Sponsor, Structure and Policy

The organization's commitment to asset management is clearly demonstrated by its policy, strategies and structure.

Strategies and policy are a formal commitment to asset management, and they give direction for decision making and resourcing.

Business plans should include allowances for asset management activities. This means management commitment and financial support to ensure that the initiatives are fully adopted and embraced as part of the organization's culture.

Some examples may be:

• Complete audit and update of the asset register
• New integrated IT system for asset management, linking the financial, asset register, maintenance and GIS system
• Additional staff to help integrate asset management principles into current practices.

Organizations with large asset bases should appoint a single executive manager who will directly sponsor the asset management program and be responsible for protection of the value of the asset base.

The key question that senior managers need to consider is that as the responsibility is devolved to business units and lower into the workforce, does the capability to carry these responsibilities exist? Have senior managers:

• Clearly defined the roles and responsibilities for all sections within the organization?
• Ensured that the staff have the skills and capabilities or retraining necessary?
• Provided the necessary support processes and information systems?
• Been able to monitor the performance of asset management?
• Developed a culture of "change" in the asset management area?

The major change in many organizations has been drastic down sizing and restructuring. The old structures with steep hierarchical responsibilities have been replaced with flatter management structures.

The structure of organizations will generally consist of the levels shown below.

It is important to recognize that the culture in each level and business unit is unique, and will have varying levels of involvement in the asset management program.

With the introduction of an asset management strategy, some change initiatives will be targeted at specific levels or business units, while others will involve staff representatives or small work groups across the organization.

The organization's ultimate aim should be a structure that allows assets or asset groups to be managed according to the four stages of the life cycle, where unambiguous lines of responsibility are defined.