and SSO regulatory compliance costs on top of the day-today costs to manage their assets. Sanitation District No. 1 of Northern Kentucky (SD1) faced these same challenges and asked the simple question, “What Would a Well Run Utility Operate like?” SD1 answered this question by applying best business practices and designing their asset management program to meet the following key objectives:What would we do even without a Consent Decree?Customer ServiceFiscal ResponsibilityTransparencyProactive Maintenance & RenewalStrategic PlanningSD1's asset management program consists of the following key elements:The Human Side - Employee Accountability/Organizational StructureContinuous Sewer Assessment ProgramProactive Asset Renewal–including life cycle costsCustomer Service∘ SSO/CSO∘ Water QualityCMOM/NMCThe common denominator with all of these elements is simply knowing what you have, what condition the system is in relative to a desired level of service, and what happens if that level of service is lost. Once that information is obtained, making cost effective decisions is simply making informed decisions. SD1 enhanced its internal operations and customer service performance through innovative and efficient management of its wastewater and stormwater systems to develop a practical asset management program for both their 1,600 miles of sanitary sewers and 400 miles of storm sewers to accomplish all of the above elements. A key element of success was workforce development, accountability, endorsement, and the human element of implementing change.Workflow and data handling standard operating procedure flowcharts were developed and provided the road maps for accomplishing the above elements and implementing an automated next action decision-making and work order system. SD1 also developed a work flow process including automation and human review to QA/QC the collected data, inform decision-making on which pipes need rehabilitation and replacement through a business risk exposure (BRE) process, and then prioritize pipes for renewal based on the BRE and available capital budget. This process allowed SD1 to understand their system's current level of service, remaining useful life, and establish defendable criteria for annual rates of renewal and required capital budget.SD1's best business practice based asset management program resulted in the following accomplishments:Savings of over $725,000 the first year of implementationWent from 5 in-house CCTV Crews to 7 CCTV Crews with same staff levelIncreased In-house Inspection Production by 110%Reduced in-house CCTV inspection costs by 25%Reduced Dry Weather SSOs by 54%Dry Weather SSOs are 50% below industry benchmarkFrom 2009 to 2011 increased Asset Renewal by 500% & Reduced Renewal Costs by 71%This paper describes how SD1 developed and implemented a straight forward program to manage its assets utilizing best business practices along with lessons learned. The work that SD1 has done can be easily followed by other utilities as a guide and model to develop their own straightforward asset management program.