Asset Upliftment Program to Support Our Rising Generation of Operators & Maintainers

Abstract

INTRODUCTION How do I operate this? How do I maintain this? I am struggling to fault-find, help? Can I trust this asset register? These questions are very fundamental in our asset intensive industry, yet the granular details elude us partly because Council has benefitted from experienced operators & maintainers. The ‘experience’ is now retiring. This abstract documents how Bundaberg Regional Council is rebuilding the asset support systems to empower the rising generation of operators and maintainers by laying good foundations. An Upliftment Program has commenced to improve our asset management system. METHOD A new generation is joining the industry from diverse backgrounds who have little asset information at their disposal to empower them. Council identified that detailed asset information and guidance is needed to address the problem. The program of upliftment was initiated and consists of different projects: 1. Project 1: Asset Hierarchy Standard The standard guides: what is an asset, governs the hierarchy and while maintaining alignment with the financial register to be consistent and improve data integrity. 2. Project 2: Asset validation Audit sites on a granular level, creating P&ID’s and detailing the operational asset register. 3. Project 3: Asset Tagging Tag all assets in the field through two tagging schemes. The first are P&ID tags which remain in the functional location of the asset and the other are QR codes permanently secured on the asset and disposed of with the asset. 4. Project 4: Digitisation of our Workforce The digitisation of field teams to access live data and guide our operators and maintainers, leveraging QR codes and tailored forms. 5. Project 5: Maintenance Plans Using the updated asset information with workshops on failure modes, effects, and criticality analysis (FMECA) Council creates resource balanced maintenance plans. The program includes many perspectives, primarily the following teams. • Mechanical & Electrical Team (Maintenance) • Treatment (Operations) • Governance (Compliance & Reporting) • Asset Planning • Engineering The groups all have vastly different perspectives and what the priority should be. A key to unify the group was to align on the future state and facilitate change in a positive manner, all linked to our Business Plan: One Team - One Future. The Upliftment Program commenced in the order of the projects listed above with minor overlap for efficiencies. A facility’s next project is started as soon as the sites previous one was completed. The delivery model is effective as each facility allows us to implement learnings from the predecessor but coordinating the field validation and desktops projects of the program are challenging given the teams and contractors have different schedules. CONCLUSION The Upliftment Program for Wastewater Facilities is nearing completion and Water Facilities will be next in line. The program is enabling Council to answer the basic questions and advance towards the next asset management maturity level.