Building an Asset Management Program From the Middle

Seth McClure, PE; Asset Manager; Madison Water Utility

Brief Overview . . . • Most Asset Management Systems are instituted from the

top:o Consent Decree from the EPAo City Leadershipo Demographic changes or budget demands

• Or the bottom (assembled from the practices of the rank and file)

• We are trying to grow it from the middle (the data analyst, engineers, and planners)

The Role of The Asset Manager

Change & Change Management

Change is hard because people overestimate the value of what they have—and underestimate the value of what they may gain by giving that up.

—James Belasco and Ralph Stayer

Madison Water Utility by the Numbers

• 65,000 customers

• Since 1882!

• Over 800 miles of main

• 100 miles of main replaced

in the last 10 years

• 30 reservoirs

• 22 deep wells

• 10 separate pressure zones

• 1 official song: https://youtu.be/Q-nGU5d7lY4

• 0 Lead Pipes

MWU Asset Management To Date

• Condition assessments

• Project priorities• Capacity planning• Financial models

MWU Asset Management To Date• Well developed GIS• Many historical

records• Intensive data

gathering and modernization effort

MWU Asset Management To Date

Relationship with UW stats group:• Proportional Hazard• Machine Learning• Probability Density Functions

Current challenges:• Still clarifying Levels of Service• Data being produced at a furious clip (> 65,000 records every 15

minutes) but unsure on how best to utilize• Struggling with how to use data in decision making

(KPI’s, Cost/Benefit, etc.)• Have not incorporated business case evaluation for CIP or O&M

projects

Primarily: our asset management efforts have evolved separately by division—there is no cohesive program.

• Strategic asset management plan

• Roadmap for implementation• Pilot asset management plan for

well facilities

• Implementing CityWorks as CMMS

• Risk registers for well and pipeline assets

• Asset Management vocabulary as the lingua franca of MWU

What have we accomplished?

• AM began as the idea of a few employee champions—looking to expand outward

• Staff is largely skeptical• Leadership is supportive but skeptical• Most importantly:

There is no perceived need for an AM system

Right now our financial model covers our O&M and CIP requirements . . . ish.

What are the primary hurdles?

What should we do next?

First, are there other industries that:

A. Are not in financial distress?B. Have deep traditions on how decisions are made.C. Very deferential to seniority and experience.D. Could benefit from dataE. But are deeply distrustful of it . . .

Someone actually wrote a book (and made a movie) about it . . .

• Written by Michael Lewis

• Essentially a book about Asset Management as applied to baseball

• Plot summary: the Oakland A’s, finding themselves with limited resources, embark on a way to win more games. Along the way they use data to challenge long-held assumptions about what makes a player valuable and what qualities contribute most to winning.

A quote I found helpful:You could count on one hand the number of [asset managers] inside of baseball, and none of them seems to have had much effect. After a while they seemed more like fans who second guessed the general manager than advisors who influenced decisions. They were forever waving printouts to show how foolish the GM had been not to have taken their advice . . . .

From: Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, Michael Lewis, W.W. Norton and Co., New York, 2004

What then should we do next? (Part II)

• Just like MLB, the problem is not a lack of data . . .

• We need to change the decision making process

. . . But how do we do that?

The Desired State

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The Current State

• Mapping• Water Supply• Engineering• Water Quality• Customer Service• O&M• Utility Leadership• Finance

Representatives from all divisions at MWU must be part of the AM planning process.

What has to change?

Some Lessons Learned:

“That not how we’ve always

done it.”

“I’m lazy and don’t want to

learn anything.”≠

Some Lessons Learned:

“That not how we’ve always

done it.”

“I have a carefully developed system that works well for me.”

=

Some Lessons Learned:

• Focus should not be on demonstrating error or incompetence.

• Instead focus on how Asset Management can help them increase their capabilities.

• AM began as the idea of a few employee champions—looking to expand outward

• Staff is largely skeptical• Leadership is supportive but skeptical• Most importantly:

There is no perceived need for an AM system

Right now our financial model covers our O&M and CIP requirements . . . ish.

What are the primary hurdles?

• Strategic asset management plan

• Roadmap for implementation• Pilot asset management plan for

well facilities

• Implementing CityWorks as CMMS

• Risk registers for well and pipeline assets

• Asset Management vocabulary as the lingua franca of MWU

What have we accomplished?

Seth McClure, PEMadison Water Utility

smcclure@madisonwater.org

April 29 – May 2, 2018Baltimore Marriott Waterfront