Gary Ruck is a registered Professional Engineer and Project Management Professional in Ontario. He has over 37 years of experience in asset management and is a recognized expert in that field. He is currently the Director of Global Business Development at Deighton Associates Ltd.

Summary

This is Part VI of a seven-part blog series on the dTIMS Agency Roadmap. Please refer to the introductory blog “Part I - An Agency Roadmap – Do I Need One of Those?” for the basis of this series.

In this instalment, we will discuss the three levels of asset management that are the foundational levels of how and why an agency does asset management. These levels fit into the categories and sub-categories that were defined in the previous blog. It is at the category and sub-category level that a dTIMS Asset Management Maturity (AMM) score is derived.

Introduction

Let’s start with some definitions to establish a clear understanding of the asset management levels outlined below:

Strategic - Strategic asset management (SAM) is a long-term planning approach for maintenance and operations in which a long-term plan is made.
Tactical - Tactical asset management (TAM) deals with medium to longer-term asset investment options and tactics.
Operational - Operational Asset Management (OAM) describes the asset management function that deals with the shortest time horizon and relates to asset decision-making at its most granular level. It can also serve as a benchmark to gauge progress.

The following graphic illustrates this concept.

Figure 1: A Graphic illustrating Strategic, Tactical, and Operational Asset Management

Strategic, Operational, and Tactical

When looking at the definitions of the graphic, several concepts are apparent, but two will be discussed in this section: the timeframe and the focus area. First, the timeframe. Strategic is “long-term”, tactical is “short to medium-term”, and operational is “day-to-day”. SAM deals with the strategic goals of the organization, which are the guiding principles for all activities of the organization. The other two levels deal with the activities that support these goals.

This brings up the second concept – the focus area. There are at least two ways to look at this: one, through the lens of the type of activities at each level, and the second is through the stakeholder. Let’s look at each level and describe both ways.

To illustrate these concepts with an example, imagine you are a homeowner and you are responsible for the continual upkeep of your house. In this case, the “agency” is you or your family, the “asset” is the house, which in turn has asset hierarchies like individual rooms. Now, external factors have indicated there is a need to divest this asset at some point in the future for maximum value. To put this in terms of the asset management levels, strategically, the agency's goal is to increase the value of the home by 10% in three years, and the budget is $50,000. In evaluating the marketplace and the asset given the budget, it has been decided to improve the curb appeal, to modernize the kitchen, and to paint the remaining rooms. Tactically, in year 1, updated landscaping will be done for $10,000. In year 2, kitchen upgrades for $35,000 will be performed. In year 3, the rooms will be painted for $5,000. Operationally, you are only concerned with the first-year activities (remember, day-to-day planning), and this involves who will do the work (labor). What specifically will you need in terms of equipment and materials (shrubs, trees, stonework, etc.) to get the job done?

Conclusion

The concepts brought up in this blog are meant to highlight different levels of asset management being performed at an organization. And, depending on which level you are involved in, the actions, data requirements, and outcomes are very different. It is important to remember that although these are distinct levels, they are very much interrelated and dependent on each level. The strategic level informs the tactical level, which in turn dictates what happens at the operational level. And going up the levels, the resulting operational activities must be recorded to inform the tactical level if budget and goals are being met, which then influences the strategic level to see if the strategic goal is achievable or is perhaps too lofty and needs to be adjusted.

dTIMS Business Analytics is ideally suited to help organizations with the Strategic and Tactical levels by being able to analyze budget scenarios and show the long-term impacts of them, as well as generating an annual work program for every asset element given a constraint. And dTIMS Operational Management is designed to help organizations program the specific activities that need to occur and track the actual usage of labor, equipment, and materials against the plan.

The dTIMS Roadmap groups the categories and sub-categories into the three levels of asset management to make it easier to see where they fit and how your organization scores within these levels, and can suggest areas of improvement as required.

If you are responsible for asset management in your agency, please be aware that there are three levels of asset management co-existing at your agency and how these impact the decisions you make. And if you are not sure how your organization is performing and/or could improve, please consider the dTIMS roadmap to provide you with a maturity score and concrete ways of evaluating your agency’s “as is” state, along with suggestions to move to a “to be” state.

I encourage you to reach out to myself or anyone else at Deighton to learn more about the agency roadmap and to participate in and help influence the work Deighton is doing in this area.

Up Next: Part VII - Concluding Thoughts