Achieving TEAMQF Best Appropriate Practice

Since a large slice of an organization's expenditure relates to the assets required to deliver the services provided, it is necessary to manage this expenditure better through the use of Best Appropriate Practice (BAP) in asset management. This will ensure that customers and stakeholders are getting assets at a standard that they want, at the lowest cost.

Organizations that adopt a quality framework ensure that consistent, repeatable assessments of the life cycle asset management processes are made, so that cost effective improvements can be identified.

Using the seven quality framework elements to drive the improvements will result in a sustainable stewardship of the asset portfolio for future generations. These elements are:

• Life Cycle Processes and Practices
• Asset Information Support Systems
• Data and Knowledge
• Commercial Tactics
• Organizational Issues
• People Issues
• Total Asset Management Plans.

The ultimate output of any asset management activity is represented by the quality or the confidence level of the Total Asset Management Plans (TAMPs) that they can produce. The level of sophistication used on the assessment process will vary to suit an organization's requirements and the resources available.

Each of the seven quality elements is further broken down into 23 secondary elements of:

Processes and Practices of the Asset Portfolio Life Cycle

• Demand Analysis
• Knowledge of Assets
• Asset Accounting and Cost/Costing
• Strategic Planning (Life Cycle)
• Capital Expenditure Validation and Approval Process
• Business Risk Assessment and Management
• Asset Creation & Acquisition Process
• Asset Rationalization & Disposal
• Asset Operations
• Asset Maintenance
• Work / Resource Management
• Review Audit (Continuous Improvement Processes)

Asset Information (Support) Systems

• Primary Applications
• Secondary Applications
• Tertiary (Life Cycle) Applications
• General Overall Information System Issues

Data and Knowledge (Data Availability/Quality)

• Primary Data
• Secondary Data
• Tertiary Data

Commercial Tactics (Contestability/Contracted Service Provision)

Organizational Issues

People Issues

Total Asset Management Plans ( Production Capability or Output Quality )

These elements are then further broken down to 163 tertiary elements. The quality of the above elements dictates the ultimate quality, or confidence level, that can be derived from a plan.