Conference Papers 2007, 2005, 2004

Asset Management Topical Issues, Ross Waugh

Presentation to the Ingenium Northern South Island Branch Meeting, 16 March 2007 examining topical issues as they relate to infrastructure asset management in the New Zealand local government context

NZ Asset Management – Review and Lessons Learnt, Ross Waugh

New Zealand local authorities manage land transport, water supply, wastewater, stormwater, parks, recreation and property assets on behalf of their communities. Since the 1989 local government reforms and consolidation, New Zealand local authorities have been subject to a range of changes driven by good practice, legislation and audit requirements.

Developing local authority asset management practice to meet these requirements has led to the implementation of asset information systems; production of asset management plans; and more recently the production of activity management plans in support of long-term council community plans.

The continuing changes required in local authority asset management practice have had a large impact on council budget requirements for asset management activities, resource requirements for council staff, and the requirements to use specialist external resources.

Whilst the on-going changes have created challenges for all local authorities in New Zealand, the impact has been particularly severe for New Zealand’s smaller Councils. These impacts are examined for different sized and resourced local authorities, and lessons learned for small local authorities are developed. By developing the lessons learned for small New Zealand local authorities useful insights are provided for Australian Shire Councils that may face similar changes in asset management practice.

North Shore City Council Wastewater Pump Station Management for the Next Generation, Pieter Stellingwerf, Ross Waugh

North Shore City Council (NSCC) is New Zealand’s fourth largest city and has very popular swimming beaches. NSCC manages its own wastewater system including 85 pump stations with storage and failure of these can lead to the temporary closure of these swimming beaches.

This high consequence of failure has lead to the development of best practice management techniques by North Shore City Council. This lead to implementing the Avantis Computerised Maintenance Management System in 2003 for wastewater pump stations.

Avantis is a powerful and customisable system that allows NSCC to integrate existing and new management practices into the computerised system. It includes the usual features of

• Asset register
• Work history and Costs
• Programmed maintenance
• Statistics Recording
• Condition
• Valuation

In addition, the following examples of NSCC specialised processes were incorporated:

• Hazard tracking
• Risk
• Audits
• Overflows
• Forward work programme

Emphasis has been placed on the ability to get data out of the system easily as business practice moves on to the next generation of asset management which involves the analysis of real-time data.

The Avantis system is sufficiently flexible that it will also allow the easy and seamless addition of functions and reporting that may be required by the Local Government Act 2002. This will be the immediate improvement priority. It is anticipated that in the near future additional functionality will be added to assist with:

• Robust auditing procedures
• Integration and tracking of risk management and reliability centred maintenance analysis
• Integration of real-time SCADA data returns and the use of these to optimise operations and maintenance.

By implementing the Avantis system and associated processes, and by incorporating both operational and asset management requirements, NSCC has developed a robust platform that will enable and enhance pump station management for the next generation.