SAM

(Issue 400) The Beginning

Past contributors suggest what we should do now

(Issue 399) Regeneration

The importance of Connections Creating Demand for Asset Management AM and the Architect I never met an Asset Manager I didn’t like

(Issue 398) The 6th option

The 6th Option:  a new idea for funding long term infrastructure renewal Why increasing the supply of asset management is not enough Two new and very interesting websites

(Issue 397) Better Budgeting, Better Funding

Hobart City’s Portfolio-wide, risk based, project prioritisation. . Bill Hanley  Funding Municipal Water Infrastructure:  a story in two parts - Part One  Mark Knight and Andre Unger, University of Waterloo, Canada Ideas on a Service Life Model  Padmi Pinidiya, Sydney Water

(Issue 396) Let’s Not

Creating Jobs There are always Options What is the Cost?

(Issue 395) New Ideas

Crowd funding civic infrastructure

Traffic Lights - what if we were to remove them?

Planning Controls - would we be better off without them?

(Issue 394) Communicating the Longer Term Picture

Understanding the future

Accountability, Transparency and Evidence-based decision making

(Issue 393) So Many Opportunities for Growth

Asset management culture watch

Problem Demarcation

Maintenance Skills Crisis

(Issue 392) Technological Change and Asset Management

Technological Change and Asset Management

(Issue 391) What is Asset Management and How Do You Justify it?

What IS Asset Management?

How to justify Asset Management

(Issue 390) Ideas Worth Thinking About

Accounting skills a moral duty?

Standardisation and templates – the end of strategic thinking?

What does a strategic asset management plan mean to you?

How do we develop a service life cycle

Projects that are doomed from the beginning – how to avoid them

(Issue 389) Effectiveness before Efficiency

Effectiveness before Efficiency A new course in Infrastructure, free and online Of what does AM consist?   The AM Landscape. What would you do? A Thinking Framework – Infrastructure Decision Making

(Issue 388) Solutions, not Problems

Solutions, not problems

There is more to Asset Management than managing assets, by Jeff Powys

(Issue 387) Public Sector Recognition – at last

Ideas for induction of new councillors in asset management, pp2-3

Understanding where we are now on the path to progress.  An illustrated view of AM maturity. pp 4

Why Asset Managers need a future vision:  an interview with Dave Openshaw, Head of Engineering Regulatory Strategy at EDF Energy, UK  pp 7-20

(Issue 386) Private-Public Partnerships

Recognising a true partnership

PPP Success Characteristics

PPP and the Triple Bottom Line

PPP - The Principals and the Players

A matter of perspective: submarines and U-boats

Alasdair McClintock on some of the problems of PFIs

(Issue 385) AM is a Strange Business

AM is a strange business

Do we really want a common understanding of asset management

Who do we serve?

Lessons from Mangawhai

Picasso and Asset Management

(Issue 384) Why our Mindsets need a re-set

Why our Mindsets need a Re-set” A 30 Year AM Strategy Doing Business like a Business; or is Asset Management Really Difficult

(Issue 383) What Future will our Assets inhabit?

What are today’s challenges?

What are tomorrow’s challenges?

(Issue 382) No easy answers

“A matter of faith?”

“What’s New?”

“Analytical Techniques”.

Assume makes an ass of U and me”

(Issue 381) Asset Lives: a puzzle for Strategic Asset Managers

• Editorial:  On certainty

• When does asset life begin and end, and why do we want to know?

• What does asset life mean?

• More on asset lives.

(Issue 380) Valuations and Depreciation

• How you value determines how you can use your valuation

• No one true valuation

• Replacement VALUE  is not the same as Replacement COST

• Three observations on value, valuation and performance

• Do you need to depreciate if you revalue each year at market?

• Valuation for fun - and profit

(Issue 379) Welcome Ruth

• Improving Performance - increasing the four factors, page 2

• Utopia, page 3

• Acquisition - Prescription can get in the way of performance, page 4

• Audit - Why do Auditors qualify? page 5

• Management - Put one guy in charge - responsibility is the key, page 7

• Heritage - It’s heritage so I can’t make any changes!  Is this true? page 8

• Disposal - Avoiding community problems by looking at the secondary benefits that community assets play page 9

(Issue 378) Learning from Failure

• AIS Success depends on more than data

• Applying Heaton’s 4 Factors of Productivity

• Customising your AM Approach

• AM does not need a business case

(Issue 377) Improving Performance

• Introducing ‘The Best of SAM’ special volume

• Service Levels for Roads

• Four Factors of Productivity

• When you are not TOLD what to do, you begin to THINK what to do

• What constitutes performance is changing.

(Issue 376) Where is the next good AM idea to come from?

• Where are the next good AM ideas to come from?

• A Benefit:Cost Assessment of Asset Management (what are the benefits, what effort is required to get them - and, an important question not often enough examined - where in the organisation will they be experienced.

• Integrating Life Cycle Analysis into the AM Strategy (with examples)

• Practical Ways to link AM to the Business Objectives

• Keywords: business case, UMS, Jan Schippa, portfolio optimisation

(Issue 375) Blobs, Dots and Lines

• Infrastructure v Service: What communities really want

• The Blob is coming to get you!: AM as a meme or memeplex

• Not a Dot: Asset lives as a range

• Straight Lines: Flattening Renewal Profiles

(Issue 374) Performance Measurement

• Performance contracting by Rob Schoenmaker and Jules Verlann, Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands

• John Howard on Financial Ratios.

(Issue 373) Financial Sustainability

• A Wake Up Call?

• Backlogs by John Howard

• Financial Independence, excerpts from John Comrie's ACELG Report on "In our hands".

(Issue 372) Waste not

• Repair Cafes

• Interpreting demand data

• Down and Out in Paris - The Paris Sewers

(Issue 371) Myths we (mis)manage by

• You can’t manage what you can’t measure

• Maintenance should be at least 2% of Current Replacement Value

• The Law of Fives.

(Issue 370) Beyond our Shores

• Infrastructure Maintenance in the Pacific

• The Americans are Coming!

• Trends we should be watching - The Third Sector and Social Value

• BIM - the pros and cons.

(Issue 369) Risk, Maturity and Culture

• What does AM maturity mean to you?

• What does Risk mean to you?

• What does Culture mean to you?

(Issue 368) We want a figure – and we want it NOW!

• Where can we look to show that AM works?

• Beware the lure of the attractive figure!

• How to persuade your CFO

• Strategy, the end point - or the beginning?

• Management and the Performance Culture

• Is diesel oil an asset or a liability?

• Complacency or Commerciality? Comparing Apollo and the Titanic.

(Issue 367) Where to Now?

• Concepts and Programs, the difference

• Why the term “Resilience” is becoming more important to us now.

• What Resilience is and what it requires

• Why Resilience is a ‘Wicked Problem’ and what this means for AM

• Understanding culture to become more resilient

(Issue 366) What questions are we NOT asking?

• Ruth Wallsgrove - Reflections on where we have been and where we are going in AM

• Ruth Wallsgrove - Alignement: this time it is personal

• Case Study - Corangamite Shire Council

(Issue 365) Backlog, Capability, Transfer Pricing

• Backlog maintenance: is there a natural level?

• Capability indicators, principles, problems and applications (with special reference to schools)

• Transfer pricing in the public and private sectors

(Issue 364) Prioritising Projects using Willingness to Pay

• Anna Robak on Willingness to Pay (a New Zealand Survey of potable water users) 

• Review: Peter Buckland ‘Risk Management is not a cost, it is an investment’ 

• Review: Ype Wjnia and Joost Warners on Risk, Prioritisation and Portfolio Planning   (Review) 

• Dominque Lorrain, ‘The Cucumber and the Cell Phone’

• Keywords: water, electricity, industry maturity

(Issue 363) Strategic Asset Management: the questions

• Strategic Asset Management made Simple

• I have a program that can do that!

• Using Questions

(Issue 362) Intergenerational Equity

• Propping up unsustainable systems

• Great Graphics No. 3

• What is fair? A case study

• Future of Asset Management - feedback

• Two asset classes that interestingly ‘different’

(Issue 361) Future Thinking

• The last of six scenarios on the Future of Asset Management

• Constructing your own scenarios

• Two problems needing solutions:  (1) capital spending (2) Silos

• BIM and the Asset Manager: an introduction

(Issue 360) Optimism Bias and Cost Overruns

• Budget inaccuracies

• Why such inaccuracy?

• Reference Class Forecasting

• Is Awareness of Optimism Bias enough?

• How much risk are you willing to accept?

• What can go wrong?

• The Future of AM - Scenarios 3 & 4

(Issue 359) Uncertainty

• Risk and Uncertainty

• Managing Internal Uncertainty

• Scenario Thinking

• Scenario Thinking - in practice

• The Future of Asset Management

(Issue 358) Mental Models, Mindsets, Responsibilities

• Mental models

• Mindsets: conflict between science and management

• Responsibilities: a template

(Issue 357) – Be the Steve Jobs of Asset Management

• Take stock, learn, contribute to the field

• The two page case study format

• Great Graphics 2

(Issue 356)

• Six case studies

(Issue 355) Management Contracts

• An Algiers Success Story

• The WIKTI

• Win-Win Contracts

• Comparative Competition

• Great Graphics

(Issue 354) Games for Learning

• Editorial - On Statistics

• Snakes and Ladders – identifying risks to asset management strategy by Melinda R. Hodkiewicz,

• The Management Game - Asset Management  by Martine van den Boomen, Johan Duifhuizen and Thomas Staverman,  The Netherlands

• Boats in a Sandbox: Using Role Play Simulations to help seaports prepare for the risks and uncertainty associated with climate change.  by Todd Schenck, PhD Candidate, Department of Urban Studies and Planning, MIT

(Issue 353) Are Scary Numbers Scary anymore?

• An alternative approach to measuring sustainability

• Asset life information (buildings) - How do we know what we know?

• Examples of collaboration and advanced AM activity

(Issue 352) Advancing Asset Management

• The role of academic research in Asset Management

• The ladder of collaboration

• The vector of activity

• The (dis)Advantages of scale

• Origins of the IIMM

(Issue 351) AM Policy for the Public Sector

• What an AM Policy is and why you need it

• What if you have a myriad of objectives?

• What if you not even one?

• What not to put in your AM Policy

• Keywords: Mark Buckerfeld, Andrew Chadder, Brian Coleman, Sam Ragusa

(Issue 350) Strategies, Strategies, Strategies… by Ruth Wallsgrove

• Strategy or strategies?

• A Step by Step Approach

• Who are our strategists and what are they doing?

(Issue 349) How to do an AM policy in 30 Minutes

• First get your corporate strategy

• Corporate Risk Appetite

• How to do an AM Policy in 30 minutes

• Keywords:  Ruth Wallsgrove, AMCL, AM Toolbox, Criticality

(Issue 348) Industry Wide Asset Renewal Cost Guidelines – why they are needed

• Valuations and the Professionals

• Asset Renewal Costs and the Professionals

• Benefits of Guidelines

(Issue 347) Examples of doing more with less

• Seven Strategies and Nine Examples

• Four Case Studies

• Keywords: Yarra Valley Water, Guyra Shire Council, Shire of Yarra Ranges, South East Water

(Issue 346) Assets are there to provide a service

• The Paperless Office

• Assets are there to provide a service

• The Management Game: Asset Management

• Renewal Models - and Prescriptive Models

(Issue 345) Understanding and Interpreting Renewal

• Understanding and interpreting Renewal Models

• AM Plans: What is your focus - the process or the plan?

• A cautionary tale: the rise and demise of corporate planning in the Public Sector - and what we, in AM, can learn from it

• All WHY questions are strategic questions

(Issue 344) What Asset Managers Do

• Asset management roles and functions

• Thoughts on Job Specifications

• Communicate in Pictures

• Communication with Stakeholders is the key to AM Success and it takes time - the Edmonton, Canada story

(Issue 343) The Next Frontier – Capital Optimisation

• The Principle of Clarity

• The Principle of Transparency

• The Principle of Evidence Based Decision Making

• The Principle of Integration

• Action Steps to take now

(Issue 342) What is Asset Management

• Most people do not understand what asset management is

• Defining Asset Management simply

• Explaining the benefits

• What skills does the Asset Manager need?

(Issue 341) A Life in Asset Management

• Why we must ADAPT rather than merely ADOPT

• What Do We Want - to be a skilled tradesman or a professional?

• The Three Stages of Asset Management:

  • Stage 1: Knowing Ignorance

  • Stage 2: Confidence

  • Stage 3: Awareness

(Issue 340) Learning from the Arts

• Case Study in Service Oriented Asset Management

(Issue 339) The Infrastructure Gap

• ‘Infrastructure Gap’ means different things to different people: Local government, State and federal government; In the public mind

• Closing the Gap, whatever it takes - is it even possible?

• When is it safe to borrow to fund renewal

• Three reasons why O&M must increase as a proportion of your total budget if you are to provide efficient community service

• Changing mindsets to separate service from asset ownership

(Issue 338) Win that argument! With Argument Mapping

• What is Argument Mapping?

• A worked example in developing an Argument Map

(Issue 337) Beyond Maintenance and Renewal

• Be a Corporate Solution Provider

• Reduce your infrastructure renewal gap

• Develop the role of knowledge integrator

• Cost Benefit Analysis

• NSW Commission of Audit

• Research Issues

(Issue 336) Valuation for the Asset Manager

• How an AM based valuation solved a political impasse

• Building a valuation method from scratch

• Worked examples

• When an asset changes function mid life

• Where asset components wear out in different ways

• Issues in Valuation

(Issue 335) Zero Based Renewal

• Zero Based Renewal - what is it, how to do it, examples

• Is AM still fun - a reason why it may be the most exciting field to be in

• Is AM still fun - why many don’t find it so

(Issue 334) Thinking, Standards and Creativity

• Nobody thanks us! (Why?)

• We need a common system!  (Why?)

• We have to do more with less!   (Why?)

• Three Perspectives on AM Standards

(Issue 333) A common Mental Model?

• Is a common mental model possible

• The way you see the world depends on the world you see

• When was the term ‘Asset Management’ first used

• The AM Story: The Early Years

• AM History Forum – Is history of any use, is AM still fun?

(Issue 332) What got you here won’t get you there!

• What kind of a history is the AM Story?

• The AM Story: contextual background, the last 30 years

• The way we used to be: before 1987

(Issue 331) Stories with a Message

• What the taxi driver knows - but your management may not. 

• The best assets are other people’s assets. 

• Statistics are important - but it’s perceptions that count. 

• Service needs to be both beneficial and sustainable 

• Necessity is the mother of invention 

• Could you use a Corporate Advocate?

(Issue 330) Community Service Levels – Part 3

• Title Community Service Levels – Two practical case studies

• Thoughts from the Coffee Shop - Milkshake Mistakes” p.2, distinguishing the asset from the service Community Service

• Levels: Forget ‘4 walls and a roof’ - Think Function! by Renuka Ranaweera and Ashay Prabhu, Assetic on pp 3-7, with examples drawn from council libraries, and 

• Managing for Options: Addressing a situation that refuses to Quo - part 3 of his introduction to Community Service Levels, by Mike Raby, Fairfield Council, on pp 8-12, with examples drawn from local roads

(Issue 329) Community Service Levels – Part 2

• Coffee Shop Thoughts - What did we used to talk about and no longer do?

• NAMS Plus Templates and guiding questions

• Mick Raby. "Is your status really quo?"

• Richard Jarvis, Using Technical Service levels in support of Community Service Levels.

(Issue 328) Community Service Levels – Part 1

• What we are doing in this three part series

• A Work Guy's Thoughts on Asset Management Theory and Practice by Mick Raby, Fairfield City Council

• Using "Yardstick" Benchmarking Information to develop service levels for parks by Brian Milne

• Collecting and Using Community Value Information by Julie Nimmo

(Issue 327) Indicators, Abatement, Land under Roads

• Using Indicators in the Public Sector

• Abatement Factors

• Valuing Land under Roads

• The Focussed Asset Manager

(Issue 326) Decision Making

• Decision Making: the Kepner-Tregoe Model 

• Pipe Relining: Treat as Refurbishment or New Asset? A Discussion Paper, by Vivek Kangesu and Heidi Carroll, Townsville City Council

(Issue 325) Utilisation

• Capacity utilization life cycle modeling

• Red flags and Action triggers

• Increasing Asset Productivity

• Good Utilisation is a matter of design

(Issue 324) Infrastructure Sustainability

• Searching for infrastructure sustainability

• Tips and Tricks by Bernadette O’Connor, Opus International, Vancouver 

• We have met the enemy and he is us! 

• Benchmarking: Part 6. A Good Practice Exemplar

(Issue 323) Stuck in a Time warp!

• Actions leading attitudes, pp 3-4

• Data into Information, the role of the analyst, pp 5-8

• Benchmarking for Beginners, Part 5, Tips, Tricks, Cautions, pp 9-13

(Issue 322) We all see Things a Little Differently

• "Leaving scope for innovation" (p.2)

• “Defusing Conflict” (pp 3-4)

• “Getting Others on Side” (pp 5-6 )

• "How is your AM information used?" (p.6)

• "Benchmarking for Beginners, Part 4: 3 case studies" (pp 7-12)

(Issue 321) A Perfect AM Organisation?

• Does a perfect AM Organisation exist? If it did what would it look like? Here is my contribution. How does it square with yours?

• Also a case study from Saskatoon in Canada. Greg Chartier describes the use of Tolerability Curves to determine service levels.

• And Part 3 of "Benchmarking for Beginners - HOW to benchmark and WITH WHOM"

(Issue 320) Ageing, Automation and Maintenance

• Thoughts from the Coffee Shop -  Succession Planning: Flexibility & Longevity

• Ageing, Automation and Maintenance 

• Elements of the “Perfect Maintenance Storm”

• Taking Action to improve maintenance skills and availability

(Issue 319) Re-Thinking, Re-Branding Asset Management.

• Do we need a re-branding of Asset Management? Keywords: sustainability.

• Potential Scenarios: the future of Asset Management. Keywords: sustainability.

• The Way Forward: a proposal. Keywords: triple bottom line, quadruple bottom line, sustainability, climate change, regulation.

• Integration: A different way of thinking. Keywords: sustainablity, water.

• Sustainability Principles - and the advantages of adopting them. Keywords: strategy

• Integration takes account of diversity of needs. Keywords: Consultation, Socio-economic groups, weighting.

• Prioritisation of Projects and Affordability. Keywords: integration.

• Establishing Priorities. Keywords: integration

• Development of Expenditure Programmes. Keywords: budgets, water, funding, priorities.

(Issue 318) The 7 Deadly Sins of Depreciation

• The 7 Deadly Sins of Depreciation, pp2-8, Keywords: Depreciation, Asset Renewal, Interest, Loans

• Benchmarking for Beginners, pt 1, pp9-13 Keywords: benchmarking;performance; informal; formal; comparison;demonstration

(Issue 317) A Focus on Improvement.

• From the Coffee shop: On being an 'Expert'. Penny wins the MESA Medal. (And do you know when the life cycle starts and finishes - watch this video).
  Keywords: Asset Management Council, ICOMS, life cycle

• Effective KPIs - Three simple things you can do - select your focus, make it graphic, keep it visible.
  Keywords: Performance Indicators, BP, Energy Australia, Waste Management, Maintenance

• Effective Communication - KISS: are we falling victim to 'the workshop' effect? by Marcus Lee.
  Keywords: weasel words, Don Watson

• The Volcano Method of Asset Management: is it still a viable antidote to the over-building, under-maintaining syndrome in infrastructure management? by Dean Taylor. 
  Keywords: maintenance, renewal, politics

• Over to YOU: what are your reactions, thoughts, concerns, brilliant ideas?

(Issue 316) Getting the Operational Task to Align with the Strategic Vision

• The City West Water Approach: Teach them the Strategy Requirements.

• The Energy Australia approach: Know your facts, work face-to-face, make monitoring easy  (from information provided by Rod Smith)

• "The Devonport City Council approach: "don't wait till there's a problem, start communicating now - Marcus Lee

(Issue 315) A Devil of an Issue for those who are Policy Oriented.

• "Not enough maintenance money" or "too much capital to maintain"

• How 'Building too much' is built into the system

• A bias towards capital, rather than non-capital solutions

• What's the question?

• Future Role of Central Agencies?

• Competition Results

• A new competition for May/June

(Issue 314) Who Should Make "Strategic" Decisions.

• What is a ‘strategic’ decision?  A look at the strategic - tactical - operational breakdown.  

• Distinguishing Asset Management from Traditional Maintenance:   In 1987, as this executive summary shows, this was a key AM issue.  Perhaps it still is?  

• Keywords: Maintenance, Maintenance Planning, Maintenance Budgeting, Backlog

• Who should make the strategic decisions?  Why strategic decisions can blow your budget when made at the operational level - with three examples.   Keywords: Maintenance Budgets, Strategic   decisions, housing, electricity, schools.

• What’s the Answer?:  Having to refer ALL decisions up the line is grossly time consuming and delays needed action, but making strategic decisions at the wrong level is very expensive - and again delays needed action.  A call for case studies and Implementable Ideas. Due Date June 30th.

• Backlog Maintenance:  What is wrong with this as a concept? Keywords: maintenance management, focus, balance, decision making levels

• Backlog Maintenance: The problem, the definition, the answer. Keywords: backlog, maintenance, service levels, budgets

(Issue 313) Change is to be Welcomed.

• Stages in the Management of Assets

• Where, when and what

• Consider the patterns

• Keywords.    Asset Management, Maintenance, Financial Sustainability, Environmental Sustainability

(Issue 312) When Populations decline

• Car lasts 82 years and is still in excellent condition

• Declining Populations and the 5 Stages of Grief

• Acceptance - and action

• Is Regulation - on balance - good or bad for AM?

• What have been the key events influencing AM?

(Issue 311)Managing Assumptions - A case study with templates.

• p.2 Is Spending More a viable AM proposition?

• p. 3 Managing Assumptions - Why

• p. 4 Managing Assumptions - How

• p.7 Invitation to join the new AM History Forum

• p. 8 Winner of Competition and New Competition

(Issue 310)What only excellent AM can do - extend time.

• Daryl Mather on Maintenance and Renewal Planning

• Janaka Seneviratne on explaining asset management to field workers and others

• Wally Wells on 'words matter' - the terms we use determine how we see the probem

(Issue 309) The Infrastructure Deficit - Time for a Change?

• Life Cycle Costs and Life Cycle Revenues.

• The Price of Failure

• Change by Design

• Change the Game

• Three Examples

• Keywords:  Innovation, Patrick Lucey, Wade Nutter, Kees Nelissen, National Infrastructure Summit, Canada, Saskatchewan

(Issue 308) The Victoria Story, Part 1

• The Victorian Situation in 1997

• What Victoria decided to do

• Changing Public Sector Mindset

• Performance Measuring :Project

• Key Themes in AM History

• Keywords: Ian Spangler, Facing the Renewal Challenge, Roads

(Issue 307) Young Asset Managers

• What does success mean to you?

• How young AMgrs are changing the AM landscape in Saskatchewan

• Young Asset Managers can work miracles

• Asset Management leadership is fun

• Mentor and Mentee - a growth relationship for both

• Keywords: Sandy Muir,Tahlia Griffin, Gordon Sparks, Nicole Allen, Steve Brown, mentoring

(Issue 306) Do you know what is inside the box?

• Too much data equals too little information

• Understanding Strategic Asset Management

• What it does not include

• What it does include

(Issue 305) A New Trend?

• A new trend (from Asset Manager to Elected Member) : Guy Félio

• Strategic Asset Management today

• Winner of the November Challenge: Chaminda Dassanayake, Roads & Traffic Authority, NSW

(Issue 304) AM is History!

• European trends in AM

• AM is History by Ruth Wallsgrove and Robin Steel

• History of the Gas Industry, excerpt, by Clive Deadman

• How a knowledge of your asset history can help you plan the future.

(Issue 303) Successfully Promoting Asset Management

• Seven Steps to Successful Promotion

• Two Success Stories

• Asset Management and Climate Change

• An issue of policy

• Keywords: Gosford, Goondiwindi,

(Issue 302) Tracking Success

• On Spin

• AM not one thing but many things

• Tracking outcomes

• Measuring Sustainability with the Renewal Gap

• Keywords: Hunter Valley, Steve Albee,

(Issue 301) Success: Improving your odds

• Knowing Why you are doing the project

• Specifying Benefits of the project

• Tracking the Benefits until they are achieved

(Issue 300) Is AM a Profession - and do we want it to be?

• Characteristics of a Profession - Take 1.

• Characteristics of a Profession - Take 2. Chris Lloyd

• What kind of a Profession? - Bob Ritchie

• Do you really want AM to be a Profession - Why? Ruth Wallsgrove

• Bringing disciplines together - or driving wedges between them - Leo Gohier

(Issue 299) Organisation - A Better Way

• Teams and what they do

• We outlaw selfishness

• Contribution not rank

• A rather different organisation chart

• Keywords: Mornington Peninsula Shire; Melville City; outsourcing

(Issue 298) Organisational Structure for Asset Management in Local Government: what works?

• Research in Asset Management

• Four Models of Asset Management Organisation within councils

• Same, same, but different pt 1: Oh for a one-handed economist

• Same, same, but different pt 2: What comes first, the chicken or the egg?

• Book review: Nicholas Hastings' Physical asset management.

• Keywords: Ami Sudjiman; Asset Lives; Service standards; priorities; structure; Jag Shinde; decision support; acquisition

(Issue 297) Credible and Effective: Using Models for Communication

• Who understands models - only those that built them!

• Why the Pentagon didn't understand - and your chiefs won't either

• Questions you should ask of models when your reputation is on the line

• How to read a report

(Issue 296) Pathways to Asset Management

• Palmerston North's OIl Price Shock Workshop, pt 2

• Why we need to think of Asset Management itself as an asset

• Making your Asset Management Plan responsive

• Who's a customer?

(Issue 295) Maintenance Excellence

• Strategy for the next oil shock - using recent maintenance experience

• Maintenance history as a guide to strategic decision making, a housing case study

• Reversing the decline in maintenance - Joel Leonard

• Key words:  North Shore City, New Zealand,

(Issue 294) Difficulties with Asset Management

• Focus: what is the measure of success

• Where's the Budget?

• What purpose do we serve?

• Who are we?  You and I - and who else?

• Who cares?  (Who is responsible for long term sustainability?)

• Review: Strategic Asset Management by Clive Deadman

(Issue 293) Alignment

• Alignment

• Keywords: complexity, decision makers, revenues, capital, services, service levels, Danny Azavedo, John Comrie, David Hope, John Howard, Chris Lloyd,

(Issue 292) The Qualities of a Strategic Asset Manager

• What distinguishes Strategic Asset Managers from Others?

• SAM Role: What's the Policy?  What's the Action?

• SAME Role: Don't tell - ask!

• Ruth Wallsgrove - The Tale of the Product Manager

• Colin Symonds - Why is selling the idea of AM so hard?

(Issue 291) Befor eyou Buy your Next Asset Information System

• Before you buy your next AIS

• Measuring qualitative performance - the CAT technique

• Why is it so hard to sell the idea of AM?

(Issue 290) What is South Australia Doing Right?

• SA Regional Round-Up

• When to Outsource Maintenance for Facility Management

• One Size fits all?

(Issue 289) Perspectives

• Mapping the AM Genome

• Communication Pain Points

• Keywords: Leo Gohier, Hugh Blake-Manson, information requirements

(Issue 288) Evolution of ASSET Management Understanding

• View from the Coffee Shop:  The Science of the Approximate

• Evolution of AM Understanding 1.  How the perspective has changed since the 1990s.

• Evolution of AM Understanding 2.  The ‘two brains’ of AM and what this means for the information we seek and the information we can use.

• Also “What’s New?”  -  Readers share some of their discoveries - new book, new course, new videos, new measures.

• Keywords.   Ian Greenwood; Sustainability;  ILM;

(Issue 287) Mapping Asset Management: a game for multiple players

• Mapping Asset Management - who are the players?

• Leo Gohier on ‘Planned Maintenance’

• Phil Caffyn ‘Cap-Ex’

• Charles Johnson ‘I am not, nor have I ever been, an “Asset Manager”

(Issue 286) Asset Management - The Media & You

• Leave room for doubt

• Is it really a rip-off

• Keywords:  Toronto City, Toronto Hydro, street lights, leasing

(Issue 285) Trust & Respect

• 4 case studies in innovative asset management

• Step by Step Guide to Creating Trust and Respect

• Keywords:  Leo Gohier, Hamilton, Boroondara, NSW Roads Authority, Russell Balding, Hunter Water, Onkaparinga

(Issue 284) Asset Management in Western Australia

• Making it safe to fail

• Asset Management in Western Australia

• Key words:  WALGA, Royalties for Regions, WAAMI, Roman, Melinda Hodkiewicz, University of Western Australia, Water, 

(Issue 283) Asset Management History - Who Cares?

• The purpose of the AM History Project

• Sydney Water's Journey in Asset Management by Greg Kane and Warwick Eyles

(Issue 282) The Asset Management History Project

• Organisational History - Energy Australia

• Personal Histories

• Key Words:  Rod Smith, Gordon Sparks, David Hope, Ralph Godau,

(Issue 281) A New Book on Asset Management

• A new way of thinking

• Assuring AM Competency

(Issue 280) The Cost of Free Gifts

• Fairness and Equity

• Who Benefits?

• Who Really Benefits?

• How much does it cost?

• Keywords:  Paul Christensen, Gordon Sparks, Grants, Project Allocation, Canada

(Issue 279) Reverse Dominoes

• Monitoring and Measuring Maintenance

• Repair/Replace Decision

• Spares Policy

• Keywords:  KPIs, 80:20 rule; organisational culture, Energy Australia, Rod Smith, Gary Winsor, Steve Buncombe, Alexandra Dean, John Hardwick, ICOMS

(Issue 278) Room For Improvement

• Strategic Property Asset Management Excellence - 7 Keys to Success

• Asset Management Certification by the Asset Management Council

• New Accredited AM Course designed to match the IIMM

• Keywords:  Audit Commission UK, Peter Kohler, University of Tasmania, IPWEA, Education

(Issue 277) Why Do Projects Go Off the Rails

• ILM Survey

• Editorial: we are doing everything wrong, but that's alright!

• Keywords:  economic stimulus, investment logic maps, ILM facilitators

(Issue 276) Roads: Renewal and Safety using Star Ratings.

• Managing the Renewal Gap with Star Ratings

• What are Who are you Rating for?

• Keywords: Aujard, Campaspe, Bicycle, Pedestrian, Chile, IRAP, road assessment

(Issue 275) How can I get more Money Spent on MY Asset.

• Justifying investment using techniques of the successful

• Building Asset Management

• Keywords:   transport economics; water infrastructure; funding

(Issue 274) Roles and Responsibilites - Part 2

• Functions and Roles

• Decision Making

• Concrete Renewal

(Issue 273) Roles and Responsiblities

• We can't afford to waste our engineers

• Asset management and environmental sustainability

• What would the world look like with perfect infrastructure decision making?

(Issue 272) Evaluation Criteria

• How do you choose the right people for each aspect of your task?

• For the Asset Management Information System

• For Better Asset Management Practice

• For Workshops aimed at changing attitudes

• For Asset Management Documentation

(Issue 271) AM Strategy - Part 4 - The Core

• Don't use KPIs for tracking vision

• Asset performance and Asset Management performance Your 'system' determines your values - for good or ill What information system do you need for strategy?

(Issue 270) Asset Management Strategy - Part 3

• The right organisational structure

• Characteristics of a good asset management organisation

• The role of organisational structure in modern asset management, by Clive Deadman

(Issue 269) The Outer Circle

• Strategic Intuition/ Pragmatism

• Nurturing the Ability to See

• The Value of "Values"

(Issue 268) Supplementary Issue

• Land Acquisition Costs

• Costing of Assets

• Valuation of Assets

(Issue 268) Super SAM

• Land Acquisition Costs, what to value

• Asset Management Strategy, part One 

(Issue 267) Some Realism Please!

• Where is the gold at the end of the (government) rainbow?

• Three important things to know about infrastructure

• Choose it or Lose it!

• At a minimum, don't make things worse

(Issue 266) Why We Fall From Grace

• Why does the AM process stall?

• Is Planning an Unstable State?

• Poor Quality Valuations

• Communication - Are you being heard?

• The London Underground Map

(Issue 265) A Compelling Case for Vision - Part 2

• Get involved

• Examples of visions, good and bad and why

• Disasters can drive

• Time to consider

(Issue 264) A Compelling Case for Vision - Part 1

• Asset management needs to change

• More critical in unstable times

• Vision is critical - and we must be involved.

(Issue 263) A Compelling Case for Asset Management

• The Positive Compelling Case: Asset Management: why you want it, and what you have to do to keep it.

• The Negative Compelling Case: Human Error!

(Issue 262)Know your Audience: AM Plans, part 2

• Melinda Hodkiewicz on Orion Energy

• Phil Caffyn on Ruapehu Water Supply

• The Multiple Purpose Trap

• Tell me a story

(Issue 261) Evaluating your Asset Management Plan/Strategy

• A matter of trust (in your AM processes)

• How to review and evaluate your AMP

• Why I like this AMP

(Issue 260) Let's Get Practical

• Investment checklist for small players

• Investment checklist for local and state government

• Step by Step to Star Ratings

• What's the Problem?

(SAM 259) Infrastructure and Recovery

• This is NOT the time to spend on infrastructure

• Rules of Investment

• Investment Criteria Flowchart

• Points to Ponder

(Issue 258) Tunnel Vision

• Tunnel Vision and AM

• Excessive Expectations are a form of tunnel vision Coping with the new challenges

(Issue 257) Infrastructure funding under threat

• Threat of wastage

• Threat of escalating community costs

• Threat of corruption

• Threat of ignorance

(Issue 256) 2008 in Review and the advantages of Tough Times

• 2008 in review

• Asset Managers benefit from tough times

• Schadenfreude - The big station that couldn’t

(Issue 255) Infrastructure & Employment: Dialogue

Ideas from:

• Dean Taylor, NZ

• Paul Christensen, Canada

• Peter Hebden, NZ

• Dana Vanier, Canada

• And an anonymous Treasury official, Australia

(Issue 254) Infrastructure for Employment’s sake ?

• Why we need to resist

(Issue 253) Take A Plumb Line

• What we talk to our communities about, and how we go about it

• Overstating or understating Full Costs

• Depreciation and the use of a complementary Renewal Fund - what
  you have to watch out for to avoid overstatement of costs

• Opportunity Costs - Overstatement occurs when you apply the cost
  rate to the wrong value amount.

(Issue 252) Demand Gap Analysis

• Demand Gap Analysis

(Issue 251) Mind Gameshot

• It's not what you do, but the story you tell

• How 'outcomes focussed' are you really?

• The '60 Second' Challenge

• There is no such thing as "one' true valuation

(Issue 250) A Special Issue

• The tasks of the Corporate Asset Manager

• Is Your Business Case a Waste of Time and Money?

• Valuing for Renewal Planning?

(Issue 249) Service Level Creep and Other Tactical Issues

• Service level creep

• Why a CORPORATE asset manager

• Dialogue on Star Ratings

• Star Ratings for Roads

(Issue 248) The Missing Middle

• Editorial: Shaping the way we think about asset management

• The Missing Middle: tactical asset management

• Describing Service levels - they are all related to OUTPUTS

• Network example

• One page service level plan ...

• And Cost of Service financials

• Random Thoughts

(Issue 247) From Frustration to Relaxation

• 4 basic principles

• The downsides of certainty

• More on Investment Logic Maps

• Problems seeking solutions

• What to say at interview

(Issue 246) Investment Logic Maps

• How do you know whether your investments are successful?

• Investment Logic Maps

(Issue 245) What Do We Know and How Do We Know That We Know It?

• How do we know what we know?

• The City that Never Sweeps.

(Issue 244) A Canada Special

• Guest Editorial Issue - Gordon Sparks, Professor of Civil Engineering at the University of Saskatchewan and Partner, VEMAX Management Inc.

• Pam Morrison, Halifax Regional Municipality - CNAM 2008 Conference Summary

• Konrad Siu, Director, Office of Infrastructure and Funding Strategy, City of Edmonton (with Romana Kabalin, Policy Advisor) From Defining Needs - to Developing Solutions - to Strategic Partner: The Next Frontier for Asset Management Practitioners

• Where to Now for Asset Management in Canada

(Issue 243) Peter Buckland on Physical Asset Management

• Guest Editor for this issue is Peter Buckland.

• 6 Keys to the New Asset Management.

• Where does the Asset Manager Sit?

• What makes a good Asset Management Decision?

• Business Maintenance

(Issue 242)Infrastructure - What’s in a Name?

• Editorial: Is it time to change our name? And if so, to what?

• Return On Infrastructure

• Catalyst Infrastructure and the survival of small, declining, ageing, townships

• Asset Management And Problems Of Urbanisation

(Issue 241) Spiral Dynamics Explained

• Guest Editorial Issue: Ruth Wallsgrove on Asset Management

• Build on Culture - Qantas example

• Run your AMP as a well managed project - derived from a presentation by Danielle Roche, Manager, Asset Performance for City West Water in Victoria.

• A Challenge to Star Ratings

(Issue 240) DO WE CONSULT TOO MUCH?

• Chris Champion, CEO, IPWEA sounds a cautionary note on service levels, consultation, and the AMP

• Kathy Dever Todd, CEO, NAMS-NZ shows how consultation -done right! - can save you money and win you friends.

• Debra Hall, Principal, Synergy, NZ - tells us how New Zealandresidents responded to the question “do we consult too much”.

(Issue 239) The times, they are a changin'

• Can Regulation Improve Asset Management?

• Growth: Think Now - or Pay Later

• Changing Work Structures and Infrastructure Demand Response to Oil Depletion Do We Consult Too Much?

(Issue 238) Regulating Asset Management - New Zealand Experience

• How has New Zealand reacted to the requirement to produce Long Term Council Community Plans?

• And what can the rest of us learn from their experience?

(Issue 237) The Right Debate

• To Regulate or not to Regulate

• The Right Debate, NZ Experience

Issue 237 (The Right Debate)

• To Regulate or not to Regulate

• The Right Debate, NZ Experience

Issue 236 (In The Long Run We Are All Dead!)

• Direction Setting and Motivation

• What is Asset Management Success?

• Promoting Asset Management

• Identifying Benefits

• Putting them in the Picture

Issue 235 (Valuation and Community Vale)

Editorial: How do we determine community value?

• CONCRETE, STEEL…AND DECISIONS! by Ken Harlow, Director of Management Services, Brown and Caldwell

• MEASURE AND TRACK COMMUNITY VALUE .... WITH SERVICE LEVELS by Ashay Prabhu (ACEAM, Australia)

• MEASURE AND TRACK COMMUNITY VALUE .... WITH STAR RATINGS by Jeff Roorda, Principal, JRa Associates, Australia

Issue 234 (Structuring for Asset Management)

• Editorial: The Magic Number

• Three Observations on value, valuation and performance by Penny Burns, AMQ International, and Gordon Sparks

• Leading with Asset Management: Asset Management Structure

• Examples from past SAM (all available to you on the amqi.com website)

• Re-view: Allocating Maintenance Funding

Issue 233 (Leading from the Front)

• Leading from the Front: Road AM, a look at how the big issues of the day - carbon emissions, fuel shortages, rising interest rates - can be addressed with cost effective am solutions that take the wider view.

• For Consideration: Applying AM Principles by Ruth Wallsgrove provides a useful example of an asset management group in a UK water authority that saved their company millions of pounds simply by the application of good AM principles

• Re-View: Asset Information revisiting some of those issues that we were struggling with about 15 years ago

Issue 232 (Is Asset Management Relevant in a Time of Growth and Rapid Change?)

• Editorial: Asset Renewal - so 1990s!

• Leadership

• Service levels are the key

• Are you ready to face the challenge of growth, change and discontinuity?

• Setting Direction

• 2008 Agenda

Issue 231 (What will 2008 Bring?)

• What will 2008 bring?

• Editorial: Penny’s Forecast for 2008

• AUSTRALIA:

  • Views of the Organisations

  • Views of the Specialists

• New Zealand: Credibility will be a key issue for 2008

• The Water Industry in Queensland

Issue 230 (Looking Back 2007 in review)

• As you start to wind down, perhaps, in anticipation of the coming holiday season, this is a time to look back and see what you have accomplished during the year. It is also the time when we like to look back and see what issues occupied us during the year.

Issue 229 (Learning Asset Management)

• Updated Website Listing of Accredited Courses

• What are you looking for?

• Short Courses do two things:

  • Awareness Raising

  • Specific Skills

• Learning through the organisation

Issue 228 (Performance Fundamentalism)

• Fundamentalism is just as unattractive and counter-productive in Asset Management as it is anywhere else.
  How can you avoid that “I’m sure I’m right and I’m not even going to consider anything else” attitude?
  In this issue we show how a blind adherence to one principle, one performance measure,or one section of an organisation as if it trumps all others, will ultimately lead to very poor outcomes. Systems thinkers will have no doubt recognising this as the principle that optimising a subset will inevitably de-optimise the whole.

Issue 227 (The first Plan is Qualitatively Different)

• Your First Asset Management Plan is Qualitatively Different - how and why?

• Staff Retention - how to retain your about-to-retire experienced baby boomers

• How does Culture affect Asset Management?

Issue 226 (October 8) Change your thinking - change your options!

• An accidental discovery

• Observer bias can lock us into old ways of thinking

• Change your thinking, change your options

• Performance - from whose perspective?

• Spending More is NOT a sign of AM excellence

• Five Golden Rules for increasing AM productivity

• Costing down time

• Star Ratings Special Interest Group

Issue 225 (September 24) Star Ratings

• Service levels are the basis of all life cycle planning. In this issue, Adrian Duff continues his story of using star ratings in Maroochy Shire Council, Dean Taylor argues the why and how of star ratings, we give starting hints and introduce our first "special interest group".

Issue 224 (September10) The "X" Factor

• Leo Gohier’s Story of the Evolution of Asset Management in Hamilton

• SERVICE LEVELS USING STAR RATINGS -A Practical, Replicable, Meaningful, Measure that aids Performance

• Adrian Duff's presentation on the Star Ratings approach of Maroochy Shire Council

Issue 223 (August 27) ACCOUNTINEERING

• What does it mean for Accountants to ‘think’ like engineers?

• And what does it mean for Engineers to Think like Accountants?

• Asset Management Works

• When People Make It Work by Kevin Bainbridge

• Asset Life – And Death

• A Tale of Two Pumps (by Jo Parker)

• When it Absolutely, Really Must go Faster

Issue 222 (August 13) Anyone for Benchmarking?

• When to benchmark - and when not to

• 3 Case Studies

• Breaking away from industry 'standard' - Hamilton City Council

• Issue 221 (July 30) Maintenance Culture

• Maintenance Culture - What we learn from Performance Audits

• Back to Basics - Project Scheduling

• Economic Life is a Function of Risk

Issue 220 (July 16) An Asset Renewal Future Fund?

• Renewal Funds

• Decision making - scientific findings

• Four issues to consider in long term decisions

• Importance for infrastructure of household formation

• Competitive bidding on price favours the least informed

Issue 219 (July 3) What is driving Asset Management Competency?

• Also - Where are the next generation of asset managers to come from? Academia or ?

Issue 218 (June 18) Thoughts on Asset Management Competencies

• What the British are doing

• What Western Australia is doing

• Measuring Competencies

• Teaching Competencies

Issue 217 (June 4) Asset Management Through Time

• Infrastructure Deficits

• Valuation - Historic Costs v Current Values

Issue 216 (May 21) Service Centric Focus

• The service centric focus

• Constructing Service Consumption Patterns

• Using limited funding to get best results

• How to reduce your infrastructure gap

Issue 215 (May 7) Breakthrough

• A common journey - how do we get the whole organisation on a common path?

• A Service Focus approach by Ashay Prabhu

• Retaining and Expanding Good Ideas - Roger Byrne

Issue 214 (April 23) Change and Value

• Understanding and applying "Fair Value"

• Survey of AM changes - what has stuck and what hasn't?

Issue 213 (April 9) Difficult Decisions

• Difficult decisions

• Thinking through decisions

• Keeping your options open

• The Wash Up

• Funding - it's more than just dollars

• Funding - it's not even dollars

Issue 212 (March 26) Choice

• Editorial: Use Your Loaf!

• Intuitive Judgement by Danny Azavedo

• TAM Online, is it being used?

• Taming the Overload Monster -A decision-making framework

• Making Things Meaningful - A new graphic

Issue 211 (March 12) When it's time to go - asset disposals

• Using your TAM to manage staff change

• Asset disposals

• Asset disposal framework

• Computer disposals

Issue 210 (February 26) Keep Your Options Open - and other things that really matter

• Editorial:Why THESE issues?

• Integrating Functional Fit &

• Condition

• Keeping Your Options Open

• The people you consult will not use your service

• Population Futures and You

Issue 209(February 12) The Practical Asset Manager

• More use from condition audit data

• Residential use can improve community asset management

• Are we doing too much community consultation?

Issue 208 (January 29) What has population to do with asset management - everything!

• Demographically we are in transition

• Population Ageing - the 4 dimensions

• Community Consultation, pt 2

Issue 207(January 15, 2007) A Little History is a Wonderful thing

• Change is in the air

• Penny's predictions - 2007 The Shape of Things to Come

• Community Consultation - delivering to Excess Expectations

Issue 206 (Dec 11) Time to reflect - this is our annotated INDEX Issue

• Effectiveness

• Three Important Issues in 2006

• Strategic Asset Management

• Communication

• Strategic techniques

• Our role in society

Issue 205 (Nov 27) Trust me, I’m an asset manager

• Trust me, I’m an asset manager: - Ruth Wallsgrove

• Part 1: GENERATING CREDIBILITY: An Example

• Part 2: The PROCESS

• Part 3: TRANSPARENCY AND TRUST

Issue 204 (Nov 13)

• Risk Management is not a cost, it is an investment! by Peter Buckland
  Fund renewal, not depreciation

Issue 203 (Oct 30) Fund Renewal – Not Depreciation - Part 2

• The Benefits of “Invisible Assets”: or why utility asset managers have it easy!

• ‘How To’ Fundamentals

• Off and Running - The LGA in South Australia move on financial sustainability

• You know you are on track when …

Issue 202 (Oct 16) Fund Renewal – Not Depreciation - Part 1

• Disadvantages of Funding Depreciation

• Difficulties in achieving the Advantages of Funding Depreciation

• Funding Renewal

Issue 201 (Oct 2) Engineers and Economists Think Differently

• Accountants, Finance Specialists and Economists are not the same

• Think Differently Part 1: Assumptions; Can-do; Similarities and Differences

• Think Differently Part 2: Change, Infrastructure and Reversibility

Issue 200 (Sep 18) Socially Responsible Infrastructure

• The Challenge

• Why we need to focus on outcome measures rather than inputs

• Why we need to get economists involved in socially responsible infrastructure

• Why we need to lead by example to achieve socially responsible infrastructure

• What is your passion? Can we achieve it together?

Issue 199 (Sep 4) Problem or Solution Focussed?

• Asset Managers are solutions focussed! Are we really?

• “An Inspector Calls” case study of the Solutions Focussed Approach

• The Solutions Focus in brief

• Skills Shortages – More good suggestions, from Leo Gohier, Canada

Issue 198 (Aug 21) Skills Shortages 2 – Creating Solutions

• We are all fishing in the same pond – and it is drying up!

• We have a pretty good idea of what – but how?

• “Off-the-Wall” suggestions

• “Not-so-Off-the-Wall” suggestions

• Water, water, everywhere yet not a drop to drink!

Issue 197 (Aug 7) Skills Shortages

• Skills Shortages are general – UK

• Infrastructure demand is general – UK

• The Shape of things to come?

• What can YOU do?

Issue 196 (July 24) Dispelling the Myths

• Myth: Governments do not have enough funds for maintenance and infrastructure

• Myth: Market forces are best

• Strategic Asset Management is optional and a part-time job

• The Five Strategic Asset Management Tasks

Issue 195 (July 10) What is Your Next move?

• Are you putting your effort where it really counts?
  With limited time and resources, you cannot afford to do an excellent job of the WRONG JOB. Your first task is to CHOOSE WELL.

• In this issue we look at over 60 different activities—so that you may consider their value for you at this stage of your development.

• The AMQI Consulting Index

Issue 194 (June 26) Asset Management & Engineers

• Asset Management is Multi-disciplinary

• AM for Engineers, Architects, Economists, Finance Specialists and Information Managers

• And that’s not all

Issue 193 (June 12) Generating and Examining Options

• Financial Sustainability – how much is understood?

• Generating and Examining Options

• States can ‘go broke’ too

Issue 192 (May 29) PROACTIVE or Passive?

• Managing Declining Rural Populations

• How YOU can figure out what THEY want in the AMP

Issue 191 (May 15) Time for A Stock Take? Why leave improvement to chance?

• What have we done well?

• What have we done not so well?

• Doing Business like a Business by Ken Harlow

• Tom’s Bad Day, part 2, by Roger Byrne

Issue 190 (May 1) Integrated Planning: A Solution to Regional Asset Management Problems?

• What if? (Or does Year ‘11’ matter?)

• Integrated Planning in Auckland

• Tom’s Bad Day

Issue 189 (April 17) Renewal: Is the job now too big for us alone?

• Exploration of Canadian experience in Renewal

Issue 188 (April 3) Understanding the Renewal Gap

• Understanding the Renewal Gap

• Wielding Influence – why it is essential

• What Asset Managers know better than others?

• Why more information will make the renewal picture better, not worse

Issue 187 (March 20) Achieving Influence: pt 2

• A simple 3-step process for more influence

• Case Study: Reducing Energy Consumption in British Waterways

Issue 186 (March 6) INFLUENCE Getting it Using it A Window of Opportunity

• Expanding the Window of Opportunity

• The Linearity Trap

• Innovative Projects Database

Issue 185 (Feb 20)

• How can focussing on public values help in the renewal of ageing infrastructure?

• NSW Inquiry into Local Government Infrastructure Sustainability

Issue 184 (Feb 6) The Magnificent Seven

• Portfolio Planning, pt 3: Making it work

• The Magnificent Seven

• Making the point – graphically!

Issue 183 (Jan 23) The nature of Strategic Questions

• “Strategic Thinking? – I have a program that can do that!”

• Portfolio Planning 2- making it work

• AM Thinking for Architects

• Future oil prices and oil supplies

Issue 182 (Jan 9) 2006 Provoking Questions

• Asset management is a strange business

• Portfolio Planning: the questions

• Quality in Design: AM for Architects

• What’s the Big Idea: Future Oil Prices?

Issue 181 (Dec 12) 2005 in Review

• Major themes addressed in 2005

• Contents List for 2005

Issue 180 (Nov 28) 2005 Managing ALL the lifecycles

• Worth noting – letting your tenders

• Tender Evaluation Techniques – for the practitioner

• Managing ALL the lifecycles – for strategic planning

• What’s the big idea – Tipping Point Responses?

• The Issues we should be tackling NOW

Issue 179 (Nov 14) 2005 When Things Go Wrong

• Governance, risk and reputation capital

• Consultancy projects: before you place that ad! – For the practitioner

• Professional engagement is at a low ebb – for strategic leadership

• Something remarkable happened

Issue 178 (October 30) 2005 Rethinking Benchmarking

• Managing an AM Consultancy

• Preparing the Business Case - the process

• Rethinking Benchmarking - Liars Figure and Figures Lie

• Can you really compare? Looking at the variables

• How to successfully benchmark

• The Ashley-Perry Statistical Axioms

• "The Tipping Point"

• Analysing the Future

Issue 177 (October 16) 2005 Assumptions and 'Gut Feel' Under-developed tools in the Toolbox

• In this issue Danny Azavedo looks at the neurological basis of gut feel to show why it should be used, (but not exclusively relied upon).

• Excerpt from a plenary address to senior utility managers in Europe.

Issue 176(Sept 30) 2005 A Basic Primer on how to measure Asset Management Performance - with practical examples

• In this Issue, Contributor, Ruth Wallsgrove, Sarras Ltd, UK Distinguishes between ASSET Performance and ASSET MANAGEMENT Performance, and

• Ross Waugh, Waugh Consultants, NZ takes an honest and upfront look at what has worked and what is still to be improved in the NZ asset management experiment.

Issue 175(Sept 16) 2005 Service Levels – More Than Asset Condition

• All Opus International Issue

• Paper presented by Dr Ian Greenwood at the 2005 Adelaide international Public Works Conference.

• Feature article by Tony Porter and Neil Cook

Issue 174 (Sep 2) 2005 Asset Information

• If asset managers lose control of asset information, they lose control of everything!

• Invitation to join Best Practice Asset Information Group

• Infrastructure Connectivity – Learning from New Orleans

Issue 173 (Aug 19) 2005 Something for Everyone

• Why AM is extremely valuable for Planners

• What is it that makes infrastructure different?

• What is financial sustainability, and why do so few of our councils have it?

• Life Cycle Costs and Deferred Maintenance

• Dust off your Schumacher, Small is again beautiful

Issue 172 (Aug 5) 2005 Positioning Yourself for a Brighter Future

• Anticipate and Manage Change

• A new approach to risk management – ‘managed luck’ and embracing uncertainty

Issue 171 (July 22) 2005 Infrastructure Management – Are we making things better or worse?

• Social Costs: What are they and how can they be measured?

• Mitigating Social Costs

• Case Studies in the Measurement of Social Costs

Issue 170 (July 8) 2005 Funding – A Strategic Choice

• Alternative funding mechanisms

• Customers Pay; Clients Consume

• FM as Educator

Issue 169 (June 24) 2005 Counting the Costs

• Geislin’s “Inverse Square Rule for Deferred Maintenance”

• What is the real breakdown cost?

• Key messages for Rec and Sport facility managers

• Thinking Big

Issue 168 (June 10) 2005 Survival of the Species

• How to attract the best asset managers

• How to grow the size of the potential asset management pool

• How to utilise better what we have and disseminate knowledge

Issue 167 (May 27) 2005 Time Passes, Memories Grow Dim

• “Free Assets” tries for a fashion comeback

• Don’t repay debt? Build now, pay later?

• Asset sales: a measure of effective asset management

• The Economic Life of a hospital

Issue 166 (May 13) 2005 Asset Management must Go Public

• Why Queensland has adopted a 19th Century solution to a 21st Century Problem

• Reaching Out – How AM in the Water Industry is moving beyond the technical

• A Collaborative AM Working Session in Washington

• What do we know – How to establish Knowledge Management

Issue 165 (April 29) 2005 Taking Steps to Enhance AM Capability

• University accredited courses in asset management

• Learning from the job

• Creating Long Term Value

Issue 164 (April 15) 2005 Funding Renewal

• Funding Plans

• Debt Management as an Asset Management Tool

• The Only Two Financial Ratios You Need

• Three to Five – why medium term time estimation is a problem

• Dave Openshaw – Political/Public Image

Issue 163 (April 1) 2005 The Ultimate Asset Management Challenge

• Taking asset management into public debate via ACORN Inc. a non-profit, non-aligned, industry and public interest association designed to bridge the gap between Community Leaders and Asset Specialists.

Issue 162 (March 18) 2005 Why a Bridge?

• Asset Management as a bridge between objectives and asset operations

• The roles of Asset Management

• Understanding the Business Environment (Part 4: The Economy and Commercial Models)

• Bridging to the Community

Issue 161(March 4) Simple Ways to Improve Depreciation Measures

• Understanding the Business Environment (Part3)

• Template for assessing & reporting Asset Condition & Economic life for sealed road assets by John Howard

• Depreciating only what wears out

Issue 160 (February 18) Asset Management Aid

• AM training in developing countries

• Interpreting Environmental, Health and Safety Legislation

• Does Organisational Structure really matter?

Issue 159 (February 4) How to… And…

• How to measure service levels using a survey: What’s a spill worth?

• How to be a World Class Asset Manager by understanding the financial structure of your business.

Issue 158 (January 21) Time, Value, Condition

• Graham Holland – Understanding Condition Gradings

• Culture and its impact on Asset Management

• Ideas that Last

Issue 157 (January 7) Janus – Looking Back and Looking Forward

• Graham Holland – Darwinian Evolution and the Rise of Asset Management in British Waterways

• Dave Openshaw – Why Asset Managers need a Long Term Vision

• The Ise Shrine

Issue 156 (December 24) The Economic Rationalist’s Guide to Gift Giving and other seasonal offerings

• Some fun stuff plus some serious stuff such as using eBay to source spares and a new report on sustainable development and infrastructure out of New Zealand, plus the Contents List for 2004

Issue 155 (December 10) The Challenges of a Risk Based Asset Management Organisation

• Case study of Essent Netwerk (The Netherlands), a large electricity utility, on how they refined their organisational structure to minimise their risk exposure.

• Also “Capital Spending: Getting things into perspective”

Issue 154 (November 26) Asset Management in the Media

• Year of the Built Environment 2004 – where do we go next?

• The Capital Spending Debate – it pays to spend the time to get the facts

Issue 153 (November 12) Long Term Community ORGANISATION plan

• What are the advantages of voluntarily adopting?

• Applies to any organisation with a large stake in the community, not just councils

Issue 152 (October 29) Reputation Risk

• Why reputation is important to you and your organisation

• What you can do to put it at risk

• A risk like no other

• Reputation Risk Management – in pictures

Issue 151 (October 15) Risks and Costs

• Risk Based Analysis of Footpath Faults

• Outsourcing – why do we do it?

• Selling Asset Management OUTCOMES

Issue 150 (October 1st)Future Asset Management Labour Markets

• Interview on Beyond Budgeting with Aubrey Joachim of Sydney Water

Issue 149 The Future of Asset Management: What’s On Your Radar?

• Exploration of trends likely to impact asset management

Issue 148 Yes! Beyond Budgeting Does Apply in the Public Sector

• John Bragg on “Progressing ‘Beyond Budgeting’ in the Public Sector, with examples”

• Beyond Budgeting “12 Step Process’

• Design Ideas for Beyond Budgeting

Issue 147 (Aug 20) Creating the Profession of Asset Management

• How AM differs from other professions

• The structure of the profession

• Gaps

Issue 146 (Aug 6 ) Let’s Get Practical

• ‘The Thinking Practioner’ – Service levels and performance standards, robust performance models and maintenance contracts

• What do you do when forced to adopt practices not conducive to ‘good asset management’

• Characteristics of a Good Asset Management Organisation.

Issue 145 (July 23) Are you a Good Asset Management Organisation? How do you know?

• We are an Asset Management Organisation by Ken Harlow

• Your Call – What happened to CSOs?

• Is Funding an Asset Management Issue?

Issue 144 (July 9) How Long is the “Long Term”?

• Time in the context of TBL/QBL

• Discounting the Future/ Society/ Past

• Critical Infrastructure

• How Safe is your Database?

Issue 143 (June 25) 2004 How Much Does Asset Information Cost?

• Managing Asset Information as an asset

• The Ideal Information Strategy

• Calculating the costs – and key results

• Where companies spend too little – and too much

• The power of the UK study

• Collecting better information about asset information

Issue 142 (June 11) 2004 Advancing Asset Management

• Three excellent reasons for why we should try

• Inexpensive, moderately expensive and full on commitment ways of doing it

• Challenges for Asset Management

Issue 141 (May 28) 2004 Managing Short lived equipment assets

• Lessons from the Victorian Auditor-General’s Report into the Management of Medical Equipment.

• Moving Beyond Budgets—Why it can’t work in the public sector, pt 1—or can it?

• A reality check—is your maintenance/renewal backlog really real?

Canadian Asset Management Research

Issue 140 (May 14) 2004 Accepting the Challenge

• Beyond Brodie: The reaction of the States to the lifting, by the Federal Government of the Immunity for nonfeasance granted to road authorities – and the Victorian Road Management Act, 2004

• Challenges Overcome – the challenges faced (and overcome) by Asset Managers in recent years

• Moving Beyond Budgeting – Can we face this challenge? The challenge to get more appropriate performance control tools than budgets? A group development proposal – and challenge is issued.

Issue 139 (April 30) Beyond Budgeting

• What is ‘Beyond Budgeting’ and can the principles be applied to
  government and to asset management? An exploration.

Issue 138 (April 16) 75% or 50% Solving the Riddle

• A word on ‘Street Cred’

• Why the Engineer’s 75% can be compatible with the Accountants 50%

• Feedback

Issue 137 (April 2) Counter Intuitive Propositions

• Pretty Average – understanding the objectives

• Modelling Footpaths – should we or shouldn’t we?

• Dr Altman’s Formula – assets as potential for bankruptcy

• The Emerging Third Wave Organisation – organising for the information

Issue 136 (March 19) Provenance

• How do ‘facts’ come to be ‘facts’?

• Does Asset Management Pay?

Issue 135 (March 5) 2004 Communication is about Connection

• Three examples

Issue 134 (February 20) 2004 Competition: Good for Sport but is it a winning Asset Management Strategy?

• Ideas and Observations: Beyond Competition

• Tools and Techniques: Supply Chain Management

Issue 133 (February 6) 2004 Asset Acquisition – do we have a duty to think beyond our immediate needs?

• Case Study: Community Costs of Individual Decisions – The ATO

• Ideas and Observations: Community Costs of Individual Decisions

• Tools and Techniques: Re-use, re-cycle – some ideas

• Tools and Techniques: New template available on the website

Issue 132 (January 23) 2004 (With Research) AM Comes of Age

• Techniques for Practitioners: Timelines

• Techniques for Researchers: Research Methodology

• Techniques for Researchers: Concept Mapping (and the Knowledge Gap)

• Ideas and Observations: Systems Engineering Thinking and Infrastructure Complexity

• For Comment: Is Competition the Answer? And…The Dark Side of Competition

Issue 131 (January 09) 2004 Use Matters

• Case study: Use Matters- the Salisbury Level Crossing Incident

• Tools and Techniques: Use Matters, part 2: using scenario planning to anticipate future use

• Ideas and Observations: What do we really know about asset management?

• Back page: We’ve been googled! And December Dialogues.

Issue 130 (December 26) 2003 Index Issue 2003

• Tools and Techniques

• Asset Management Globally

• Issues and Observations

• Communication

• Case Studies

• Contents

Issue 129 (December 12) 2003 Some Mental Exercises for the Seasonally Physically Challenged

• Christmas Exercise: Scenario Setting

• End Notes: The message for AM from the HIH collapse

• End Notes: The Hamurabi Code

Issue 128 (November 28) 2003 Mining the Archives: Scenario Planning, Images of the Future

• Case study: SA Dept Transport 1980s

• Methodology

• Examples

Issue 127 (November 14) 2003 Functional Lives – Results from Survey

• Age doesn’t cause obsolescence –but can be used as a proxy

• Do you see what I see – how different roles in an organisation affect judgements of economic life

• How does age impact serviceability – the impact of different factors

• Are multi-story buildings more durable – and flexible?

• Factors influencing lives of health assets – what about yours?

• Some implications of the findings –Four important questions

Issue 126 (October 31, 2003) Performance Assessment – a new WSAA tool

• Check this out – new AM websites

• Tools and Techniques – Performance Assessment – a new WSAA tool

• Tools and Techniques – Life Cycles: the speed of adoption

• Observations – Stephen Howe on AM Abroad

• Communication – AM and the “War on Terror”

Issue 125 (October 17, 2003) Trends and Innovations Part Two

• Australia, a new maturity

• Asia Pacific – from help to self-help

Issue 124 (October 3, 2003) Trends and Innovations Part One

• The American Giant Awakens

• Canada the Pragmatic

• UK – AM as a control

• NZ: Focus changes from Efficiency to Effectiveness

Issue 123(September 19, 2003) Reporting on the Report Cards

• What are the results?

• What do they mean and are they effective?

• How do they compare, in quality of infrastructure, in reporting style and information, in credibility?

• UK—The State of the Nation an assessment of the state of the UK’s infrastructure, 2003, the major grades, with examples from Water and Energy

• USA—Report Card for America’s Infrastructure 2003 Progress Report, the major grades, with examples from Water and Energy

• Australia—2001 Australian Infrastructure Report Card the major grades, with examples of innovative additions

Issue 122 (September 5, 2003)

• Editorial: Time to rethink ‘redundancy’ and ‘integration’?

• VAMC reaches its first anniversary, statistics

• How to prioritise capital investment projects

• World Watch: PFI, the future costs; and ‘Is your street over-furnished?’

• Feedback; National Infrastructure Strategy

Issue 121 (August 22, 2003) World Watch

• Owner-occupiers perform less well than those that lease their properties, why?

• Case Study: Too many road reserves? Rural City of Murray Bridge

• Watching the UK – secondary markets developing in PFI, what might it mean?

• Private investment in public infrastructure – AusCID survey

• Watching the USA – Vote in an infrastructure tax.

• Australia – do we need a national infrastructure or asset management strategy?

Issue 120 (August 8, 2003) Sustainability in Practice

• Case study: Interface (maker of modular carpets) describes its route to sustainability

• Examples: Of local and global sustainability metrics

• New Terms for a New Age: Natural capitalism, product stewardship, cradle to cradle, bio-mimicry

• Where to Next? Extension of sustainability concepts to office fit-out

• The Best of Articles, Websites and News on Sustainability in Practice

Issue 119 (July 25, 2003) Talking Points: What are asset managers talking about?

• Service Lives and Asset Lives

• The cultural impacts of asset management implementation

• Life cycle costing and renewal decisions

• Building maintenance – a case study checking the relevance of the Sherman-Dergis formula

Issue 118 (July 11, 2003) Functional Lives of Buildings

• What functional lives are?

• Why they are becoming so much more important

• How to estimate them for buildings

• How to know what others are doing

Issue 117(June 27, 2003) 13 Costs & Benefits (Economic & Non-Economic)

• That Public Sector Decision Makers frequently fail to take into account
  The employment impact of the Grand Prix

• Why sporting facilities fail the economic development test

• The economic and non-economic costs and benefits that need to be considered for development projects

Issue 116(June 13, 2003) ‘Best Practice’ no longer good enough in New Zealand

• Read about how New Zealand has mandated an outcomes focus in legislation and find out why this may be relevant to you.

Issue 115 (May 30, 2003) Tasmania Leads Australia into the Future - the shape of future infrastructure demand

• Population decline will impact decisions on renewal and new infrastructure.

• Are you prepared?

• Future demographic shocks

• Are Local Government funding models adequate?

• Implications for future asset and renewal planning

Issue 114 (May 16, 2003) The Asset Manager - Strategic Resource?

• Or Expendable (as a manager of a non-core function)?

• CASE Study - in the application of Activity Based Costing in the City of Devonport in 1995 - and it's still working well.

• What do you mean by "Facilities Management"?

Issue 113 (May 2, 2003) Making Your Asset Management Plan Dynamic: Part Two

• How you get into the 'innards' of your asset management plan to improve it.

• How you can avoid simply re-doing, but progress instead

• How you can change a 'static' plan to a 'dynamic' one that users will clamour to use - and that top management will fund because they find it useful.

Issue 112 (April 18, 2003) Making Your Asset Management Plan Dynamic: Part One.

• Why do some AMPs grow in strength with their organization and others die?

• Diagnosing the Problem

• Establishing the questions that the AMP needs to answer

Issue 111 (April 4, 2003) How Much DOES it Cost to Patch a Pothole - What are your services costing you?

• In this issue we look at Activity Based Costing for Asset Managers
  — What it is, and what it can do for you

Issue 110 (March 21, 2003) What Organisational Structure Best Suits Asset Management?

• What organisational structure best suits asset management?

• Capital Funding and PPPs – Alisdair McClintock

• Tracking Early Renewal

• Time for a Sanity Check on your AIS?

• VAMC – City Chapters.

Issue 109 (March 7, 2003) For Practitioners - A Simple Risk Assessment and Criticality Rating Tool

• Simple Techniques that work!

• A Simple Risk Assessment and Criticality Rating Tool – Max Anderson, MWH Global

• NEW on the Virtual Asset Management Community Website – Tools and Templates.

Issue 108 (February 21, 2003) An ICOMS Special

• Excerpts from past ICOMS – from case studies and practical guidance to keynote addresses and technical studies

• What’s new on the Virtual Asset Management Website?

• ICOMS 2003

Issue 107 (February 7, 2003) Problem Solving

• A case study in complex problem solving: The Granville Rail Disaster, 1977

• Techniques for improving your problem solving abilities

• From the Discussion Forums: The Sherman-Dergis Renewal Formula

• Some really great asset management websites for you

Issue 106 (January 24, 2003) Time for clear thinking on PUBLIC PRIVATE PARTNERSHIPS

• What is and what is not a Partnership

• Success factors for Partnerships

• PPP and the Triple Bottom Line

• PPP – Principals and Players

• Drainage – Are “Service Lives” the answer?

Issue 105 (January 10, 2003) 2003 Time to tell the World!

• Taking the AM Message to the Streets

• How can you use these messages?

Issue 104 (December 27, 2002) Clear the decks, a new year is coming?

• What have you missed?

• What is the AM Game about?

• Data

• Practice/Organisation

• Communication

• Decision Making/Understanding

• Resource

• Complete Subject Index for 2002

SAM 103 Dec 13 2002 Donation Boxes on the Golden Gate Bridge

• Funding renewal

• Reader feedback

SAM 102 Nov 29 202 Private Public Partnerships

• Integrating asset management with the wider world

• Second case study of British Waterways: the story continues

SAM 101 Nov 15 2002 “Maintenance” or “Asset Management”

• Information Systems: maintenance or asset management by Norm Eason

• Is your project going ‘off the rails’ - how would you know?

• Renewal - There are ALWAYS options

• Depreciation - don’t ignore it

SAM 100 Nov 1 2002 Investment Proposals

• 10 Key Questions to Ask (& Answer)

SAM 99 Oct 18 2002 Knowledge Requirements for Information Systems

• also, Should you borrow to fund renewal?

• Will your data last as long as your assets?

• Asset security

• Maintenance and AM Information Systems

SAM 98 Oct 4 2002 What’s new around the world?

• What’s new

• Cost shifting

• Outsourcing

• USA Update

SAM 97 Sep 20 2002 Introducing the Virtual Asset Management Community

• The Funny side of Audit - cartoons

• Guidelines for reporting performance

• Use your designer to reduce life cycle costs

SAM 96 Sep 6 2002 A week of discoveries

• The necessity for both Vision and Technology

• Taking a wrong focus in communication

• Asset Management as a lifetime endeavour

SAM 95 Aug 23 2002 Knowledge Management

• Data management in Natural Resources and Energy

SAM 94 Aug 9 2002 Prevent Emergencies from De-railing your Asset Management Strategy

• Prevent Emergencies from De-railing your Asset Management Strategy

• Measuring service level performance

• Marketing asset management

SAM 93 July 26 2002 Building Maintenance Frameworks

• Alliance contracting, one contractor or many, pre-determined maintenance standards or individual assessment, integrated with other agency functions or separate, lump sum or schedule of rates, variable fees or uniform annual fees, performance based, penalties or not?

SAM 92 July 12 2002 Risk: Managing it strategically, part 2

• The public demise of a private hospital

• Another view on risk transfer

• Sep 11 and the World Trade Centre

SAM 91 Risk: managing it strategically

• Risk of what? to whom?

• Can risks really be transferred

• Risk transfer, why do we want to do it? Does it reduce costs overall?

• Does the transferor benefit?

• Risk and the Asset Management Strategy, a summary

SAM 90 June 14 2002 Community Consultation, the Boroondara Experiment

• Community consultation

• Asset specific accounting

• IT - predictive intelligence

SAM 89 May 31 2002 The Ant’s View of the Life Cycle

• The steady state - when, if ever, does it apply?

• Succession planning - for asset managers

• Life Cycle Cost and Depreciation

• Understanding Depreciation - findings from the Victorian Auditor General

• Asset components - what is a component?

SAM 88 May 17 2002 What data do we need for Strategic Asset Management?

• What life cycle costing tells us about data

• Evaluate your parking structure - repair or replace?

• Help with the self review check list

SAM 87 May 3 2002 Asset Management is an Investment with a surprisingly SHORT payback period

• Value Management - beyond the dollars

• Recycling - Does it stack up? Road Rehabilitation with recycled materials

• If you think it is tough now - it is going to get tougher!

SAM 86 April 19 2002 From New Zealand - Checklist for Self Review of Asset Management Plans

• Strategic asset management - who does it best? Engineers or Accountants?

SAM 85 April 5 2002 Asset Management and Organisational Change

• Commercialisation - the driving force behind asset management?

• Commercialisation - Answer, or different packaging of the problems?

• Case study - introducing AM at a time of organisational change

SAM 84 March 22 2002 Infrastructure Depreciation

• An alternative to Straight Line

• Taking Communication out of the Middle Ages

SAM 83 March 8 2002 Data Maintenance is Boring!

• Data maintenance is boring and other things the Strategic Asset Manager needs to know about modelling

• What do you want from your model - answers or questions?

• Why use a model?

• Reducing the boredom quotient

• Refining your model outcomes

SAM 82 Feb 22 2002 Improving Maintainability

• Improving Maintainability

• Building Maintainability into Contracts

• Contributions by Greg Williams, Ami Sudjiman and Malcolm Winterburn

SAM 81 Feb 8 2002 Maintainability

• What Maintainability is - Greg Williams

• On Maintainability in Buildings - Ami Sudjiman

• On Maintainability issues on London Underground - Malcolm Winterburn

SAM 80 Jan 25 2002 You’ve Benchmarked, Now what do you do?

• Aligning benchmarking actions with your agency objectives

• Benchmarking examples

• Questionnaire method in Victoria

• Small group benchmarking in SA

SAM 79 Jan 11 2002 Hot Topics in 2002

• In the UK

• In Australia

Issue 78 Making Headlines in 2001

• Japan's Construction State Lies in Ruins

• Auditor Blasts Property Sales

• Sealing of Road Rejected

Issue 77 Are we confusing the tools with the trade

• The tools of the trade

• Armin Huefner - Taking Asset Management Beyond its Accounting Origins

• Readers Feedback: John Timmers on "The Experienced Generation"

• Edwin Grech Cumbo on "POE: A question of funding"

• Ami Sudjiman - Spinks on "More on Portfolio Risks"

• Chris Adam on "Going Beyond the Dollar"

Issue 76 The Great Asset Management Debates

• That Asset Management is best left in the hands of Accountants

• That Life Cycle Costing is no longer relevant in today's fast changing world

Issue 75 How to argue a bigger maintenance budget

• How to argue a bigger maintenance budget

• Maintenance success - a lot of little things, done a little at a time

• Top job won on Asset Management experience

• Asset Management wins Global Innovation Award

• Expose yourself!

Issue 74 What it takes to be a Leader in Asset Management

• End to end asset management - Exploring the roles, responsibilities and competencies of key players - by Phil Jones, Yorkshire Electricity

• Asset Management Decision Making by John Woodhouse, the Woodhouse Partnership

Issue 73 Justifying Investment in an Asset Information System

• Open Letters to Christine from

• Penny Burns on treating investment in an AIS like any other investment decision

• Norm Eason on continuous learning and using of the system

• Armin Huefner on time saving and improved outcomes

• Ashay Prabhu on using the system

• Conclusions

Issue 72 Make a Project Proposal that decision-makers can understand

• Financial Evaluation Tools - and the traps

• (Some reasons) why wrong asset acquisition decisions are made

• Reducing Complexity of Cost Presentation - Annual Costs

• Annual Costs: The playing Field Lights Example

• When Costs and Benefits are finely balanced - Consider Rejection

Issue 71 High Court Decision on Non_Feasance

• The May High Court Decision - Facts of the Case and removal of the highway immunity

• Asset Management now required, not optional

• Mitigating liability for accidents

• High court ruling applicable to all public infrastructure

• Why high court decision REQUIRES asset management

• Stop the Panic! Excerpt from Sydney Morning Herald

Issue 70 Index Issue

• Project and Program Risk

• Managing expectations

• Three "Urban Myths" affecting the ability to manage Expectations Risk

• Asset Condition or Service Delivery

• Index for Issues 61-70

Issue 69 What it takes to be an intelligent client

• What it takes to be an intelligent client

• What is probe?

• Technical Issues

• Good Benchmarking is Objective, reliable, graphic, analytical

• Benefit and Barriers

• Can Probe be Reproduces?

• Using the Probe Findings

• The Main Messages

• Corporate Memory

Issue 68 The Market for Strategic Asset Managers

• The market for strategic asset managers

• Aims, objectives, goals and targets

• A school council tackles strategic asset management

• How the plan was developed

• The major planning considerations

Issue 67 Does Capital Spending Make a Difference?

• Does capital spending make a difference? (Uk Study)

• Implications of UK study for Asset Management

• Readers' Inquiries

• Increasing AM awareness

Issue 66 Asset Management in British Waterways

• Special Case Study Issue - Graham Holland, Asset Manager, British Waterways

Issue 65 UK Update 2001

• UK Update 2001

• Rewarding Good Asset Management - Education & Local Government

• Gripe: Standardisation of Terminology - by Ami Sudjiman-Spinks

• Is Terminology Confusion Inevitable?

• Creating Greater Asset Management Awareness Pt 1

Issue 64 What’s Happening to Property and Those who Manage it

• Property is changing and so is the role of the real property asset manager

• David Eades, Knight Frank, Views on property changes

• Bryan Moulds Property Council of Australia (SA), Views on property changes

• Ami Sudjiman-Spinks, Strategic Facility Services PL, A short History of Property

• Gripe of the week

Issue 63 New Zealand Electricity Industry Asset Management Plans

• Asset management plans in NZ

• Replacement cost v replacement value

• Re-active rules OK

• Facility condition Index

• From the casebook: How do projects survive on your capital lists?

• Website of the week: construction best practice program

• We don't do it this way here

• Contributors: Ami Sudjiman-Spinks, Stephen Howe

Issue 62 Protect Yourself! (Uses for your Asset Management Plans)

• Uses for your asset management plans

• Requirements for asset management plans

• Website of the week - NRC's Urban Infrastructure Rehabilitation Program

• Selecting the right tool for the job: Asset lives - "As Is" or "As Desire" Part 2

• Asset Lives - Functional v. physical component lives

• Can the engineer stay in touch?

• We are making it all too difficult!

Issue 61 Asset Management Strategy Made Simple

• Asset Management Strategy Made Simple

• Asset Lives and how to calculate them

• Case study example: asset Lives, physical components, Standard: "As Is"

• What really annoys you about AM today? Parochialism

Issue 60 Collaboration

• Collaboration

• Collaboration - examples

• Benefits of collaboration and what it takes

• Moving from inputs to outputs to outcomes

• Taking the wider view; the mass limits review - an opportunity lost

• Collaboration - What works? What doesn't?

• Contributors: Jeff Roorda, Council of Mt Barker and Littlehampton

Issue 59 A Tale of a T-Shirt

• A Tale of a t-shirt ( a user perspective on performance)

• If only I had known to ask something different - (helping users to define their requirements in task-related, not asset related terms) - the ST&M tools

• The Missing 2 1/2 floors. The value of performance based building contracts

• Leasing? Save time and negotiate from strength. Using the ST&M tools for a high level scan

• Taking it to the board. Get to the crux of the issue quickly

• We can save you money. Evaluating proposed facility management outsourcing

• More harm than good. Using performance indicators

• How specifications live forever - Mark III

• Contributors: Francoise Szigetti, Les Evans, Chris Adam

Issue 58 Could your infrastructure assets become obsolete?

• Could your infrastructure assets become obsolete?

• For perspective on the future look to where you have been in the past

• Natural Capitalism and its impact on asset values

• Data audits: What information to collect and why

• Assessing the Data need

• Data audits - are they worth the trouble?

• Writing for SAM - How much to say

• Seal vs Gravel; A response

• Pre-requisites for Asset Management going global?

Issue 57 Changing asset portfolios - changing rules

• Changing asset portfolios - changing rules

• Characteristics of traditional infrastructure and information technology assets

• Selecting the right tool for the job: asset registers

• Cash flows

• Data audits

• Data quality indices

• How Specifications live forever: Mark II

• Contributors: Stephen Howe & Stuart Mathews

Issue 56 US Federal Asset Management Guidelines for Real Property

• Selecting the right tool for the job - part 2

• Discount rates for the choice of a new asset

• US Federal asset management guidelines for real property

Issue 55 Selecting the Right Tool for the Job

• New Series! Selecting the right tool for the job

• Discount rates for the maintain/renew trade off decision

• Renewal is an opportunity to change direction at minimum cost

• Roads to recovery or roads to purgatory (How will you spend your federal transport grants?)

• Avoidable costs

Issue 54 When Good Intentions are not Enough

• How to make your strategy work

• How the Adelaide City Council went about their asset management improvement plan

• Canada to spend 12.5 million dollars on national guide to sustainable infrastructure

Issue 53 Does it really pay to defer maintenance

• Snowy Mountains Hydro Electric Commission

• How to reduce capital costs for increased effectiveness (Tom Copeland)

SAM 52 Dec 29 2000 ‘Tis the Season to be Jolly!

• Asset management study tour to the UK, Canada and the USA by Ken Gray, the Hydro Winner of the International Asset Management Competitions

SAM 51 Dec 15 200 Guest Issue: GHD

• An opportunity for all - web based knowledge system

• Risk Management

SAM 50 Dec 1 2000 Infrastructure Valuation, NZ, USA

• Simon Terry, Valuation in NZ

• Tony Urquhart, Valuation in USA

SAM 49 Nov 17 2000 Service levels

• How to construct and use them

• Why service levels are necessary

• 7 rules for constructing service levels with examples

• Describing a service level in pictures

SAM 48 Nov 3 2000 Guest Issue: ACVM

• There is more to Asset Management than Managing Assets

• Web based management guidelines

• Current issues in Asset Management

• Managing for outcomes provides incentives for SAM

SAM 47 Oct 20 2000 Guest Issue: Strategic Facility Service P/L

• Directions for a new century

• Preparing the maintenance contract for your asset

• An innovative approach to risk in asset management

SAM 46 Oct 6 2000 Guest Issue: IPWEA

• Asset Managers or merely Asset Owners?

• International Infrastructure Management Manual

• Pavement Management System

• Data Warehousing

SAM 45 Sep 22 2000 Guest Issue: Cardno MBK

• From cost centre to profit centre

• Better roads, reduced cost

• TMP - Total Management Plan

• Keeping economics in perspective

SAM 44 Sep 8 2000 Special Costing Issue

• Why does it cost - HOW much?

• How we bring costs upon ourselves

• The Freiman Curve

• Establishing and Managing Contingencies

• Getting the Incentives Right

• Avoiding cost creep by specifying outcomes

SAM 43 Aug 25 2000 Communication with Decision Makers, pt 2

• Don’t gild the lily, consider your audience

SAM 42 Aug 11 2000 Communication with Decision Makers, pt 1

• Baseline information - presenting the BIG picture

SAM 41, July 28 2000 Managing the Defence Estate

• An industry special looking at asset management in the Australian Defence Estate

SAM 40 July 14 2000 Maintenance Budgets

• Make your maintenance budget transparent

• Start from last years budget and modify - but do so sensibly

• Performance indicators, some examples

• Whose or What performance?

SAM 39 June 30 2000 If 2% is the Answer, What’s the Question?

• Is there a role for ‘industry averages’?

• Asset Performance pt 2: translating principles into action

• Troubleshooters Casebook - when individual performance measures give the wrong company result

SAM 38 June 16 2000 Measuring Asset Performance, Part 1

• Measuring performance

• Depreciation models

• Wagga Wagga City Council

SAM 37 June 2 2000 Urban Sustainability

• Strategic asset management for urban sustainability

• Who can stuff up your project : people aspects of project management

• Feedback on the depreciation funding study “Overhaul Trucking”

• Asset Management and the Business Cycle

SAM 36 May 19 2000 The rise and fall of Overhaul Trucking

• A “Harvard Business Review” type of case study looking at depreciation funding policy

SAM 35 May 5 200 Integrated Asset Management

• How quantifying life cycle costs paid off

• AM in the private sector

• The troubleshooter

• When the ‘more money’ solution fails - try something else!

• Forecasting Asset Renewal by Ami Sudjiman

• When you have your renewal forecast - don’t follow it!

SAM 34 April 21 2000 London Traffic Snarls Up Over Utility Road Works

• Lane rentals and other solutions to utility road access and congestion

• Public assistance for private housing

• UK Public Housing Shakeup

• Hot Property - new report from the UK

• Best Value - what is it? with examples

SAM 33 April 7 2000 Quantify the Unquantifiable

• A new method for tracking performance in quality targets

SAM 32 March 24 2000 Asset Management in the UK - 2000

• Managing the AIS - Keeping data up to date

• Managing the AIS - The Life Cycle of Data

• Distributed Lives

• Case studies from the UK Audit Commission

SAM 31 March 10 2000 “$US 66 Billion Wasted on IT Assets”

• Managing your IT assets

SAM 30 Feb 24 200 Life Cycle Modelling at Work

• Allocating road grants for asset preservation using life cycle modelling

• Allocating school grants for efficient asset management using life cycle modelling

• Planning future spending on maintenance and capital using life cycle modelling

SAM 29 Feb 11 2000 AMP’s Integrative Role in UK Schools Capital Strategy

• AM Plans, Schools

• Capital Strategy, Schools

• Economic life - under the microscope

• AMP timescales

• Appraising AM Plans

SAM 28 Jan 28 200 Local Government Assumes AM Leadership

• SA Local Government Infrastructure Study

• “At your Service” - Spelling out service delivery in NZ

• Good practice examples from UK local government

• The future for AM - views from abroad

SAM 27 Jan 14 The future of Asset Management

• An overview of what may be in store for asset managers by futurologist Ann McBeth

• Views of the future from Australian asset managers

SAM 26 Dec 31 1999 The Way We Were

• A short history of asset management in Australia

• The five stages of asset management

SAM 25 Dec 17 1999 Schadenfreude

• Stories of asset management ‘gone wrong’

SAM 24 Dec 3 1999 Puzzles and Paradoxes

• Degradation curve; replacement cost

• Lease or Purchase

• Using valuation to create an information tool

• If you want a larger maintenance budget - stop complaining!

SAM 23 Nov 19 1999 Ageing Assets? Financial Constraints?

• Watermain rehabilitation and renewal program - Canada

• Property and Asset Management in the UK - Survey

SAM 22 Nov 5 1999 Hydro’s AM Plan a Model Winner

• AM Plan Winner

• Property Disposals: Australia, Canada and around the world

SAM 21 Oct 22 1999 From Mindless Cog to Creative Input

• Three case studies using consumers, suppliers, staff in AM solutions

SAM 20 Oct 8 1999 Vision and Technology

• Emerging technologies

• Concepts in need of technologies

• Service Level Agreements - Sara Cullen, Q&A

• Business value, asset value

• Automated hydraulic modelling process wins

SAM 19 Sep 24 1999 The Missing Link - Asset Management Strategy

• AM sometimes seems irrelevant - because it sometime is!

• “The Rules” - do you have a choice?

• Changing “core + circumference” thinking

• Survival Techniques #2: How to answer a question.

• Glossary: Asset Management Strategy and Related Terms

SAM 18 Sep 10 1999 Why does Asset Management sometimes appear irrelevant?

• Survival skills 1: how to ask a question

• Service Level Agreements: Sara Cullen answers your questions

• Work in Progress

• Getting the message across - Phil Clarke

SAM 17 Aug 27 1999 Yours, theirs, or ours?

• Responsibilities in Performance Based Contracting

• The Contract Advantage

• Service Level Agreements: Pt 5 Sara Cullen

• Are we ready for performance based contracting?

SAM 16 Aug 13 1999 Ageing Buildings

• Risk management for building portfolios

• Performance targets v actual performance

• Risk and all that!

• Service level agreements: Pt 4 Sara Cullen

SAM 15 July 30 1999 Before Conception

• Designing performance indicators

• Service Level Agreements: Pt 2 Sara Cullen

• The Cost of tendering

• Our people are our greatest asset - Really?!

SAM 14 July 16 1999 Caution - IT Ahead

• Information technology

• Upgrading for productivity - think twice!

• Data in, knowledge out

• Improving decision making with IT

• IT tools and applications

SAM 13 July 2 1999 Good Design for Asset Management

• Good design - who wins?

• Service Level Agreements: Pt 2 Sara Cullen

• Servants of Deceit! Under-costed capital proposals

SAM 12 June 18 1999 Are your Customers Happy?

• Shared Services: Shared gain or shared pain?

• Service Level Agreements: Pt 1 Sara Cullen

SAM 11 June 4 1999 Improving Performance with Benchmarking

• 12 tips on benchmarking

• Accounting- AM dilemma

• More Accounting issues

• Is Forecasting worth the effort?

• Glossary: deprival value

SAM 10 May 21 1999 Benchmarking, the Good, the Bad and the Ugly

• AM Plans, Pt 4: Optimising maintenance/renewal trade-offs

• Six steps in optimising maintenance and renewal

• Case study - the Epsom Road Main Sewer collapse

SAM 9 May 7 1999 Change is not easy

• AM Plans Pt 3 - relating the plan to the business strategy

• Asset related strategies for increasing shareholder value

• User charging

Issue 8 International Asset Management of the Year

• First Excellence Award

• Take a Shortcut

• Extending Asset Information Capability

• AMP Part 2: Building on a Strong Foundation

• Life Cycles - Demand and Supply

• Service Level Survey

• Funding Depreciation

Issue 7 Service Levels - A simple, multi-sue, framework from NZ

• Service Levels - A simple, multi-sue, framework from NZ

• Asset Management Plans, Pt 1:The first plan is unique!

• Comments from the Forecasting Renewal Discussion Forum

• SMART value management

• Competitive price bids favour least informed bidders

• Complaints, Feedback or Information

Issue 6 Focus on New Zealand Local Government Reform and Asset Management

• Commercialising Roads

• Pricing and Governance

• Funding Depreciation now Mandatory for NZ councils

• Disclosure of AMP's for Monitoring Electricity Industry

• Hospitals and Commercialisation

• Asset Management and the World Bank

• Opportunity for Consultants in Overseas Aid Projects

Issue 5 Onkaparinga: Where Asset Management Understanding Comes First

• Onkaparinga: Where Asset Management Understanding Comes First

• Creating Advocates for Asset Management

• Priority Setting in Amalgamated Council

• AIS - What to know before you choose, a 5 part series
  Part 5 - "Clean Up Your Act!"

• Should you adopt life cycle costing?

• How specifications live forever

• Glossary: Life Cycle Costing/Terotechnology

Issue 4 A Depreciation Method that Helps Managers Manage

• Weblink: A depreciation method

• Interview with Norm Easson, President British Institute of Asset Management

• AIS: What to know before you choose, a 5 part series
  Part 4 - "To Integrate or Not to Integrate?"

• A good example of benchmarking metric

• Glossary - Condition Based Depreciation

Issue 3 Facing the Renewal Challenge

• Facing the Renewal Challenge ( VIC Infrastructure Study)

• Whose doing what? Measuring Property Performance Across UK Councils

• AIS: What to know before you choose, a 5 part series
  Part 3 - "What has your Asset Register Done for You Lately?"

• Whose doing what? All electronic TAM for Brisbane City Council

• Glossary - Post Implementation Review

Issue 2 A Triumph of Mind Over Matter

• Triumph of Mind over Matter

• Role of Asset Manager in "Economy of the Intangible"

• AIS: What to know before you choose, a 5 part series
  Part 2 - 'Never Get a System Cleverer than You'

• Glossary - Renewal

Issue 1 Making a Positive Difference

• Strategic Asset Management - making a positive difference!

• AIS - What to know before you choose, a 5 part series

• Pt1: Why it pays to be 'lean and mean'

• Asset Preservation?

• Benchmarking - the hare and the tortoise

• Glossary - Benchmarking and Benchmarking metr