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National award for asset management manual

With over $600 million in infrastructure assets and an annual depreciation of around $13 million per annum, Melbourne's City of Maroondah identified that even a small increase in the effectiveness of its recurrent and capital expenditure would produce marked savings. As a result, Council embarked on a program titled 'Total Life Cycle Asset Management'.

"The need for Council to better predict the rate of consumption of its infrastructure assets and plan for the rehabilitation, renewal or replacement of those assets was the aim of the project," said Neil Tucker, Asset Management Coordinator. "We now have fully developed asset management principles, a strategy and plan all contained in our Asset Management Manual."

Available for asset managers at all levels to use as a guide, the Manual provides a consistent and rational approach to the life cycle management of Council's fixed and infrastructure assets. "This is from the strategic level to the operational and maintenance aspects through to planned disposal," he said. In its first year of operation, a $2.3 million saving on the annual depreciation of the City's road network resulted.

Neil Tucker said that this new approach of looking at the complete life cycle of an asset will take a number of years to fully implement throughout the organisation. However, the Manual ensures that the principles, philosophies, policies, strategies and structure are now in place to bring total life cycle management to Council's assets.

A series of training sessions and workshops over the next few months will be an integral part of the ongoing implementation process. For its efforts in this field, Maroondah took out the Worley GHD Award for Excellence in the 1997/98 National Asset Management Awards.

For further information contact Neil Tucker, telephone (03) 9871 0258.

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