Do you have an asset management plan? 

An Asset Management Program (AMP) is a document(s) developed by a Utility, typically alongside a certified Civil Engineer, to help utilities create a detailed financial and managerial plan of what it will realistically cost to support the creation, operation, maintenance, replacement and upgrade of infrastructure assets over time.  
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Infrastructure assets help to deliver essential utility services that American’s rely on everyday like water, electricity, power, and our sewer collection systems. So the maintenance of these assets isn’t just an essential service, but also one that concerns public health and safety.

Since these assets are typically extremely expensive to manufacture, install, and maintain, these assets typically require a major investment from the state and local governments. This is why utilities themselves and their continued produce are important for economic development, for cities, states, and towns, and why public companies like American Water are interested in purchasing these assets. 
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Utility operators must create plans to proactively maintain, repair, and upgrade these expensive infrastructure assets, because fixing them reactively is much more expensive, and increases the cost of operation. An expensive cost of operation can lead to the need to increase rates. 
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Per the Indiana Finance Authority, asset management plans are supposed to be “living documents” that are regularly referenced, revised, expanded, and implemented as an integral part of the operation and management of a Utility’s system. 
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However, given the current paradigms for how asset management plans are delivered today, executing on a living document is nearly impossible. For a busy utility operator who might be exercising a hard to find gate valve, a 3-ring binder doesn’t allow them to have the asset management plan in the palm of their hand. 
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Ziptility helps engineers and utility operators deliver a mobile asset management plan, through our mobile asset management software so that all operations and maintenance activities are preprogrammed into a map and delivered through mobile devices to field crews for them to complete in real-time. 
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A Digital Asset Management Plan
The industry has been waiting for the benefits of technology to finally come into the utility industry, and now with Ziptility, we give utility operators the ability to have a digital asset management plan. This turns the static asset management plan into a living document, like the Indiana Finance Authority describes.

It creates a single platform for utility operators to schedule reactive and proactive maintenance on their assets, so that they can use SRF funds wisely and invest in their water distribution network and collection system efficiently. 
A Digital Asset Management Plan is a combination of a GIS Mapping Software plus Mobile Asset Management software in a single application that allows for record keeping, communication, and completion of critical asset management requirements in a single software solution.  
All assets are linked, coordinated on, and visualized by their GPS location on a map.

All assets should have detailed information relating to their age, their condition, their material, their size, the criticality of failure, their remaining useful life, and any upcoming or pre-existing maintenance on every asset.

This allows busy utility operators to be forward thinking, to plan ahead and to not be stuck responding to reactive events, like main breaks, water leaks, and emergency repairs.  

Asset Management Plan Requirements

Asset management plans are broken up into three sections: technical, managerial, and financial. 
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The Indiana Finance Authority requires that the asset management plan have the following requirements: 
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- System map 
- An inventory and assessment of system assetsDevelopment of an infrastructure inspection, repair, and maintenance plan, including a plan for funding such activities 
- An analysis of the customer rates necessary to support the AMP
- An Audit performed every two years
- Demonstration of the technical, managerial, legal and financial
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Most utilities have some form of system map whether it’s in their GIS software or on a paper-based map on a wall. They usually have an inventory of their assets in their water utility asset management software or in the form of paper based cards that they store in filing cabinets.

And if you asked a really experienced operator, they have a plan and probably paper forms for how they inspect their infrastructure, and perform their work orders, and service requests, with records of those also in their filing cabinets.

But if you asked them if they had a “Living document” of what’s going on in their system, showing them things that are updated in real-time. What work has been done to what assets, by who, and at what time? You will find very few utility operators in the country with this capability because it hasn’t existed.

Digital Asset Management Plan