A Framework for Strategic Infrastructure Asset Management

Organisations owning and managing infrastructure assets are constantly striving to obtain the greatest life time value. This led to the development of the concept of asset management to provide a systematic approach to manage infrastructure assets. Howeve

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Abstract Organisations owning and managing infrastructure assets are constantly striving to obtain the greatest life time value. This led to the development of the concept of asset management to provide a systematic approach to manage infrastructure assets. However, asset management as a discipline is still relatively new and as such lack well grounded theories. There is an urgent need to document the processes involved in the management of infrastructure assets. Through case studies, this paper aims to first, review the goals of infrastructure asset management and investigate the extent to which they reflect a business resource approach to infrastructure asset management. Second, the paper will identify the core processes of infrastructure asset management. These observed processes are then synthesised into a strategic infrastructure asset management framework to serve as a benchmark for practising manager looking to create value within their organisations. Keywords Core processes, Infrastructure, Asset Management

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Introduction

The concept of asset management is not a new but an evolving idea that has been attracting attention of many organisations operating and/or owning some kind of infrastructure assets. The term asset management has been used widely with fundamental differences in interpretation and usage. Regardless of the context of the usage of the term, asset management implies the process of optimising return by __________________________________ E.G. Too CRC for Integrated Engineering Asset Management, Queensland University of Technology e-mail: [email protected] J.E. Amadi-Echendu, K. Brown, R. Willett, J. Mathew, Definitions, Concepts and Scope of Engineering Asset Management, © Springer 2010

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scrutinising performance and making key strategic decisions throughout all phases of an assets lifecycle (Sarfi and Tao, 2004). Hence, asset’s management is a philosophy and discipline through which organisations are enabled to more effectively deploy their resources to provide higher levels of customer service and reliability while balancing financial objectives. In Australia, asset management made its way into the public works in 1993 when the Australian Accounting Standard Board issued the Australian Accounting Standard 27 – AAS27. Standard AAS27 required government agencies to capitalise and depreciate assets rather than expense them against earnings. This development has indirectly forced organisations managing infrastructure assets to consider the useful life and cost effectiveness of asset investments. The Australian State Treasuries and the Australian National Audit Office was the first organisation to formalise the concepts and principles of asset management in Australia in which they defined asset management as “a systematic, structured process covering the whole life of an asset” (Australian National Audit Office, 1996). This initiative led other Government bodies and industry sectors to develop, refine and apply the concept of asset management in the management of their respectiv