Effective Asset Management is More Than

Effective Asset Management is More Than Tools and Techniques

Bradley Hayes

Keeping track of utility assets and preventative maintenance has always been a challenge. It’s critical to maintain accurate records to inform capital improvement plans (CIPs), but the process by which we do so has long been evolving.

When I started my career as a lift station mechanic in 1977, my supervisor emphasized the importance of writing everything down in a logbook and maintaining accurate records. Paper forms were used to record information about each component in the system and the information was stored in file folders. By the mid-1980s, computerized maintenance management systems (CMMS) were introduced, but the software was not user-friendly, and it consumed more time than logging everything on paper.

In the 1990s, the idea of asset management was born through the concept of capacity, maintenance, and operation management (CMOM), which became the topic of conversation among utility directors and operators.

As the utility director, from 2006 to 2018, for the City of Tavares (city) in central Florida, I advocated for better, more-detailed maintenance records to determine where best to invest our dedicated funding and optimize our operations.

In 2009, I hired a firm to digitize the utility’s water and sewer plans to upload to a geographic information system (GIS), but the result was a huge failure. I had to hire another company capable of reviewing the plans and importing the data into GIS, which took a couple of years to complete.

With all the water, wastewater, and stormwater asset information finally catalogued in GIS, the utility was then well-positioned to develop a CMMS for the wastewater collection system and treatment plant. At this point, I also pushed to upgrade the metering system to advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) to improve meter accuracy and incoming revenue from user fees.

This experience led me to visit the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) State Revolving Fund (SRF) staff in 2017 to raise my growing concern that utilities were seeking funding year after year to repair or rehabilitate the same equipment due to poor asset management and planning. I invited the consulting firm to join me to showcase its ability to create and implement successful CMMS and supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) software that catered to the utility. I was able to show the SRF staff the customized dashboard that put all of the asset data at my fingertips and the ease with which I could generate charts, graphs, and reports to track maintenance and meet regulatory compliance requirements.

Developing a Standard for Best Practices

The evolution of asset management during my career inspired my quest to conduct a pilot study that would inform a standard of practice for similar-sized utilities in Florida. Two years after retiring from my position as utility director and accepting a position at Woodard & Curran, SRF staff commissioned the city to conduct an asset management pilot program that would establish best practices of asset management planning for midsize utilities serving between 10,000 and 50,000 customers.

The launch of this program coincided with the new Florida Administrative Code Rule 62-552700, which requires utilities that receive financial support to maintain an active fiscal sustainability and asset management (FSAM) program with a rate reduction of 0.1 percent on state loans with reimbursement eligibility.

Funded by the drinking water and clean water SRF, the study was conducted from January 2020 to May 2021, with the water utility focused on: 1) Applying U.S. Environmental Protection Agency asset management guidelines in Florida. 2) Addressing best practices for the selection of asset management technology. 3) Connecting an asset management plan to fiscal management concepts.

The program was a collaborative effort among Tavares Utilities Department staff, Woodard & Curran, and SRF staff to identify and analyze both CMMS and enterprise asset management system (EAMS) software. The resulting practical guide for mid-sized utilities in Florida will apply to water, wastewater, stormwater, reclaimed water, public works, and other utilities.

Assessing Key Functional Requirements

The utilities department staff participated in a kick-off workshop and detailed questionnaire as the first step in identifying critical functionality requirements and features for CMMS or EAMS software. The feedback from staff helped identify key operational and business needs, while also prioritizing the criteria on which to select and evaluate software packages. The goal is for the software to streamline asset data collection and management, including vertical and horizontal asset inventory, service calls, scheduling, tracking and prioritizing maintenance, collecting and processing asset data to drive risk-based capital planning, and generating appropriate reports.

Unlike the limited technology in the 1980s, this modern software will be interoperable and user-friendly to provide a high return on investment (ROI) by improving efficiency and maximizing the useful life of all assets, and by being both customizable and easily updated. The platform will also integrate seamlessly with Esri GIS and existing software for metering, billing, citizen requests, closed-circuit television (CCTV), SCADA, backflow, and laboratory data.

Evaluating Multiple Software Solutions

The project team identified 10 software packages to evaluate, including two already used by the city, the standard FSAM software for small water utilities, and seven industry-standard packages. Once selected, these were evaluated for the functionality of each software package based on the requirements identified by staff.

The team determined six key functional areas to rate each platform: S Service Requests S Asset Inventory S Work Orders S Query and Reporting S Advanced Asset Management S Overall Useability

Each functional area included a list of specific criteria by which to assess and rank the software packages.

Software evaluations were completed using previous implementation and software administrator hands-on experience, demonstrations, previous studies, vendor information requests, trial subscriptions, and industry research.

Table 1 shows how each software platform ranked on average in each functional area. Figure 1 shows the total scores for each software platform based on the total of average ranking, weighted by functional area.

The score matrix is as follows: 0 = does not include the feature indicated; 1 = ome functionality or ability to integrate; 2 = fully performs feature, less user-friendly, less customizable, and provides direct third-party integration; or 3 = very effective for this feature and user-friendly.

This scoring process helped the project team rank each of the software packages, identifying four packages for utility staff to review further with onsite vendor interviews and virtual demonstrations. Additional meetings with each vendor were requested to test mobile access and discuss key aspects of implementation, such as data migration, requested integrations, requirements, and impacts on staff time. Following these meetings, additional information was requested regarding detailed annual software costs, hosting environment, and implementation costs, including data migrations and integrations.

In addition to a deeper evaluation of the software, the city had to consider how the implemented software would ultimately be hosted. The three options—On Premise, Tavares Cloud, and Vendor Cloud—were evaluated based on 10 criteria, as shown in Table 2. Woodard & Curran recommended using Vendor Cloud due to its built-in benefits, including reduced information technology (IT) infrastructure and maintenance costs, as well as high availability, scalability, and excellent disaster recovery in a cybersecure environment. Woodard & Curran also noted that onsite hosting would require hardware maintenance costs and Tavares Cloud would require monthly subscription fees, making Vendor Cloud the most-cost-effective option.

Implementation and Beyond

This scoring process provided an unbiased comparison for the CMMS and EAMS software packages. City officials further reviewed implementation costs, including data migration and weighing hosting environment options to determine which software package best met its needs. Having the utility staff involved in the process secured early support from the people who will use the software daily, setting them up for success during implementation and beyond. A phased implementation process is suggested to reduce client cost and staff disruptions, but the water utility staff was excited to start using the technology.

The project team input a myriad of data into the software, including asset inventory, asset condition, service requests, work orders, and maintenance schedules. With these data entered, city staff can quickly view dashboards, generate reports, maintain key performance indicators (KPI) and level of service (LOS) goals, track preventative and corrective maintenance, and manage repair and rehabilitation costs. During implementation, training is provided for stakeholders to champion the new technology across each department. Once the system is fully operational, the software engineering partner can further provide support through build-out, updates, patches, data entry, and other services Continued on page 18

Figure 1. Total Scores for Each Software Platform

Table 2. Software Options

Continued from page 17 as needed, which proves beneficial when making such an investment in technology.

Not only has opting for an EAMS software package positioned the city to meet the FSAM requirements of the SRF programs, it has also proved significantly beneficial in organizing and managing assets and positions the city for increased demand on the utility due to future growth.

Key recommendations coming out of this pilot program will provide guidance for similarsized utilities, but unique operating environments, regulatory structures, or governance may call for customization to address the following issues: S Risk Reduction - An objective method to prioritize the order in which certain assets should be addressed to reduce overall system risk. S Renewal Planning - Leverage asset management and effective utility management techniques plan for maintenance, rehabilitation, or replacement of critical assets.

DO MORE WITH LESS.

USING ADVANCED WASTEWATER TECHNOLOGY TO HELP FLORIDA’S ENVIRONMENT

As leaders in Florida wastewater treatment for over 40 years, we understand the need to accomplish big things with less while protecting the natural environment. We’ve designed and built the most treatment capacity for Integrated Fixed Film Activated Sludge Systems (IFAS) in Florida— so you can do more with a smaller footprint. S Defensibility - Operations, maintenance, and capital renewal plans must be fully defensible, based on objective criteria, modeling, life cycle cost, and other easy-tounderstand information. S Sustainability - Asset management must be easily sustained to meet annual performance goals under budget constraints. S Integration - Practices must effectively leverage investment in compatible GIS, hydraulic modeling, failure tracking, customer complaint, and other systems. S Validation - Organizations must be able to target field data collection and assessment of the system to validate, refine, and validate decisions. S Training - Utility staff must properly be trained for any asset management process to be successful.

Knowledge Paves the Way for Success

Imagine driving a Dodge 383 GTS Coupe off the lot for just $6,000 in 1968. Only 2,112 of this make and model, with the 383 engines, were made that year, making a typically depreciating asset worth a lot of money 50 years later if wellmaintained. This includes regular oil changes, replacement of air and oil filters, switching out spark plugs, new brake pads, tire rotations, new paint, and more. Maintaining a car of this caliber requires an understanding of critical components, knowing the consequence of those components failing, and planning for the necessary cost of repairs or replacement on a monthly and annual basis. Without this care and attention, the car has no value today; however, that same car in mint condition could now sell for at least $78,000.

The investment made in a robust asset management software package is much the same: if not properly used, the value is lost. With the data integrated into CMMS or EAMS software, however, utilities can take the steps necessary to properly maintain the infrastructure, reaping the greatest ROI and fueling informed decisions for CIPs.

While proper maintenance takes time and requires staff to be operating with the same goal in mind, the result is a sustainable facility that continues to provide clean, quality water to its customers, while keeping rates steady.

Bradley Hayes is a senior consultant with Woodard & Curran in Lakeland. Rachel Osborn, technical manager, is with Woodard & Curran in Portland, Maine, and Tami Ray, practice leader, and Tom Bryant, P.E., senior consultant, are with Woodard & Curran in Lakeland; all three contributed to this article. S