ViewPoints
Moving from the Bookshelf to Intelligent Deliverables
Integrating Engineering and Asset Management

by Andrew Wiens, P.Eng.
     David Watt, C.E.T., O.L.S., O.L.I.P.

Since January 1, 2009, PSAB (Public Sector Accounting Board) 3150 has required municipalities to report on the depreciated / historical value of all of their tangible capital assets, moving municipalitiestoward a full asset management regime. To complete the asset management circle, it is now time to integrate engineering and asset management. Why? Asset Managers manage asset location, condition, type, and value. Engineers design solutions to problems, and the solutions, once built, become assets that need to be managed.

Virtual tour of pump station is available through AssetNav,Associated Engineering’s asset management software.

Municipalities need to collect the necessary data for all the existing assets under their control. Engineers typically provide paper record reportsand drawings as finished products for new capital assets. The type of delivery doesn’t easily integrate new assets being engineered and constructed with the asset management process. Municipalities must find, collect, and enter asset information for a new facility into an asset management database. Meanwhile engineers move on to otherassignments, taking with them extensive corporate memory andunderstanding of the facility. This knowledge extends beyond the pipes and fixtures, but also includes an understanding of the criticality of the individual components as part of the overall product.

Associated Engineering advocates moving beyond paper record reports and drawings. Building on and integrating with our full asset management services, our engineering teams now prepare asset management data integrated with their project deliverables, all available in electronic, fully searchable, intelligent format.

Our asset management team uses non-proprietary software that allows clients to easily integrate the new asset data into their existing asset management system. While additional effort is involved in preparing an intelligent deliverable, municipalities benefit because they no longer have to find, collect, and enter the new data, which ultimately frees up time for municipal staff to focus on other issues. Intelligent deliverables also allow the corporate memory of the design team to be captured and included in the asset database.

So, what are these intelligent deliverables? At a minimum, intelligent deliverables consist of a spatial and asset attribute database which includes the necessary location, description, and valuation of assets for any given project. This deliverable mechanism allows for the direct integration of critical asset information into the clients’ existing asset management database. Associated Engineering has further augmented our intelligent deliverables with advanced visualization techniques of facilities, such as pump station or treatment plants.These virtual tours allow municipal staff to tour the facility from any location with an internet connection. This allows staff to identify required equipment, parts, and access needs prior to visiting the facility for maintenance. These systems and deliverables include hyperlinked record drawings, specifications, and asset management data. This allows municipal staff to directly access relevant PDF drawings and product specifications on an asset specific or asset network basis and tounderstand adjacent components and their condition and performance.

Associated Engineering has also provided intelligent deliverables on planning studies. For example, on master drainage plans, we can provide clients with GIS-format deliverables.The GIS deliverable can include proposed location, diameter, service area, low impact development requirements, and so on. This information can be directly integrated into a municipality’s GIS system, and allows municipal staff to view the recommended plan in relation to other asset condition, performance, and condition data. This significantly reduces the need to find and review reports on a bookshelf or paper file system, and facilitates identification of potential conflicts with other planned work. Furthermore these deliverables allow our clients to make sound and transparent asset replacement and rehabilitation decisions in view of all relevant information on a dynamic basis.

At the end of the day, the real objective of intelligent deliverables i sto assist our clients in the strategic management of their assets. Municipalities invest in the intellectual knowledge provided by engineering reports and design. Producing an intelligent deliverable provides much easier access to the finished product or the recommended solution. Access to information is quite literally at their fingertips.

If you would like to see a demonstration of how Associated Engineering has integrated intelligent deliverables and asset management, please contact David Watt at wattd@ae.ca.

David Watt, C.E.T., O.L.S., O.L.I.P. is a SeniorGIS/Asset Management Specialist and Manager of our GIS/Asset Management Group. He has over 20 years experience in asset and infrastructuremanagement, and capital and pollution control planning both in municipal government and now as a Senior GIS/Asset Management Specialist with Associated Engineering.

Andrew Wiens, P.Eng. is a Water Resources Engineer with six years of experience encompassing stormwater management, flood control, and infrastructure engineering. He has recently focused on applying GIS to stormwater management planning, modeling, and design.