Asset Condition Assessment

Knowing the condition of any asset can be a challenge’. in your mind you always wonder, Are my Assets up for the job?

We continue to look at the eight elements relating to Asset Condition Assessment.

Asset Condition Assessment – Information Sources

That seems to be a minefield of information but it should be available and can come from many different sources such as

 

 

So often these people have years of experience, knowledge and information about the assets. This information, if harvested and recorded carefully, can become a treasure chest of valuable data to assist us in our future planning initiatives.

 

Other sources of information to assist in the review of the assets performance and condition can be

  • Interviews with Key Client Resources
  • Maintenance History and Records
  • Life Expectancy
  • Depreciation Factors
  • Criticality Factor of Asset
  • Management Information Reporting

 

We now need to implement processes or procedures to access further information.

Information needs work to access it and often it will require

  • PMs and/or Predictive Tasks to be conducted
  • Ongoing assessment inspections, to completely and accurately capture information and then to document and store all related and pertinent information for easy access and review at any future point.

This is needed to provide a replacement or rehabilitation value as an evaluation of the assets remaining life.

Asset Condition Assessment – Structural Deficiencies

Performance however is only the starting point. The Asset Condition also may indicate the existence of structural defects, which can drive progressive failures.

We also need to assess and understand what is the rate of deterioration? Best condition by itself provides only marginal insight into Operational Performance in relation to capacity, availability, reliability and maintainability

Physical Structural Condition

The current structural state of the asset is the result of the interaction of

  • Usage
  • Age
  • Maintenance – good or bad
  • Design
  • Manufacturing Quality
  • Initial Construction
  • Manufacturing Management
  • Management of the operating Environment

Operational and Process Condition

We need to ascertain are the assets meeting operational requirements and not just for now but also for the future.

  • What are the levels of service and the levels for Maintenance
  • Is the asset performing according to specifications and expectations and what about technical obsolescence, where new and improved assets are being introduced
  • Do we have best practice policies in place for maintenance and operations and do we have historical information available.
  • How effective is the design to meet current and expanding needs and process efficiency.
  • Does it provide ease of restoring service (Mean time to repair – MTTR).

As we can now see, Asset Condition Assessment is not necessarily an easy exercise to complete but it is a critical one because it encompasses all our plans for improvement and cost savings

Asset Condition Assessment – Long Term Funding Planning Strategy

There is an expression that says Rome was not built in a day. Well neither will you’re Asset Management System. It needs to be viewed as a long term project and as such will require planning for Long Term Funding. To use another expression, the person who moved the mountain was the person who moved the first stone, so the way to accomplish your Long Term plans is to plan in smaller chunks.

Short term, Medium term and then longer term.

Short Term

This can often be described as picking low hanging fruit. Small innovations and changes to reap a lot of significant benefits in a short period of time. This needs to be done, so that that management and employees can gain confidence in what is being planned and can start to see the benefits of how things can be improved, with little impact on resources or finances.

Things such as

  • Employee Training
  • Equipment Servicing
  • Quality Fixes

Short term plans can uplift morale and enthuse everyone with excitement and anticipation for what is still to come and can provide momentum for approval of further medium and longer term plans.

Medium

Medium term works on extending what has already been achieved to ensure that the short term issues do not reoccur

  • Extended Training
  • Quality Control initiatives
  • Asset Service Contracts to approved contractors

Long-Term

Where short and medium term plans have been successful, long term plans and ultimate funding requirements become that much easier to achieve and get approved. Working on the back of success breeds more success with strategies to

  • Implement Permanent Solutions
  • Achieve Long Term Targets and Goals

 Asset Condition Assessment – Long Term Funding

Long Term Funding can be viewed under the headings of

  • Full Economic Cost
  • Replacement and Refurbishing Cost
  • Long Term Annualised Renewal Costs

Full Economic Cost

Foundation concept including all direct and indirect costs affecting the organisation, from which effective financial decision-making can be made

Replacement and Refurbishment Cost

The full cost to replace an asset in its current operating environment, which is key to good financial decision-making

Long Term Annualized Renewal Cost

This provides the base-line funding for sustained performance normally calculated on an annual reoccurring basis. It tells the Asset Consumption Story, simply, effectively and in big-picture terms and sets the stage for Levels of Service discussions and business risk based decision making

Contact Joe  Schoeman and the Schorp  Group  Team for more information.
or Send us a message….. Click here

Innovation starts with a goal, then a plan