Why Industry Needs Asset Management Tools

This paper provides a retrospective overview of asset management in the construction industry. Emphasis is placed on assessing decision-support tools for municipal infrastructure planning. The study identifies the extent of the asset management market in North America, addresses the need for decision-support tools for municipal-type organizations, and identifies the challenges for maintenance, repair, and renewal planning faced by asset owners and managers. Integration with existing systems such as computerized maintenance management, geographic information, and corporate legacy systems is seen as the largest challenge for developing and using decision-support tools in the area of asset management. The present study classifies various stages of implementation for asset management using the six "whats"-questions that an asset manager should ask about the status of his portfolio. Finally, the activities of a consortium in the area strategic asset management are introduced. The investigation leading to this paper located a limited number of decision-support applications, none of which provides a comprehensive solution to address the current needs for planning the municipal infrastructure.