Asset Management Strategies Research Articles

System Dynamics Model for the Improvement Planning of School Building Conditions

As the number of aged infrastructures increases every year, a systematic and effective asset management strategy is required. One of the most common analysis methods for preparing an asset management strategy is life cycle cost analysis (LCCA). Most LCCA-related studies have focused on traffic and energy; however, few studies have focused on school buildings. Therefore, an approach should be developed to increase the investment efficiency for the performance improvement of school buildings. Planning and securing budgets for the performance improvement of school building is a complex task that involves various factors, such as current conditions, deterioration behavior and maintenance effect. Therefore, this study proposes a system dynamics (SD) model for the performance improvement of school buildings by using the SD method. In this study, an SD model is used to support efficient decision-making through policy effect analysis, from a macro-perspective, for the performance improvement of school buildings.

Strategically Measuring Quality of Existing Building Stock

Dutch housing corporations generally have two methods of assessing the strategic value of existing housing stock. The first is by calculating the financial return on investments with a life expectancy of fifty to sixty years. The second method is to balance the technical quality against maintenance and renovation planning. A Dutch housing corporation needed a integrated method, so in a single case study, a new method was developed based on research on how to monitor the technical and financial assets better.
 
 Four problems were detected: (1) the existing strategy did not seem to be resilient to future changes, (2) there was no instrument for measuring progress, (3) there was no way to translate strategic data to individual estates and (4) there was no instrument for monitoring the results of improvements set off against the strategic goals. 
 
 With one integrated tool to fix these four problems, an integrated approach to a closed asset management strategy and policy would be available. Such a tool would make it possible to make adjustments to the strategy based on facts gained by measuring the results of former adjustments to the strategy. The goal of this paper is to present the research supporting the design of a new model. 
 
 The result, the so called Return Matrix, is a fully elaborated model. It supports the management team in decision making about strategy (five years) and vision (twenty years) development. It creates insight into and support for the outcome of the strategy among policy professionals, staff and colleagues. And finally, it creates understanding among the tenants, it s understood and supported by the civil servants and gets approval and agreement of cooperation from the municipal executives. 
 
 With the knowledge gained by this study, it will not be difficult to compose the instrument for other cases too.

Optimal contracting strategies for public-lighting asset management:A case study from Iran

Public-lighting is a prominent subsector of the electricity distribution network. Removing upcoming challenges of the public-lighting system is an important necessity in network expansion planning. The public-lighting management structure is composed of three main participants: the regulatory unit, lighting managers, and private contractors. Each participant faces challenges in achieving its aims. This study investigates challenges in the areas of human resource management, cost estimation, price assignment, and time scheduling for private-sector contracting. Applying the reliability model of public-lighting lamps, the health status of lamps during the system operation is forecasted. In addition, to give a comprehensive solution for the mentioned challenges, the proposed strategies are optimized in terms of cost and risk. The results of this case study of the public-lighting system demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed method in alleviating the challenges of public-lighting managers, including optimal assignment of price and duration of contracts. In addition, the operating cost of the public-lighting system, an important challenge for lighting contractors, is minimized via a human resource management scheme.

Road infrastructure asset management strategy and its impact on the environment

The development of the economic sector is determined by services to the public through reforms that aim to place public satisfaction through the management of road infrastructure assets. Some research on road infrastructure assets still requires a deepening of studies related to the delivery of public services related to asset management systems. The purpose of this study is to find an appropriate road infrastructure asset management strategy through an integrated asset management system and asset management policies that can provide public satisfaction. This comprehensive approach to management strategies ensures that the performance of service provider assets is in line with the expectations of stakeholders including road users. This descriptive qualitative research is based on the perspective of road users as respondents, consisting of vehicle drivers from 50 transportation companies (people or goods) through interviews and observations. The results show aspects of asset performance based on the user’s perspective there are five aspects, namely productivity, efficiency, effectiveness, use of resources and institutions and this performance is integrated in the asset management system related to policies from the management authority through service delivery namely quality and mobility, risk and use and maintenance of resources. The conclusion of this research is that road infrastructure asset services can be improved through the concept of road infrastructure asset management strategies in an integrated management system with five aspects of performance and more directed towards asset management policies related to the provision of road infrastructure asset services.

Asset management strategy for HAZ cracking caused by sigma-phase and creep embrittlement in 304H stainless steel piping

This study aims to develop an asset management strategy to address weld cracking on 304H austenitic stainless-steel piping welded with 308H filler metal. The 304H NPS 16 outlet line from the primary reformer fired heater to the primary reformer which operates in high temperature service at around 620 °C was the principal case study. A metallurgical evaluation characterized the failure as sigma-phase and creep embrittlement in the heat-affected zone; however, sigma-phase embrittlement was the more predominant damage mechanism. Sigma-phase is the most common intermetallic phase precipitating in austenitic stainless steels. The cracks due to embrittlement were exacerbated by a significant amount of sigma-phase formation, which initiated at the fusion line and propagated at the coarse-grained heat-affected zone which were interconnected with creep voids. Welding procedures were developed using two alternative filler metals, ER16-8-2 and ER19-10H, as a repair option and for new fabrication. The philosophy was to reduce the sigma-phase formation by controlling the heat input; thereby limiting the ferrite; and the probability for embrittlement. The results from the mechanical and metallurgical examination of the welded specimens proved that the ER16-8-2 filler metal possessed superior resistance to sigma-phase formation. Acoustic emission testing and a combination of field metallographic replication and ferrite testing were identified as the most effective predictive technologies to detect the incipient cracking.

Building Services in the Environmental Landscape

Historically, most of the development comes from the environmental possibilism theory of the possibility that can be drawn from the requirement of the client’s vision, which is mainly for business purposes within the landscape market. The built construction involving any type of facility would undergo the environmental process as part of project management that always occurs from start to finish using a methodology in alignment with the country’s statutory law requirements. However, engineering management of building services which are at the heart of any building facility must be right from the design up to the construction stage, and later for maintenance need to be addressed by the architects, structural engineer, environmental engineer, and the building services engineer to provide the client’s requirements. An example was presented in the author’s article, “Environmental Possibilism” CEAI ViewPoint, March 2018, which discussed the environmental perspective and innovation within the socio-cultural development as well as its implication that contributes the climate change because of the collected pollution generated from various building structures as discussed in another article by the author, “Environmental Engineering in Built-Up Areas” CEAI ViewPoint, December 2019. Building Services are the essential elements and in them, the designs of Life Safety and Property Protection systems for a skyscraper building are a multi-disciplinary effort refer “Skyscraper Fire Protection, an Asset Management Strategy” CEAI ViewPoint, June 2018, which covers the importance of fire engineering and management systems designed by building services engineers specialized in the HVAC, Electrical, Fire Protection, and Public Health Engineering including Building Instrumentation & Controls, and Information Technology.

Modeling Multi-Layer OHL Conductors Undergoing Wind-Induced Motion

Utilities aim to improve asset management strategies and enhance the utilization of their assets through low-risk reliable practices. Overhead lines and conductor designs have been evolving to increase systems' power capacity and mechanical integrity, which have also extended asset lifetimes. Nevertheless, it is still challenging to predict a conductor's fatigue stresses due to wind-induced vibrations that can help to estimate its useful life. A finite element model (FEM) has been established in COMSOL to study the free and forced wind-induced vibrations and the resultant fatigue on single multi-layer conductors considering their complex round and trapezoidal stranding patterns. The FEM analysis is based on multi-physics accounting for the conductor's thermal and mechanical aspects as well as material and geometry properties. Consequently, the fatigue is quantified for both inter-layer and inter-wire interactions. The simulations show that free conductor vibrations are dictated by the conductor materials and tension distribution between the core and aluminum strands. The bigger the difference between the material properties of the core and aluminum, the lesser the conductor vibrations, especially when the aluminum becomes slack. In fact, a conductor equipped with carbon core (ACCC), has the best vibration resistance among other conductors with steel core (ACSR) and homogeneous (AAACs). Forced vibration simulations identified non-linear fatigue stresses for round and trapezoidal designs, which is more pronounced in larger conductor sizes. Larger trapezoidal ACSRs exhibit better fatigue resistance compared to smaller and round stranded AAACs.

The digital worker: how technology is enhancing safety and productivity in the field

The Australian workplace is currently in a state of evolution, from the physical space workers occupy to a way of working and interacting in which we are constantly connected. Technology is becoming cost-effective, making it more affordable at all workforce levels; businesses are investing in enterprise-grade solutions that are transforming both daily activities and long-term asset management strategies. To continue to drive the safety, productivity and cost improvements that our globally competitive market demands, we need to constantly assess technology solutions from outside the industry and adapt them to enhance our service delivery within the oil and gas industry. One such opportunity is the development and use of smartwatches within major hazard facilities. Through in-field trials, work crews are equipped with smartwatches that monitor health and well-being, alerting the worker if their risk of injury becomes elevated. These wearables also provide employees with efficient and effective accounting of personnel with their location in the case of emergency and provide opportunities for improved communication and productivity outcomes. Billions of dollars have been spent developing Australia’s oil and gas infrastructure. Ongoing operations and maintenance of these assets (and possible future expansions) remain labour intensive. With Australia’s comparatively high labour costs and the remoteness of both offshore and onshore resources, we cannot afford to hold back investment in our human assets, to gain deeper insights and optimise health and performance, as we have done in the case of our operating assets and equipment.

Multiparameter-Based Fuzzy Logic Health Index Assessment for Oil-Immersed Power Transformers

The health index scheme can be the most fundamental tool that unifies all transformer condition status information into a singular outcome, thereby enhancing the power transformer asset management and life longevity strategies. This study aims at establishing a multiple parameter-dependent transformer health index estimation model cascaded with a fuzzy logic inference system. This strategy is centered on the effect of dynamic loading regime, varying hotspot temperatures and multiple attesting results of the insulation system. Furthermore, a nonintrusive degree of polymerization (DP) model based on furans and carbon oxide ratios as DP pointers is also factored in developing the health index model. The general outcome of the health index depends on entirely considered elements, but not on any isolated attribute. Data obtained from in-service transformers were used to validate the proposed model. The outcome of the model mirrors the practical condition of the evaluated transformers. Therefore, the proposed health index model can be a vital tool to asset managers and power utilities.

Condition monitoring of in-service oil-filled transformers: Case studies and experience

Transformers are one of the most strategic components in balancing the voltage levels and hence a high priority is given to their performance [1]. It is established that, insulation technology plays a critical role in judging the performance and service life in oil filled apparatus [2]. Performance of the insulation system depends mainly on the deterioration behavior of insulation oil and paper. The mechanisms that are responsible for premature aging of oil/paper insulation are almost the same in all the oil filled apparatus. Yet, there will be a significant difference in the intensity of the aging mechanisms in different apparatus. This intensity is attributable to rating, design, and duration of operation for different machines. The detailed discussions on these mechanisms are presented in the subsequent sections of this paper. However, aging of service insulants is unavoidable and is to be maintained at a lower rate or arrested to the greatest possible extent, such that, catastrophic failures and unscheduled outages may be mitigated [3]. Normally, utilities follow scheduled condition monitoring activities to avoid the consequences of premature aging. Hence, knowledge on these in-service condition monitoring activities will be helpful in understanding the exact deterioration rate of the insulation system. Real time in-service experience of several transformer fleets that belong to United Kingdom utilities are reported in [4]. An early degradation of insulation is noticed through increase in acidity and furan concentration in oil for several transformers in the fleet. Authors investigated this early degradation in different perspectives including loading conditions, manufacturers, and oil chemistry changes. It is inferred that changes in oil chemistry is an important attribute for early degradation and hence utilities are advised to adopt different asset management strategies for affected and unaffected transformers in a fleet. Recently, failure rate data of service aged transformer fleets of an Australian utility were analyzed to establish the relationship between aging and different failure types [5]. It is noticed that degradation of the insulation system will be rapid after 20 years of service aging thus entailing the frequent condition monitoring activities after 20 years to identify premature aging failures.

Grantmaking Foundations’ Asset Management, Payout Rates, and Longevity Under Changing Market Conditions: Results From a Monte Carlo Simulation Study

Today’s uncertain financial markets could affect foundations’ future grantmaking capacities. We review foundations’ financial decision-making patterns and their effect on foundations’ assets, longevity goals, and payouts. Using three fictional foundations with different longevity goals and grantmaking preferences, we demonstrate the delicate balance and tight nexus between asset management strategies, payout rates, and longevity. To do so, we perform stochastic Monte Carlo simulations of multiple foundation life cycles, conducted under diverse capital market scenarios. The findings suggest that foundations should (a) readjust their return expectations to today’s less favorable markets; (b) reduce their reliance on past portfolios’ investment returns or unique “success stories” in making decisions; (c) appreciate the strong interdependence between portfolio-mix, payout rates, and longevity; (d) consider effects of their particular mission/problem area on these parameters; and (e) use tailored projection analyses that simulate various investment strategies, payouts rates, and longevity to meet their grantmaking goals.

Analyzing Parameters That Affect the Reliability of Low-Voltage Cable Grids and Their Applicability in Asset Management

The majority of interruptions in the network of a distribution system operator (DSO) occur at low voltage (LV) levels. Although the number of affected customers is less than that for medium voltage level interruptions, contribution to the annual customer minutes lost is considerable, and the yearly costs of solving the outages are high. Underground LV cables cannot be visually inspected, and monitoring systems are still experimental. In order to improve asset management (AM) for LV cables, it is beneficial for DSOs to be able to perform condition assessments using historical data, in combination with asset and environment data. In this paper, survival analysis is performed using the Cox proportional hazard model. The results of this analysis can be used to identify those variables that predict a relatively high failure probability and to estimate the relative risk of failure for cables. This enables the improvement of AM strategies, such as the preventative replacement of cables. The method presented in this paper shows promising results, allowing for greater insight into the causes of failures.

Main functions for building maintenance management: an outline application

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to present an algorithm of procedures intended for use in building maintenance management (BMM), called SIAPME.Design/methodology/approachWith basis on a literature review, an exploratory practical exercise was carried out, drawing up the SIAPME model and comprising several organisational charts with interconnections.FindingsThis study offers an overview of an alternative set of well-founded and integrated strategies for asset management. Overall, the basic characteristics of the outlined model seem to be in agreement with various existing models.Research limitations/implicationsSIAPME’s ambitious goal is to serve as a well-founded strategic basis for the development of an advanced software solution. However, it still lacks empirical validation, which could be a lengthy process.Practical implicationsThis research can provide a valuable input for a more in-depth discussion on the identification and correction of gaps for many systems currently in use. For instance, it is believed that an eventual SIAPME software solution may have potential for full compatibility with building information models, particularly focusing on the life cycle phase of utilisation, operation and building maintenance.Originality/valueThrough SIAPME procedures, a building manager will be allowed to have a very broad perspective of its functions, covering nearly all the fundamental aspects for efficient and integrated maintenance, with optimal control of all players in the process. As a concept idea and by introducing emerging and technological issues, the model can be advantageous for BMM.

Key Performance Index for Overall Substation Performance

Performance of electrical distribution utilities depends on substations which are serving the end consumers. Consumer demands are mainly focused on the uninterrupted supply of quality power at low cost. These requirements are met by the effective and efficient operation of substations. Substations adopt various asset management strategies and effective maintenance management techniques to improve their overall performance to meet the utility level customer related targets. Focused index to measure the effectiveness these measures are required for performance monitoring and improvements. In the literature reliability based indices are proposed to measure the substation performance. These indices even though provide some insight to the overall substation condition, but do not provide the overall performance centric index depicting the operational (maintenance) effectiveness and efficiency of a substation. In this paper a new performance index called as Overall Substation Effectiveness (OSE) based on Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) and Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) is presented for measuring the substation performance. OSE will provide such a data which enables the organizations to identify the opportunities for improvement in the process.

A Bibliometric Analysis on Costs Estimation of Building Retrofit

Buildings are responsible for approximatively 40% of energy consumptions and 36% of CO2 emissions in the EU. In developed countries, any intervention carried out for buildings’ sustainability improvement is related to energy retrofit. Energy retrofit can be considered as a subset of sustainability management and is one of the key issues to be taken into account for the setup of an effective asset and portfolio management strategy. Among asset management core functions, sustainability management is one of those which must be encompassed in a strategic framework for effectively reaching the goals of the organisation. Within this context, sustainability of buildings should be evaluated according to the environmental, economic and social point of view. These different issues require specific assessment methodologies and metrics. Therefore, in this article, a bibliometric analysis on costs estimation is presented, focusing on Life Cycle Costing methodology for energy retrofit interventions. Articles have been investigated through bibliometric, trend and cluster analysis on a sample of 167 articles. The research has been carried out on one of the most acknowledged databases as Scopus and allowed to identify main trends and dynamics of the scientific literature.

MEASURING PUBLIC ASSET PERFORMANCE USING OUTPUTBASED APPROACH: EVIDENCE FROM INDONESIA

Indonesia’s Central Government 2016 Fiscal Year Financial Report shows that the proportion of the total value of public assets owned by the Central Government (known as State-Owned Assets/SOAs) was very significant to the total value of its asset in the balance sheet, which was 40%. While the total value of SOAs sat on IDR 2,200 trillion, the total asset in the balance sheet reached IDR 5,456.88 trillion. Such significant value of SOAs consequently requires the Indonesian government to develop an asset management strategy to effectively and efficiently manage SOA. The utilization of SOAs is one of the tools employed by the government to ensure that capital expenditures spent have been fitted to their intended use. With this premise, it is important for the Government to measure the performance of SOAs. The purpose of this study is to derive a simple and convenient equation using output-based approach to measure SOAs performance that may be used as a reference for the government in devising its policies. This research used the qualitative method with literature study and field testing through a study case. The research object is limited to SOAs in the form of office buildings. The results indicate that measuring SOAs performance using the proposed formula is applicable to SOAs in Indonesia, particularly those in the form of office buildings. Through such performance assessment, the potential of idle assets is expected to be minimized, and public asset planning process becomes more efficient by creating several alternative cost requirements over a certain period of planned asset output.

Combining Modified Weibull Distribution Models for Power System Reliability Forecast

Under the deregulated environment, electric utility companies have been encouraged to ensure maximum system reliability through the employment of cost-effective long-term asset management strategies. Previously, the age based Weibull distribution has been used vastly for modeling and forecasting aging failures. However, this model is only based on asset age and does not consider additional information such as asset infant mortality period and equipment energization delay. Some works on modifying Weibull distribution functions to model bathtub-shaped failure rate function can be practically difficult due to model complexity and inexplicit parameters. To improve the existing methods, this paper proposes four modified Weibull distribution models with straightforward physical meanings specific to power system applications. Furthermore, this paper proposes a novel method to effectively evaluate different Weibull distribution models and select the suitable model(s). More importantly, if more than one suitable model exists, these models can be mathematically combined as a joint forecast model, which could provide better accuracy to forecast future asset reliability. Finally, the proposed approach was applied to a Canadian utility company for the reliability forecast of electromechanical relays and distribution poles to demonstrate its practicality and usefulness.

An analysis of transaction costs in participating life insurance under mean–variance preferences

Transaction costs with respect to distribution and administration play a crucial role for the performance of participating life insurance products. The aim of this paper is to investigate the impact of such initial and annual transaction costs on policyholder mean–variance preferences depending on the contract features, comparing a point-to-point guarantee, a cliquet-style guarantee, and a money-back guarantee with annual surplus component. We extend previous work by deriving analytical solutions for the maximum allowed initial transaction costs as well as the risk aversion parameter that ensure a given customer preference level for different contract types. We further conduct simulation analyses to identify key factors in regard to transaction costs. One main finding is that in the present setting, insurers can indeed charge higher costs for more complex products with cliquet-style features, and that the difference in costs between the various product types increases considerably in a low interest-rate environment. However, these results are heavily impacted and even reversed depending on the risk–return asset characteristics, as insurers with a riskier asset management strategy may no longer be able to charge higher transaction costs for complex products with a strong annual cliquet-style surplus participation component without reducing their attractiveness to customers.

Combining Unsupervised and Supervised Learning for Asset Class Failure Prediction in Power Systems

In power systems, an asset class is a group of power equipment that has the same function and shares similar electrical or mechanical characteristics. Predicting failures for different asset classes is critical for electric utilities towards developing cost-effective asset management strategies. Previously, physical age based Weibull distribution has been widely used to failure prediction. However, this mathematical model cannot incorporate asset condition data such as inspection or testing results. As a result, the prediction cannot be very specific and accurate for individual assets. To solve this important problem, this paper proposes a novel and comprehensive data-driven approach based on asset condition data: K-means clustering as an unsupervised learning method is used to analyze the inner structure of historical asset condition data and produce the asset conditional ages; logistic regression as a supervised learning method takes in both asset physical ages and conditional ages to classify and predict asset statuses. Furthermore, an index called average aging rate is defined to quantify, track and estimate the relationship between asset physical age and conditional age. This approach was applied to an urban distribution system in West Canada to predict medium-voltage cable failures. Case studies and comparison with standard Weibull distribution are provided. The proposed approach demonstrates superior performance and practicality for predicting asset class failures in power systems.

A multi-objective modelling approach to assess the impact of maintenance scheduling on equipment procurement methods

In this research, a new multi-objective optimisation model is developed from equipment user's point of view who is seeking to select from among the buy/lease/upgrade decisions and maintenance schedule options when the equipment performance criteria and total cost are in consideration. The proposed model determines the possible non-dominated physical asset management (AM) strategies by interconnecting procurement parameters, maintenance scheduling variables, and equipment's working historical data. Total operational cost, the equipment reliability and unavailability are the objectives of the model which is solved using NSGA-II. Each of the achieved strategies consists of a procurement method (buy/lease/upgrade) and a maintenance strategy (PM degree, PM interval and upgrade level). The model is applied to a specific equipment to determine non-dominated asset management strategies for a specified time horizon in a copper mine. The results show that by managing maintenance variables, the decision maker is capable of choosing a proper procurement strategy to the organisation from among various equivalent AM strategies.