IAM Annual Conference 2023 Linking our world Editor Josh Ellicock and BMT Globals Owen Plant report on the IAMs two-day virtual conference, held in June Day one Author bio Welcome The IAM Global Conference followed on from the successful virtual format last year, being free to all IAM members and accessible both live over the two days and through recordings made available on demand immediately following the event. This ensured it reached a truly global audience and that no-one missed out on any of the fascinating content. Day one of the conference provided us with 23 highly anticipated and varied sessions across three streams running concurrently throughout the day. It was opened by IAM CEO Ursula Bryan, shortly followed by Dr Najib Dandachi, who announced the exciting news of the formation of the UAE Chapter. He explained the journey that they have been on and the ambitions for the chapter. This included the unrivalled growth plans, alongside high expectations and a noticeable shift in mentality within the region as it looked to move its asset management focus from effectiveness to efficiency. In his closing remarks, Dandachi welcomed peers to get involved in the new chapter, while thanking the IAM and Bryan for the work that had been undertaken in order to launch the chapter. Josh Ellicock is Assets Editor and an Associate Director at Jacobs. He has more than 10 years experience in asset management across a number of sectors including transport, aviation, manufacturing, nuclear and water. Value creation in public transport services 38+ f o s r u ho t n e t n co The first keynote was delivered by Christian Christodoulou from Transport New South Wales, Australia. After a short introduction to the state of New South Wales including its diverse and complex public transport network (totalling an AU$178bn asset portfolio) he explained the ultimate aim of the organisation is to deliver a safe, integrated transport system. Christodoulou then explained the breadth and depth of the multi-billion dollar infrastructure upgrade programme currently under way. On the organisations journey towards asset management maturity, he paid particular emphasis to the need to develop and nurture a culture of living asset management to create value in public transport services through a focus on creating better places to deliver customer and community outcomes. Three key initiatives within Transport New South Wales were explored, including: a multi-modal maintenance standard review to establish a level of risk-based minimum requirements; a roads asset information strategy implementation (RAISI) for internal works; and a transport asset custodian platform (TACP) providing an integrated, multi-modal asset data platform to consolidate all asset information across the organisation and state. Christodoulou closed with some of the next steps and the organisations ambition to realise a staggering AU$1.6bn of financial benefits during the next 10 years (FY22-31). T minus one year and counting Next up, Rhys Davies, Chair of the ISO 55000 technical committee (ISO/TC251), provided an insightful overview into the development work currently ongoing by the committee for the ISO 55000 suite of standards. This included six parallel streams of work that will culminate in the publishing of a new suite of documents within the next 12-15 months (hence the T minus one year!). Davies also provided an overview of ISO as a whole and its mission, alongside the other management system standards and where we (ISO 55000) sit in the ISO standings (probably not what you were expecting to see!). He updated us on the recent, first face-to-face meeting for three and half years held in Philadelphia, where a 55-strong committee came together for a week. He stressed the importance of not underestimating the value of bringing individuals together in person despite the significant financial commitment involved. He explained the five days resulted in the passing of resolutions and fixing of challenges that the group had deliberated on for more than two years through endless virtual meetings. During the week, they were able to work in an intense and dynamic environment to collaborate on a level difficult to replicate in a virtual environment. One for us all to ponder, Im sure! 47 sessions over two days 470 questions asked Aligning business outcomes and asset management initiatives In the afternoon, we heard from Paul Casto, Asset Performance Management Industry Principal at GE Digital (and senior member and past chair of the Society for Maintenance and Reliability Professionals). His session focused on the concept of defining outcomes and linking them to value creation and solutions. Casto discussed the key part of strategy success being the need to understand the link between targeted outcomes, value required to achieve these outcomes, barriers that inhibit value creation, and the solutions necessary to overcome these. Integral to this is the clear line of sight needed between the targeted outcomes, value requirements, and asset management solutions. He also gave us an overview of some of the key maintenance best practices to overcome barriers to value creation. Taking asset management to the next level On the client side, we heard from Shannon Harney of South Platte Renew (SPR), the third-largest water resource recovery facility in Colorado. Harney took us through South Platte Renews asset management journey from a very reactive maintenance place, to a more preventative maintenance approach with well-defined asset management fundamentals, for example an asset management policy, clear asset hierarchy and established internal asset management team. The organisation is now embarking on its next step in developing its strategic asset management plan (SAMP). The SAMP is being developed by a diverse group of SPR stakeholders and will create processes for more intelligent data analysis, frameworks for decision-making and operational activities, and ultimately build an organised and intentional approach to managing assets. Perhaps most interestingly was Harneys views on both the benefits and challenges in developing a SAMP later on in an organisations asset management journey. Maximising value Seven panel discussions In the closing session of the day, IAM President Christian Roberts delivered the keynote on unlocking value and maximising the value potential of assets. Central to his presentation were three key areas and calls to action around: 1)Shifting our focus and planning for the long term 2)Aligning to outcomes and why outcomes matter 3)Unlocking value and the role of technology in maximising value from assets. His key messages included the desperate need for focus on the long-term value that assets provide to society and the economy, demonstrated no better than in the ITN News Productions broadcast, which has had a tremendous 250,000 total views. Roberts described the unprecedented infrastructure funding commitments made in the US including the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semi-Conductors (CHIPS). This inevitably all contributes to a significantly changing landscape for asset management, alongside the need to meet new criteria and drive economic growth. Among his key takeaways were a call to action to shift focus to outcomes, designing projects to deliver long-term value and recognising that our actions can improve both the bottom line and top line. Technology deployment was expectedly also a key part of his plea, being fundamental to unlocking value. Finally, he reminded us all to look to build information systems with the end in mind, with an understanding that what we need today may be insufficient for tomorrows decisionmaking and decision-makers. Did you miss the conference? Members can still access on-demand services to catch up on all the above sessions.
