August 1, 2024

How Good is Your Asset Management Program? A Simple Rating System

Sometimes, utility companies don’t realize how far they’ve come in managing their assets and aren’t sure how to measure their progress or plan their next steps. One way to do this is by adopting a comprehensive asset management system, like the Six Box Model from the Institute of Asset Management (IAM).

The first step is to do an Asset Management Maturity Assessment (AMMA). This is like a health check-up for your asset management program. It helps you:

• Spot areas where your asset management could be better
• Understand what asset management activities you’re already doing
• Get everyone in your company on the same page about asset management.

The AMMA looks at six key areas of asset management, as show in Figure 1, which includes:

• Your team and company
• Your strategy and planning process
• The information you have about your assets
• How you make decisions
• How you manage the lifecycle of your assets
• How you manage risks

Figure 1: IAM Conceptual Model for the Asset Management Landscape

The assessment involves answering 39 questions related to these six areas. To get honest feedback, it’s a good idea to divide your staff into small groups based on their roles or departments. It’s also helpful to separate top management from technical staff to get a clear picture of how aligned everyone is. Scoring ranges from 0 to 4, as shown on the maturity scale in Figure 2.

Figure 2: Asset Management Maturity Scale

The information collected during this process can help you understand which parts of your asset management program are working well and which ones need improvement. Table 1 and Figure 3 are examples of two different views of the scoring summary by subject area.

Table 1: Example of Scoring Summary by Subject Area

 

Figure 3: Example of Scoring Summary Results

 

After reviewing the results, you can identify the strengths and weaknesses of your asset management program. You can then make short-term and long-term plans to improve your program. Some possible next steps could include:

• Creating an Asset Management Policy
• Setting up an Asset Management committee
• Developing a Strategic Asset Management Plan
• Building a more detailed GIS of your infrastructure systems
• Integrating your internal systems like GIS and work order systems
• Developing a detailed process for planning capital improvements

For more information on managing a successful asset management program and how we can help, please contact Jessica Brown.