Effective Training
The full technical and economic management of the life cycle of an asset is a developing science for which few people are fully qualified.
Services provided through assets have predominantly been managed by individual disciplines within an organization that deal with specific portions or functions of an asset's life cycle, such as strategic planning, asset design, construction, operations, and maintenance.
In addition, different divisions are responsible for the different types of assets i.e. roads division, a building division, a drainage division, a water supply division, etc. Very seldom was life cycle asset management carried out in an integrated approach.
These practices have resulted in specialization in a narrow area, which lacks the broad overview required for asset management.
Many technical managers of infrastructure assets have learnt most of what they know in the Asset Management arena from their work experience, peers and other colleagues, but very little from their base qualifications in Engineering. There are now postgraduate courses in terotechnology and reliability centered maintenance, and economics of infrastructure assets. Some staff in postgraduate studies may have developed their expertise in the area of business administration or economics, but in the area of life cycle asset management, there are still few qualified people available.
In general, this will require the blending of new skills to match the experience that has been gained in the existing strategy, design, operations, and maintenance environments from which most of our staff have been drawn.
Organizations need to match the skill levels and expertise available to the role and responsibility expected of their staff at different corporate levels.
At the operating level, asset management staff should have an understanding of the basic principles of Asset Management, such as:
- Physical attributes
- Conditions of assets
- Inventory system
- Operations and maintenance requirements of the assets
- Classification and numbering systems.
At the strategic planning levels, experience or training in critical areas or skills required for Advanced Asset Management will involve:
- Information systems
- Risk management
- Condition assessment
- Failure modes
- Predictive, modeling of failures
- Maintenance analysis
- Maintenance management
- Operations efficiency
- Asset reviewing
- Life cycle functional relationships
- Performance monitoring
- Relationship between spatial and textural data
- Asset economics and accounting
- Asset liabilities.
It is important that staff at different responsibility levels should have the appropriate experience or qualifications, as shown below:
Relationship between Responsibilities/Roles and Experience/Qualifications
Responsibility/Roles | Experience/Qualifications |
BASE LEVEL | Experience in three functional areas of life cycle asset management |
LEVEL ONE —
Work face groups | Basic experience plus special Asset Management Conferences/Seminars/Workshops |
LEVEL TWO —
Facilities/Districts | Level One experience/qualifications plus acquire basic maintenance management qualifications |
LEVEL THREE —
Regional Business Units | Level Two experience/qualifications plus Post Graduate degree in Reliability Centered Maintenance or other equivalent qualification. Equivalent experience (2 years) in advanced asset management environment. |
LEVEL FOUR —
Corporate Level | Three experience/qualifications plus Post Graduate degree in either:
Tero-technology
Risk Management
Asset Economics
Equivalent experience (4 years) in advanced asset management environment. |
A major function of the Asset Management Group will be to ensure that the organization's staff are properly trained to carry out the role expected of them by:
- Raising the awareness of all the staff as to their role and responsibilities in the overall asset management plan
- Providing detailed training for the development of specialist skills in different areas of asset management.
According to Maslow, four steps are involved in the learning process:
Most training takes you to Step 2 or, at best, to Step 3.
The actual aim is to get to Step 4, so that you not only understand your new skills but can also perform them effectively.
Developing Workshops and Seminars Around the 4 Steps
It is important that the entire organization has a clear understanding of:
- The overall picture of total life cycle management
- The way in which technical and financial functions need to be integrated with the community service aspects
- The inter-generational life cycle aspects of asset management.
By understanding the total picture and knowing clearly what their role is, staff will have a better approach to the part that they need to play.
Training has many varied facets, including:
- For the different roles e.g. coordinator, data collector etc.
- For the different groups of assets and the different needs each asset group has for data and systems
- In special areas such as risk management, maintenance analysis, maintenance planning, reviewing etc.
In all cases, an asset management consultant should be able to assist the organization with suitable training programs.