What is Asset Management, and Why a Newsletter?

What is Asset Management?

Asset Management is a disciplined approach to making sure things work the way we need them to work.?Since the dawn of time, our ancestors managed assets starting with the sticks and stones they used to protect themselves and get things done.?This newsletter will focus on asset management as a disciplined approach, that is the “management of assets” and not “managing assets”.?This distinction seems nuanced, but as covered in the short paper published by the International Standards Organization (ISO) Technical Committee 251 on Asset Management titled:?Managing Assets in the Context of Asset Management (link below), this nuance provides perspective to help organizations understand what is meant by disciplined asset management.

https://committee.iso.org/sites/tc251/home/news/content-left-area/news-and-updates/new-article-managing-assets-in-t.html

This newsletter will explore the topic of asset management through the lens of facility assets.?Facility assets enable all that we are able to do each day.?Most people don’t think about facility assets from a management perspective, which is a tribute to how well Facility Asset Managers are doing their jobs.?

Today our assets and the problems they solve go beyond the sticks and stones our ancestors cared about.?They involve where and how we live, work, and what we can achieve.?In doing so, they enable all the good we can accomplish.?On regional, national, and global scales facility assets directly contribute to our productivity, economies, safety, security, and wellbeing.?On enterprise levels, facility asset management is critical to responding to and rebounding from the COVID pandemic, mitigating impacts caused by climate change, and will play a role helping the US address its crushing national debt.?

Today our problems are bigger and more complex.?This necessitates we revisit how we approach asset management.?This newsletter will consider this topic by first recognizing ISO 55000 ?- Asset Management System standards as a culminating authority for disciplined asset management.?This international standard series builds on a management system pedigree that has improved the life of everyone walking the planet today.?

For example, W. Edward Demings’ vision for modern industrial systems (e.g., the Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle) that helped to rebuild Japan after World War II was foundational to the first and still most widely used management system standard, ISO 9000 on Quality Management. ?Implementation of this standard helped the manufacturing, health care, and technology sectors improve the quality of their products and services across the world – and thus improving the lives of everyone today.??ISO 55000 is a follow-on standard that focuses on the management of assets with the same ambition.?It defines asset management as the:

“Coordinated activity of an organization to realize value from assets”

This sounds straightforward, but because the definition is so broad it is difficult to relate it to a specific set of assets.?This newsletter seeks to clarify asset management as a management discipline and show how it can be applied to the management of facility assets and built infrastructure.?To do so the newsletter will rally around a fundamental concept for asset management also contained in ISO 55000.?This concept is:

“Asset Management does not focus on the asset, but on the value that the asset can provide to the organization.”

This concept is the essence of asset management and all that it can be.?Understanding the meaning behind this concept answers the question: What is asset management??

Why a Newsletter?

My name is Jack Dempsey and I have over 30 years’ experience as an asset manager.?For the first two decades I was a Facility Asset Manager serving in the US Coast Guard as an Officer and Civil Engineer.?Over the last decade I have supported the advancement and implementation of asset management from the private sector as an Executive, Director, Consultant, Advisor, Convenor, Researcher, Author, and Board Member.?Across this time, I have learned many things about the discipline of facility asset management, to include learning many lessons the hard way.?The purpose of this newsletter is to share what I have learned and to introduce others to facility asset management as a disciplined approach.?

This newsletter’s first publication coincides with the release of the US National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM)?Strategies to Renew Federal Facilities.?This report can be downloaded for free at: https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/26806/strategies-to-renew-federal-facilities

I was the Vice Chair of this study, and I am proud of its contribution to the advancement of Facility Asset Management.?Much of this newsletter will reflect on this report and share what it has to offer building off prior NASEM studies. These studies have defined the practice of Facility Asset Management in the US Government and have influenced its practice far beyond.?

Beginning newsletter topics will use this NASEM lens to uncover a foundation for disciplined Facility Asset Management.?This will lead into topics related to means and methods, and then on to discussions about the purpose, objectives, and roles we have as Facility Asset Managers. ?

This newsletter has two simple objectives.?The first is to define Facility Asset Management as a discrete, yet integral management discipline organizations can benefit from.?The second is to introduce insights, models, methods, and techniques that Facility Asset Managers may find helpful.?

This newsletter will apply a systems’ thinking approach.?This comes from my education as an engineer that conditioned the way I solve problems.?As an engineer I learned to solve large problems by first breaking them down into little, solvable problems, and then to assemble these little solutions in a way to optimize outcomes solving larger problems.?Later in my professional journey, I learned that these problem-solving techniques can also be applied to large scale management system improvements.?The NASEM Strategies to Renew Federal Facilities and this newsletter refer to this approach as “management system thinking”.

The reason why I am motivated to write this newsletter is because when I started my journey as a Facility Asset Manager there was little guidance on the topic available.?Years ago, as a starting Civil Engineer and Facility Manager I didn’t even know that Facility Asset Management was a thing.?Lucky for us today, there are a many excellent sources covering many asset management topics.?

So simply for me, this newsletter is an opportunity to help others and a way to say thank you to all those who helped me understand the Facility Asset Management way.?

If this newsletter is helpful to you, please like and repost it.?You can also find more information on the topic of Facility Asset Management by visiting www.assetmanagementpartnership.com.?I welcome your feedback and input for future newsletter topics.

Copyright ? by the Asset Management Partnership, 2023.?All rights reserved.