The Insightful Phase of an Asset Management for Government Journey

Your Asset Management for Government journey begins with a solid foundation of accurate data, moves forward to give you insights into the most financially and operationally efficient way to manage your assets, and ends with smart asset investment planning where you can accurately model the lifecycle of your most important assets and predict the maintenance interventions needed years ahead of time.

In this article we’ll discuss how to gain powerful insights using the data you are already collecting to help your community make better short and long-term decisions about some of your largest investments – your public assets.

Taking an asset-centric point of view

Where an asset is in its lifecycle is important to know because every asset needs different maintenance activities depending upon its age and condition. But not every asset has the same lifecycle or needs the same maintenance interventions at the same time.

With so many pieces of equipment, machinery and other infrastructure assets to consider, it's nearly impossible to keep this all in your head. The solution – add preventive maintenance (PM) tasks to your CMMS.

PM tasks can be automatically set up as a work order and placed on a technician’s schedule. Tying your preventative maintenance tasks to your CMMS is important because it enables your maintenance personnel to quickly see all the work done on an asset at any given time.

Having this asset-centric point of view allows organizations to gain better insight into where their assets are in their lifecycle and make data-backed decisions on whether repairs or replacements are needed, and when.

Improve budgeting, productivity, and more

By looking at an asset – instead of just a work order – maintenance organizations can “see” the deterioration more thoroughly through the collective maintenance that has been performed. This can help inform capital and operational plans as assets need different levels of maintenance depending on their age and condition.

With new assets, there are often fewer operational costs (mostly preventive). But as each asset ages, it needs more maintenance to continue to be reliable. Eventually there comes a point when it no longer makes financial or operational sense to maintain the asset. Having the insights to predict when this will occur can make capital planning easier and more accurate, while also reducing any unnecessary downtime or service impacts for your citizens.

But the benefits don’t stop with just budgeting.

Organizations can use their insights to compare maintenance requests being made to the personnel assigned to handle those requests. Too few resources reduce the level of service. By sharing that information, decision makers can understand the tradeoffs and impacts of staffing levels.
With all asset information in one place, it is easier to understand the total cost of ownership, which helps with strategic decision-making.
You can show the number of requests that go uncompleted, adding to your deferred maintenance backlog.
You can use the information to provide a business case for replacement over repair.
You can see maintenance trends on an asset, potentially identifying a larger problem that would otherwise have gone undetected.

Additional ways to enhance insights

To gain additional insights about your public assets, consider adding sensors to your most critical assets or tracking energy usage. Sensors can provide insights before something bad happens by operating based on a set of assumptions for efficient and safe operation of the asset.

For example, sensors can alert you when storm drains are clogged and water is backing up or warn that a piece of equipment is running hot. These alerts can provide targeted actions that can avoid costly disasters.

Another way to gain additional insights is to track energy (water and/or electricity) usage by asset. An increase in energy usage could signal that an asset is starting to deteriorate. It also shows where the “energy hogs” are in your asset portfolio and can also help prioritize asset replacement to reduce energy costs. Lastly, it can save you money from billing errors by highlighting unusual charges.

Conclusion

Gaining insights into your public assets is a critical step toward smarter decision-making, improved budgeting, and better operational efficiency. By leveraging the data you’re already collecting and incorporating tools like preventive maintenance schedules and energy tracking, you can extend asset lifecycles, reduce costs, and prevent unexpected failures.

But this is just one stage of the journey. To fully optimize your asset management strategy, it’s important to start with a strong foundation. If you haven’t already, check out the first blog in this series— Exploring the Foundational Stage of Asset Management for Government—to learn how accurate data and a solid CMMS setup can set you up for long-term success.

Or to learn more about Brightly Software’s complete Asset Management for Government solution, click here.