Nicola Daaboul is passionate about asset management.
The Coordinator of Asset Systems at Bankstown City Council, Daaboul gave a presentation titled Improving the Way We Work – A Young Engineer’s Perspective at the recent IPWEA NSW Division Conference.
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The young engineer was also honoured with the David Abbott Award, for engineers and public works professionals aged 35 and under.
intouch chatted with Daaboul about “closing the loop” in asset management at Bankstown City Council and how young engineers can make their mark on the industry.
intouch: Why do you think it's important that young engineers have their voices heard, and are active in the workplace?
Daaboul: Young engineers provide fresh eyes in the industry. We tend to see things from a different perspective that can provide opportunities to become more efficient, more effective and we generally want to improve the way we do things. Our youth and enthusiasm is an advantage because we have willingness to learn and the ability to rapidly adapt to new knowledge.
We need to provide young engineers with an opportunity to be heard or to contribute to the industry as we are the future of the industry, and if we don’t do this we risk losing young engineers, as they will turn to other professions that provide them an opportunity to be heard.
intouch: What is it that excites you about asset management?
Daaboul: I’m passionate about asset management because it provides us with an opportunity to think smarter. It also provides us with a mechanism to learn how to be able to successfully maintain and operate infrastructure within acceptable service levels, balanced against available funding, and about and implementing improved practices within organisations that result in informed decisions that will better serve our environment and the community.
I’m excited about asset management because it allows me to help people to better manage their infrastructure that future generations will enjoy.
intouch: What are some aspects of asset management you think most councils could improve on?
Daaboul: I think we are all busy being busy that we sometimes forget what drives us. The focus for the industry at the moment is to be “fit for the future” however, I don’t believe that it’s really about being “fit for the future” but understanding your purpose. If I were to ask you if you knew what your purpose was, could you answer me?
My first boss once said to me, ‘working for the council means that you are working for the community, so every day I want you to tell me one thing that you did for the community’. I couldn’t go home until I had answered the question!
I think that councils could improve by remembering what we are here to do, what our purpose is, and by shifting our focus, I truly believe our asset management practices will improve, because we will be focusing on what is important and relevant to the communities we serve.
intouch: Tell me about the idea of "closing the loop": what was the problem at Bankstown, and how was it solved?
Daaboul: Bankstown had a lot of information about its assets sitting in different places, in different forms, managed by different people who were reluctant to share their knowledge.
The focus was on collecting asset information rather than using it. We didn’t have one ‘source of truth’ for asset data, nor did we have an asset register in the sense of having one place to go to find the information we were looking for. Our customer service practices were great at the front line, but disappeared into the organisation as soon as the call was over. We couldn’t close the loop.
So about 18 months ago Bankstown embarked on a journey to streamline its works, ordering and customer request processes by automating as many tasks as possible and by making the relevant information available to field staff through mobile devices (tablets, smartphones and the like), as well as providing instant feedback to the community.
What Bankstown City Council wanted (and is now implementing) was an automated, end-to-end, workflow management platform that would enable staff to receive and monitor the progress of a customer service request whilst producing work tasks and work history that have been measured and costed, and could be reported back to the customer in a timely fashion. The solution would combine flexible service delivery, asset and financial management with adequate real-time customer feedback.
As a result, Bankstown was able to close the loop.
intouch: Do you think this is a situation common across a lot of councils?
Daaboul: Yes, I think there are elements of Bankstown’s situation that are common to all local government organisations. We are all striving to be able to successfully maintain and operate infrastructure assets within acceptable service levels, balanced against available funding, and this has always presented a challenge for local government and community focused organisations. We are all at different levels of maturity, some are doing elements of this really well, whereas some are really struggling.
intouch: How do you think councils and workplaces can ensure young engineers are given the best possible start to their careers?
Daaboul: I think as employers we need to provide people in leadership roles the opportunity to lead. Empathy, inclusion, involvement and shared meaning will help your organisation to thrive.
To ensure young engineers are given the best possible start to their careers, you need to provide them with opportunities to be challenged – how can you expect us to rise to the challenge if you don’t challenge us? We want to do well. You need to create a culture within your organisation that embraces our differences, inspires collaboration and motivates and innovates change.