How to develop your entire Asset Prioritization Master Plan

This stores your asset information in a single location, giving you a definitive system of record for your assets. It can include locations of assets; their physical properties such as length, diameter, material, and year of installation; the type of soil; installation details; contractor's name; and much more.

Assets may be linear (e.g. pipes, manholes, valves, etc.) and vertical (e.g. treatment plants, pump stations, tanks, etc.). For vertical assets, hierarchical structures can be used to support components of the overall asset.

You can record the history and condition of each asset into a chronological record of asset degradation – so you can identify pipes that have recurring problems, or monitor the rate of degradation.

The condition can be based on visual inspection, acoustic, electric, radar, or other observation types. You can visualize all your condition assessments, including FELL and CCTV video, from within the application.

Likelihood of Failure (LoF) is a measurement of each asset's potential to no longer perform its function within a time period. LoF may correlate with an asset's age or condition (see previous bullet) or may be determined by artificial intelligence/machine learning (AI/ML).

Consequence of Failure (CoF) indicates the impact to the community or your overall system, should an asset fail. This can be reduction in or loss of service, damage to properties or lives, or other negative impacts. CoF can also be service-related, such as inadequacy to provide adequate pressure or inability to handle necessary flows. Redundancy (ability for another asset to fully or partially stand in for a failed asset) can also factor into the magnitude of the CoF, and therefore into the Total Risk of an asset. With InfoAsset Planner it's easy to make these calculations according to your individual risk strategy.

The time remaining before an asset ceases to perform its function. It may fail hydraulically such that it can no longer meet an expected Level of Service (pressures or flows), or structurally such that it can no longer transport water/wastewater, or it may fail partially in a number of ways. InfoAsset Planner deterioration modeling includes several accepted equations for calculating RUL based on a variety of criteria and conditions. Input variables to RUL calculations are typically found in the asset registry, condition assessment, and risk assessments (the bullets above). The results of your deterioration models can provide additional data points to be used in your rehabilitation planning.

Gravity main deterioration model summary.

Deterioration curves.

Calculation of a risk number (often called a Business Risk Exposure, BRE) for each asset is a marriage between LoF and CoF, also often including information on asset redundancy where applicable. InfoAsset Planner supports multiple ways to combine LoF and CoF to result in a BRE.

Similar to a workflow diagram, the decision tree allows you to create Yes/No decision variables in a nested fashion, such that every possible outcome is covered. You can include questions such as: “Was the asset CCTV surveyed?”, “Is the calculated BRE more or less than X”, “Were specific defect types and numbers found?”, and “Was the street with the asset recently paved?”, and many other binary queries.

The result of each question path provides a decision for the assets that match those criteria.

Decisions may range from "Do nothing", or "Conduct further inspections at a recommended date", to specific rehabilitation strategies, and many other recommendations.

Once you have decisions, you can group actions into projects, and prioritize them. You can bring in other information, such as work schedules for other assets (internet cable projects, storm water scheduled projects and so on), or other projects scheduled for the same locations where you need to carry out work.

Up to this point, the focus has been on what to do to each asset. LCCA helps you determine when to apply recommended actions to each asset. You can monetize your risk and forecast costs into the future. LCCA evaluates the cost to operate, maintain, repair and replace pipes – these are the Total Ownership Costs for a pipe.

This analysis allows you to more strategically evaluate the optimal time for intervention, from an economic standpoint.

Once each asset has an action and a time for action determined, projects must be funded. This may include development of a rate case, investigation into pros/cons of bonds and Agency bond ratings, financial load balancing, and much more. Follow your individual organization's process.

InfoAsset Planner can generate work orders and calendars for crews, which can be seamlessly pushed back to your CMMS for action.