Asset Management = Culture Change

Asset Management has been studied for at least 10 years in our industry. There are various techniques, methodologies, and definitions of what Asset Management is. Some utilities find it confusing. Others think they've “completed” an Asset Management system that is now running. The fact is, Asset Management, overall, is not well understood. This year's WEFTEC program shows a variety of presentations on Asset Management that range from “fast and painless” program to well thought-out, systematic, step-by-step, detailed processes.This paper contends that Asset Management is really about culture change. To implement Asset Management in the sense that it was intended – managing assets to get the desired extended useful life – you'll come face-to-face with change. Change comes face-to-face with culture, which will resist change forever. It's been said that culture eats strategy for breakfast, so an Asset Management strategy that does not incorporate cultural change elements is more likely to fail.