NACWA Member Update (MU07-11)

NACWA is pleased to announce the release of a new practical guide to asset management, developed together with the Water Environment Federation (WEF) and the Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies (AMWA). This new resource provides a common sense, risk-based approach that any utility can use, regardless of size or how they currently manage their infrastructure assets. Implementing Asset Management – A Practical Guide builds on the popular Managing Public Infrastructure Assets to Minimize Cost and Maximize Performance (the Handbook) developed in 2002, and utilizes a top-down approach on how to most effectively and efficiently use existing knowledge and resources to improve a utility’s management of their assets.

NACWA is also excited to announce that the 2002 Handbook, now out of print, will be available for download as a PDF as part of the purchase price for the new Practical Guide. Ordering information is available on NACWA’s website (http://www.nacwa.org/private/umfi.cfm). NACWA members can purchase the document at a special discounted rate of $95 with the discount code of COPUB1.

New Guide Light on Theory and Heavy on Practical Insight
The Practical Guide identifies “risk” as perhaps the most important concept of asset management. By quantifying and assessing the risks posed by the failure or inability of infrastructure assets to meet their intended functions or achieve overall levels of service, utility staff can identify operating and maintenance procedures, as well as capital rehabilitation and replacement projects, to mitigate the risks. The new Practical Guide provides detailed information on determining the risk associated with a particular asset, considering both the consequence of asset failure and the likelihood of asset failure. With risk information in hand, utilities can better prioritize their corrective actions. The top-down approach described in the Practical Guide focuses first on a group or set of assets at a system or facility level. It makes the most of existing and available data, as well as institutional knowledge, meaning that any utility can get started using the Practical Guide without first conducting detailed field investigations, hands-on condition assessments, or sophisticated performance evaluation.

The concepts presented in the Practical Guide are applicable to all utilities, whether large or small. Each methodology is scalable to match the size and resources of each utility. The Practical Guide discusses such topics as:

• An explanation of the 12 key concepts of effective asset management and their link to the elements originally characterized in the Handbook;
• An overview of risk and how the risk equation is employed to implement asset management in a logical and step-wise manner;
• Examples of how matrices can be used to quantify both consequence and likelihood of asset failure in order to score the relative risk of infrastructure assets;
• Options for mitigating asset risk are discussed along with a method for prioritizing the risk mitigation options, and an overview of how risk can also be used to plan maintenance programs and how redundancy affects risk;
• The step-wise process for implementing the risk-based asset management methodology; examples are presented for quantifying consequence, likelihood and risk, along with selecting and prioritizing risk mitigation options; and,
• A synopsis of the software applications available to assist utilities in better managing their infrastructure and the principles of integrating information systems to most effectively manage the enormous volumes of asset data that can be generated through asset management processes.

This document provides a concise, but thorough overview of everything a utility will need to get started with a new asset management program or reinvigorate their current program.