The challenge
With various uses, numerous stakeholders and multiple performance criteria, facilities represent a high value, high criticality and complex asset class for infrastructure owners. Being one of the fastest-growing municipalities in Australia, Wyndham City Council recognized that better understanding the performance of facility assets, both now and into the future, was critical to providing appropriate services to the community.
Wyndham’s traditional investment and works planning approach was segmented across Council departments, with asset management and facilities maintenance teams leading the condition-based renewals programming and upgrade and redevelopment planning managed by the respective service managers. With a portfolio that varied significantly in age and condition and was, on average, growing by six buildings per year, Wyndham desired a more coordinated and sustainable practice.
Lifecycle modeling and evidence-based investment forecasting was already well-established for the condition-based renewals programs. Expanding the modeling to incorporate non-condition-based service criteria such as capacity, functionality, accessibility and sustainability was Wyndham’s key objective. Accessible, interactive and understandable results would be crucial to improving stakeholder engagement and decision-making capabilities. Furthermore, the results needed to be agile enough to support both the development of the organization’s long-term financial plan and shorter term works programs of cost-effective projects.
The solution
Wyndham partnered with Brightly’s Strategic Asset Management team — now a part of Siemens — to develop the holistic lifecycle analysis model. They utilized Predictor software to incorporate the performance criteria of condition, capacity, functionality, accessibility and sustainability.
To inform the modeling, Wyndam undertook detailed service manager surveys to collect capacity, functionality and accessibility performance data. This also served as an important first step to engage with stakeholders early in the process and promote the benefits of a centralized facility performance information system.
Wyndham’s facilities included aquatic centers, arts buildings, childcare centers, civic centers, community centers, libraries, depot and operational facilities, stadiums and pavilions. This wide range of use types, combined with varying facility complexity and age, resulted in significant variation in the observed performance data.
Furthermore, the projected high population growth was expected to impact capacity ratings in different ways depending on location and existing facility features. To model this variation and the anticipated pattern of asset performance over time, individual customized performance profiles were derived from the observed data, allowing the lifecycle model behavior to accurately reflect service manager knowledge of each facility.
Through a series of detailed workshops, the Wyndham and Brightly (Siemens) teams developed a model treatment logic that was criticality-based, considered localized lifecycle parameters and aligned with desired levels of service for renewal, upgrade and expansion works.
The outcome was a 25-year holistic lifecycle model capable of predicting future asset performance, whole of life cost forecasts for operational, maintenance, renewal, upgrade and expansion activities and a program of works candidates reflecting the service level requirements of the facilities portfolio. Model results were made available to all stakeholders in an interactive online environment that included a range of performance and investment reports with powerful visualizations, allowing users to access any level of asset granularity.
The results
The holistic lifecycle model consolidates performance information and forecasts into one source of truth for any stakeholder to access. Information that was previously documented and stored by individual departments is now available to all.
Furthermore, through the service manager survey, previously undocumented knowledge held by service managers and other staff now resides within the Predictor Platform. The accessibility of information empowers staff at all levels to make better-informed decisions, break down silos that traditionally hindered integrated asset planning, and apply a lifecycle model underpinned by both condition and non-condition performance criteria. This means that those engaging with the platform are participating in service-led planning.
Although it is in the early stages of adoption, Wyndham has seen more accurate long-term investment forecasts that have been integral to informing the Council’s Asset Plan and Long-Term Financial Plan. Moreover, short-term works planning has seen a significant improvement in the brief timeframe since adoption.
The Predictor Platform’s presentation of portfolio-wide works program candidates has supported the easy identification of project packaging and sequencing, leading to project cost efficiencies, minimized service disruptions and reduced risk of scheduling conflicts.
Service and facility managers who participated in the early survey stages of the project are now seeing their knowledge and inputs being reflected in the results. This has further strengthened the relationship between asset, facility and service managers. The online results platform has also allowed a better appreciation of the interaction between service levels, investment, asset performance, work-bank backlog and works programming. In some departments, stakeholder engagement and uptake have exceeded expectations. These stakeholders are now leading the next generation of lifecycle modeling.