The Impact of Asset Management Development Programs in Infrastructure Organizations

The increasing challenges for organizations managing aged infrastructure that support societies, often with large intervention backlogs because financial resources are not always readily available, are being widely debated, particularly in the case of national, regional or municipal critical infrastructure of the water, energy and transportation sectors. It is crucial that such infrastructure organizations continuously improve their asset management capabilities, in order to systematically optimize the performance or the levels of service provided, modeling and forecasting the infrastructure life cycle costs, manage the risk of failure and find strategies to fund both short- and long-term investment needs. Asset management is a multidisciplinary approach that can be used by this type of asset-intensive organizations to address the challenges referred to above and maximize the value derived from their infrastructure asset base, while ensuring that the objectives of the organization are achieved and that the needs and expectations from its relevant interested parties are met. This paper discusses the impact of asset management development programs on infrastructures organizations. The discussion is illustrated with the achievements of a six-month fast-track pilot project for developing the asset management capabilities in a water utility. The case study covers the industrial water supply system for an industrial and logistic zone in the Portuguese Atlantic coast and its impact in the rapid increase of the asset management maturity of the infrastructure organization as a whole.