In the upcoming financial year, local councils in Victoria will be required to restrict any rate increases to a maximum of 2.5%. While this will present challenges to councils, it will also reveal certain opportunities. Forward-thinking councils will prioritise innovative and sustainable asset management projects which will yield improved efficiencies and cost savings.
Developing your asset management system
The organisation of key asset information is both a basic and a vital component of any asset management system, but actioning improvements to asset management systems or databases is often put in the too hard or too expensive basket. If this information is strewn across various departments in the form of spreadsheets, GIS files and hand sketches on the back of service request forms. If not carried out smartly or in a strategic way, asset management can become a costly and time consuming process.
Data collection and the development of asset registers does not have to be overwhelming. It just needs to be broken down into small, manageable tasks. Quick, easy and cost effective wins are often vital in converting your asset management processes from a series of sporadic spreadsheets to an asset management system with a core or advanced NAMAF rating.
The key is knowing where your critical assets are, and then prioritising them.
Prioritising your projects based on asset criticality
Asset criticality is one category of risk associated with infrastructure. It represents the risk of adverse impacts associated with a particular asset. The purpose of identifying asset criticality is so that those critical assets can be better managed.
GIS can be an extremely powerful tool and can be used to assist in identifying what should be considered a critical asset for your municipality. By prioritising the assets based on their type, size location, proximity to other critical services and condition (where available), data collection projects can then be targeted to address the most critical assets first.
Morphum Environmental has over 15 years’ experience providing innovative asset management services to local councils. Please contact us with any questions or comments you may have by email at info@morphum.com or phone 03 9111 5640.
