• Novice
  • Aware
  • Competent

Production Efficiencies

This topic has a brief overview and covers:

The production of TAMP is a very costly business, perhaps 0.2% of replacement value of the organisation's assets.

TAMP will have to be produced and updated to meet corporate and state regulations. In most states these plans are required to form part of business or public strategic plans required every 4 years or so.

Documents Required

There is a complex range of documents required to satisfy holistic management of the asset groups or systems.

Such systems or facility plans are developed from sources of data and information available from within the organization from external consultants or are currently being developed.

The gradual process of development, production, review and ongoing refinement of the TAMP sees a shift in the style and presentation of this information.

As the plans are improved, the information systems supporting the plans are expected to improve also. Consequently the information made available through such systems feed back to the hardcopy policy and guideline plans.

Throughout the dynamic life of a TAMP, there is a continual shifting of influence between the strategic hardcopy qualitative plans and the data systems established by these plans.

As the volume, quality and detail of electronic data increases so to does the effective and efficient maintenance of the plans.

The table below shows the types of hardcopy and electronic plans and systems required for total asset management plans.

 

HARD COPY ELECTRONIC
Asset Plans / TAMP
Policies
Guidelines
Levels of Service Standards
Customer Expectations
Strategy Plans
Report Text
Service Agreements
Asset Registers
Asset Attributes
Asset Condition
Asset Decay
Asset Plans GIS / CAD
Maintenance System
SCADA Operating System
System Usage / Capacity
Failure Prediction
Risk Assessment
Asset Costs
ORDM

As the TAMP are improved we also expect the information systems to improve and carry a greater role in the production of future plans.

Even the key textural/report sections will be able to be optimized if each group thinks of this fortune cost as they perform today's roles.

Production Efficiency

The efficiency with which they are produced is dependent on the:

  • Commitment of staff, management and the organization as a whole
  • Data already available
  • Sophistication of the information systems and data held in them
  • Ability of the information systems to automatically produce the outputs.

We must try and record data only once and then make the most use of it, using the IT systems to reduce human inputs or at least, spread our inputs over the period of the plan, not just at the period for producing the next edition.

Production Improvements

In producing a TAMP we will have some data/information in hard copy and some in electronic form.

In general the type of data or text will relate to the different components of the plan:

 

As the TAMP are improved we also expect the information systems to improve and carry a greater role in the production of future plans.

Even the key textural/report sections will be able to be optimized if each group thinks of this future cost as they perform today's roles.

We expect the degree of automation to improve.

Automation of The TAMP Process

Developing the TAMP strategy for any asset, facility or system is the effectiveness goal of every asset manager and strategic planner.

Adopting the most appropriate evaluation process within a TAMP approach are the ways in which we can determine the lowest life cycle cost options and rationalize these within our business environment frameworks to deliver the most appropriate renewal strategy for our organizations.

Determining the most effective strategy involves a significant management input through analysis, time and effort, support information systems data capture and maintenance of that data over a considerable timeframe.

It is vital to reduce the cost of this management input in every way possible, and match it to the benefits capable of being derived.

These inputs are quite significant for we need to identify the optimal renewal strategy for all our assets (both singular individual assets and similar multiple assets) to produce accurate asset management plans and the appropriate blend of capital (renewal) and maintenance expenditure.

It is not difficult to realize that if we are required to complete a TAMP analysis for every asset and some of their components; considerable management inputs and costs will be required.

As with other cost reduction opportunities it is imperative that we look at the tasks and activities involved in this analytical management process and automates these costs effectively to reduce the overall cost of this management activity.

This section of the report outlines the way in which many of these TAMP processes can be automated to reduce many of the tasks thereby providing initial filtered products for further analysis.

The Process

Some elements of this process require individual assessment, technical input and economic evaluation but many of the processes can be automated, for instance:

  • Direct maintenance costs:
    • Planned
    • Unplanned.
  • Indirect costs of failures (ancillary), such as:
    • Condition based
    • Mean time between failure.
  • Initial filtering assessments
  • Identification of assets requiring further analysis.

Direct maintenance costs

The direct maintenance costs for both planned and unplanned activities can be easily recorded in most modern computerized maintenance management systems (CMMS).

In these CMMS systems unplanned maintenance is recorded as a failure history and the direct costs of repair can be easily recorded and identified against this individual asset in terms of:

  • Labor
  • Spare parts
  • Materials
  • Contracted services.

The cause of failure and the activities used to overcome the failure are easily recorded and readily available for causal and activity-based analysis.

Indirect maintenance costs

These CMMS systems can be enhanced to include allowances for the indirect or ancillary business costs of failure that should be included in any decision making processes irrespective of whether these costs have been incurred or not.

These indirect consequences of failure should be economically costed as impacts to the customers in dollar terms assessed against:

  • The number of customers effected by the level of service failure
  • The percentage deviation from the contracted level of service, i.e. the degree of the failure
  • The time or period for which the interruption or deviation existed.

This is applicable to failures that impact primarily on our customers and not on the community in general.

In some cases these failures will result in additional direct costs such as:

  • Damage to private property
  • Damage to other authority assets
  • Injury and trauma claims
  • Business loss claims.

These direct additional costs should also be recorded against the failure. They should also be used in our assessments of the consequence of failure for predicting failure costs, as they are not always likely to be incurred.

By recording this information organizations can easily identify the consequences of failure for all of the different causes and relative degrees of failure.

By having these direct linkages (through our databases) the organization can then identify business costs or risks of various causes of failure such as:

  • Operator errors
  • System capacity failures
  • Structural condition and integrity
  • Reliability based failures
  • External forces/stresses (e.g. Wind)
  • Accidents
  • Other miscellaneous causes.

This way we can extract erroneous data to ensure that we are not making the renewal decision based on costs that are not applicable to the overall condition of the parent asset.

 

To achieve the efficiency improvements shown in the previous table it will be necessary to provide the appropriate computer systems and data to achieve the outputs required.

Looking at the outputs required and deciding on the data and processes necessary to produce these we can get a picture of the information systems required.


 

Although the processes cannot be fully automated (at this stage) they can reduce the overall cost of TAMP production by automating those parts that consume the highest labor inputs.

For example the process of ORDM involves a blend of technical and economic analysis. Computer systems can be used to reduce the costs of many of these activities, especially the filtering process that identifies those assets that warrant further analysis.

 

It is essential that organizations include these efficiency/ effectiveness improvements in parallel with other investment opportunities.

TAMP Quality Improvements

As the information systems improve so will the processes and analysis techniques employed in the production of the plans. Also the data will improve to provide a higher degree of confidence in the result, for example:

  • Condition assessments
  • Probability of failure
  • Consequence of failure
  • Effective lives
  • Decay rates
  • Performance of assets
  • Utilization of assets.

This will be matched with the improvements capable in life cycle processes such as:

  • Risk assessment
  • Optimized renewal decision making
  • Optimized planned maintenance activities.

Evolutionary Improvements

As we learn more and more about our individual components, the assets they make up, the facilities to which they belong and the infrastructure service they provide the better the quality of the resulting TAMP.

By focusing on the critical assets that will impact most heavily on the organization in the next 10 -15 years we will learn more about the entire asset base.

By extrapolating these early results to the balance of the asset stock we can identify potential improvements.

Top down/bottom up

In the early stages of developing asset management plans the plans tend to be of a macro level and deal with the assets at a high level in the hierarchy.

In many cases these plans have a heavy emphasis on strategic asset management and deal with assets at or above Level 3 in the hierarchical structure.

In the first and second stage of asset management plans the existing data and knowledge on assets is used to develop up the most accurate projections and probable scenarios for the assets based on the best information available. In many cases detailed information will be lacking and the organization needs to make appropriate assumptions based on the experience and valued judgments of staff with the greatest knowledge of these assets.

These early stage asset management plans are often referred as being driven by a top down approach.

 

As the organization gains a better understanding of their assets and the part that they play in their business appropriate processes can be used to more effectively manage these assets and in particular the entire asset stock.

These processes will need to be matched with appropriate data and as this data is collected it becomes accessible to analysts and other decision makers, the quality of the total asset management plan becomes significantly enhanced and the degree of confidence in the outputs will rise appropriately.

It is during these stages that the asset management plans start to link the overall business strategies and objectives with detailed action plans that directly link and relate to both child assets and their components within the overall asset stock.

It is during these stages that the total asset management plans adopt a far greater bottom up approach within the umbrella of the overall strategic framework.

The key success factor in developing asset management plans is the way in which the organization identifies its real risks and cost reduction opportunities and raises the level of sophistication and degree of confidence required by working on those aspects that will derive the greatest return for the organization. It is the cost effective application of available resources that represents the best practice in this area.

Improvement Programs

The key to successful asset management is to implement improvements or changes that provide benefits in the asset management area.

There are several key success factors necessary to implementing these improvements.

The improvements should be:

  • Properly identified
  • Implemented in achievable portions or packages
  • Based on clear understanding of the processes involved
  • Have the commitment of the entire organization.

The continuous improvement program will be undertaken on the first TAMP (1) and the results used to produce the second TAMP (2).

 

The essential activity is the process by which the key areas for improvement are identified.

Between the major upgrades of the TAMP (suggested every 4 or 5 years to coincide with new tariffs setting activities) we can complete partial upgrades by extrapolating the improvements identified with single assets across the entire portfolio.

Distributing Large Capital Values

When organizations are developing their initial asset management plans they will often rely on their asset registers to produce their first cut capital expenditure programs. Where the replacement includes larger facilities or major new facilities, the capital expenditure program tends to be very lumpy; containing these major works as single capital items.

The ultimate capital works will not be spent on one single item but will be spread over the project gestation and construction period and will also include expenditures for key issues such as:

  • Feasibility studies
  • Environmental impact statement
  • Design documentation activities
  • The construction period itself
  • Commissioning and handover.

Until the actual expenditure program is more fully developed, it is suggested that the following is used table to assist in developing the initial spread of expenditure more likely with such large capital works.

This allows organizations to break up the total expenditure and spread it over the likely timeframe.

Spreading Major Capital Investment

ACTIVITY
VALUE RANGE
TIME SPREAD (YRS)
Simple
Complex
Less Critical
More Critical
Feasibility Study
1%
2%
-2 or 3
-5 or 6
EIS
3%
5%
-1 or 2
-2 or 4
Design Document
6%
12%
-2
-2
Construction
88%
76%
0
0
Commissioning
2%
5%
+1*
+2*
* Depends on period of construction

The key date for the distribution of this expenditure is the time of which the organization believes the asset is required to be in operation, i.e. the commissioning date, so as an example for the highly critical sludge digester as discussed above which is deemed to be required in 2010.

Capital investment spread would be as follows:

 

2004 Feasibility Study 2% $124K
2005 Environmental / Impact Statement 4% $248K
2006 Initial Design Activity 3% $186K
2007 Final Design Activity and Calling for Tenders 9% $558K
2008 Initial Construction Works 35% $2,170K
2009 Stage 2 Construction Works 30% $1,860K
2010 Final Construction, Commissioning and Handover 15% $930K
. TOTAL $6 200K

This process is generally sufficient for the latter periods in the TAMP i.e. 10 to 25 years, however, more detailed assessments and breakups will be necessary for the 0 - 10 year type investments.

By the time these come around the organization will have completed far more detail in terms of timing and the type of project and these individual large expenditure sums can be more clearly identified at that time.


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