Corporate Coordinator
This topic covers:
The Asset Management Engineer or Coordinator works under the direction of the Asset Management Group as the main permanent staff member involved in the implementation process. Depending on workload, this coordinator may have assistant coordinators or data collection staff.
The role of coordinator is very important to the success of the program.
The main tasks include:
- Conduct a Needs Analysis, in which the needs of the organization are thoroughly assessed, and a suitable Asset Management Plan established
- In consultation with the Asset Management Consultants, bring about change in the organization’s culture and attitudes to Asset Management functions and responsibilities.
The coordinator will implement the initial data collection, including facilitating debate on the asset numbering systems and the method by which the data is classified, then implement pilot schemes for each of the major asset groups, such as roads, buildings, etc. When the pilot schemes are completed, necessary changes to the program can be made. The next stage is the full data collection for the remaining assets.
The coordinator will need a clear understanding of the total life cycle approach to Asset Management, and the benefits that organizations can achieve by applying these concepts and principles.
The first major task for the coordinator is to identify the organization's assets and develop a structure that will allow for asset numbering, coding and classification to suit the computer systems that will be used in the future.
The coordinator needs to work with each of the Asset Groups to develop an inventory of the groups' assets. This inventory does not have to be detailed but should include all of the different types of assets that each group holds.
All Asset Management Programs require some method of identifying assets by location, and as such maps of some form or another will be an integral part of the Asset Management Implementation.
In the short term, the most critical issue is to record the unique asset identifiers that will be the link between the locations of the asset and the attributes or asset details kept on the computer inventory/register systems.
Recording the unique identifier onto the current plans of the organization can do this. Hard copy plans, digital mapping or AutoCAD systems are suitable.
Staff can then record all attribute and financial information onto the computerized asset registers or maintenance management systems against the unique identifier.
If an organization has already commenced or finished the implementation of a digital mapping or automatic plans system, then this process is further enhanced. The digital overlays for each of the various asset groups can be marked up with the asset identifiers or the existing identifiers can be linked to the new organization-wide unique numbering system that will be used in asset management systems.
The coordinator needs to have a clear understanding of the relationships between the various systems, and the priority of the needs of the data collection, so that the necessary maps will be available at the appropriate time.
Data collection is a large project management task.
The coordinator is responsible for:
- The integrity and accuracy of the data
- The cost effectiveness of collecting it.
The coordinator will need to make decisions about what and how much data is collected at each stage, taking into account the information needs of different levels in the organization.
The priorities usually are:
- The inputs for current cost/accrual or renewals accounting.
- Information that helps to improve technical management and objective setting for the assets/asset groups.
- Detailed attribute data and information on condition assessment etc, which enable full long-term technical management.
- Detailed condition assessments for those assets that are at a critical stage in their life cycle, for risk assessment.
It is important to identify those critical assets that are going to impact on the organization for the next 10 years, and collect the data on them first. The data for other assets can be collected later in the asset implementation program.
The law of diminishing return applies to much of the data collected for detailed asset registers, including much of the attribute details. We might effectively collect 80% of the data very accurately for little cost, but the final 20% may cost as much if not more than the original 80%. There are times when making estimates is a satisfactory method of data collection.
One of the major responsibilities of the coordinator is assembling and publishing an asset management implementation manual. The manual should include enough detailed information so that, if the coordinator left the position, anybody could take over and effectively run the program with minimum interruption to the organization.
It must be remembered that the final decision and detailed implementation programs will be the responsibility of the organization through the coordinator and the AMT.
The manual should include the following:
- Policy decisions
- Numbering systems
- User advice and standard categories
- Standard procedures and procedure numbering systems
- Hard copy plans and specialist attribute data or identification
- Current status of programs.
The manual should promote a uniform approach to procedures across the entire organization. Condition assessments, for example, usually involve subjective ranking techniques. Unless a uniform approach is taken, this may seriously affect the validity of the outputs from the information systems. Some reviewing is also needed to ensure that individual assessors are deriving similar values for similar assets.
The tasks for the asset management coordinator include:
- Formulate a broad maintenance strategy for cost effective achievement of the organization’s desired level of service from various facilities and asset groups
- Implement and control the asset management program
- Prepare budgets for maintenance, operation, and replacement/ rehabilitation program for the organization’s assets
- Monitor and report on facility/asset operating and maintenance expenditure against annual budget allocations, to review the effectiveness of programs and report on any cost benefit improvements
- Report on appropriate re-equipment programs to ensure cost effective utilization of plant, equipment and maintenance practices
- Co-ordinate and liaise with counterparts on Asset Management work in other departments/ organizations
- Report on activities relating to occupational health and safety and industrial relations, including the work relating to multi-task skills of the workforce
- Manage the organization’s maintenance workforce and control maintenance contractors through "bottom up" driven systems, which are monitored and guided by senior personnel, to create a productive "ownership" environment in the workplace
- Review and disseminate information on asset management throughout the organization
- Act as coordinator of the organization’s Asset Management Group. Report on the progress of implementation of the new systems and put forward programs for their effective completion (in conjunction with the consultants)
- Prepare operations manuals for the Advanced Asset Management systems, training documents and programs etc. to ensure that future staff can operate the systems effectively
- Co-ordinate the collection of current data and ensure it is recorded and processed to enable decisions to be made, including an age profile of the asset bases and assets due for replacement or rehabilitation
- Produce Policy and Guidelines for Asset Management for other operating staff
- Optimize and refine the organization’s practices and policies to ensure the most efficient and effective operations
- Oversee the condition monitoring (asset status) assessments for all of the organization’s assets and determine the consequences of asset failure, especially for those assets at risk
- Report on the distribution of maintenance budgets between the various asset groups and determine the relationship between maintenance and replacement programs to give the lowest effective life cycle cost to the organization
- Develop the concepts, aims and objectives for the necessary Asset Management Systems in conjunction with expert consultant advice and prioritize the necessary program on a benefit cost basis. Review and refine these programs.