Geoff Bartholomew has over a decade of experience in local government asset management, including playing a key role in the development and use of the Asset Design As Constructed (ADAC) standard, which is now supported and managed nationally by the IPWEA. In October 2012 Geoff founded independent asset management consultancy, Lion Systems.
Can you tell us about your background in asset management?
I worked in the rail industry for over 20 years, focusing mainly on maintenance management, service delivery and business process improvement. When starting within local government [in Queensland] around 14 years ago, it was quite a natural transition to a career in asset management in this new environment. Even though the focus for councils is primarily on civil infrastructure and public facilities (including the related services they provide), there was a strong affinity with the commercial rail industry and a common business need for cost-effective lifecycle management of the various assets in use.
After eight years working within local councils, I spent four years as an independent asset management consultant. Over this period I found there to be a significant gap and a need for organisations to improve the way they maintained and presented their asset information. Quite simply, if they couldn’t do that first step properly, they couldn’t actually do the planning and strategic management at all well either. It seemed to me that it was often back to front; they were trying very hard to apply strategic asset management principles, without really knowing a lot about what they were managing on the ground including actual performance, condition or practical suitability. That was really the driver for establishing Lion Systems.
Are there any frequently occurring areas of improvement in local government asset management practices that you come across?
One of the key issues is the absence of robust business systems, often seeing critical activities revolving around one or two individuals. When people move on during their careers the knowledge and systems go with them, ultimately requiring the organisation to start again from scratch. Turning that around is a matter of setting those processes up properly. More importantly this needs to be at an appropriate level for the scale of the organisation, so when someone else comes in to the process they are ready to pick up where the last person left off.
You were involved with the development of the IPWEA-supported Asset Design As Constructed (ADAC) Standard. What is the ADAC system, and what was your involvement in its development?
ADAC is designed to provide a common standard and supporting process for transmitting all the important information about new assets to the asset managers within councils and water utilities. This is done by converting 'as-constructed' plans into a compliant digital file that contains all the essential information to record, value and manage the particular assets involved.
On first starting work in local government, I was heavily involved with managing information on all new infrastructure donated to the council by developers. At this time the majority of local authorities had limited systems in place to effectively receive and manage this data. I was lucky enough to be part of a regional collaboration project with an innovative group of around 10 people from three different local authorities – Noosa Council, Maroochy Shire Council and Caloundra City Council. This working group, formed in 2001, was the originator of what is now the ADAC process.
How has ADAC progressed since then?
The ADAC system has continued to grow since those early days of development. In fact, it almost outgrew itself, quickly becoming difficult to manage as a project by our small team of council employees. We were getting a lot of intra- and interstate enquiries and it was evident that it had the capacity to be advanced as a sustainable business model. The IPWEA – through (IPWEA Queensland CEO) Suzanna Barnes-Gillard – put their hand up to manage ADAC and to promote and share it across Australia. Since the IPWEA became involved seven years ago, they have essentially become the steward for ADAC across Australia.
My own support to the project has been mainly around overall process implementation. The actual technical components, including the ADAC data model and digital transmission tools has continued to develop and has involved numerous council technicians and external specialists over the past 13 years, including our own staff. To these ends, Lion Systems now works closely with the IPWEA in assisting organisations with the introduction and implementation of ADAC processes and the associated technical tools to help gain all the available benefits from the system.
What services does Lion Systems provide?
While we provide councils and water utilities with strategic asset management assistance covering asset and service planning, including guidance on the mitigation of a broad spectrum of associated risks, we tend to focus strongly on the basics and the establishment of a strong foundation. This translates to helping councils and water utilities appropriately collect, present, value and analyse information about their assets. As a business, Lion Systems is skilled and experienced in the use of asset information management tools such as geographic information systems (GIS), asset management systems and other associated tools that are all primary to these outcomes.
Lastly I must say that it has been extremely rewarding for all those who have been involved with ADAC over past years to see it becoming more and more of a national initiative by the month. While the system is used predominately in south-east Queensland we have also been working with a number of councils in the north of the state and more recently in South Australia. Additionally, national vendors of civil design software and survey tools, as well as a range of providers of GIS and asset management systems have embraced the process and are continuing to integrate ADAC tools into their own range of products.
Under the IPWEA’s direction, ADAC is now well supported and more widely understood with a rapidly growing number of councils and water utilities implementing the system.