‘YOU JUST NEED TO GET STARTED’ Taking the First Steps to Implement an Asset Management Program

We've all heard it, at the myriad of asset management related seminars, presentations and training courses held over the last 5 years, after the discussion of the advantages of such advanced concepts as; criticality analysis, reliability centered maintenance, optimized decision making, lifecycle cost analysis, and more, the speaker always seems to conclude by saying; ‘don't let all of this overwhelm you, you just need to get started’. At Macon Water Authority, a medium sized water and wastewater utility in Georgia, the staff could see the likely benefits and wanted an asset management program, but having attended a number of training sessions, researched publications, and listened to the views of ‘industry experts’, still felt that the first steps to getting started had not been clearly defined. They knew that there would be benefits but wanted to cut through what they considered to be the quagmire of visioning and strategic planning and commence a low-cost asset management program that would not require a major change in the way they operated and would both enthuse the staff and show early, tangible benefits. Their immediate aim was to improve the quality of information of their water and wastewater infrastructure. In common with numerous other equivalent utilities, the staff were acutely aware that the level of annual funding available to them was not enough to maintain the current asset base, let alone improve it, but they had no real evidence to justify to the Board that they needed additional funding. The starting point became clear; develop an inventory that defines the asset base in terms of location, type, condition and replacement cost, and then use the data in two ways. First; develop short and long-term capital investment programs, and then populate a computerized maintenance management system. This paper serves to share the experience of Macon Water Authority and show other equivalent sized utilities how easy it really can be to ‘get started’.