The aim of this part of the standards and guidelines is to provide agencies with a broader asset management context.
The guidance focuses on asset management documents, and asset management data and information. The size of an agency’s office portfolio and nature of its lessee assets will determine if, and to what extent, it develops a suite of asset management documents and a physical asset register.
Agencies that require a greater level of detail on asset management documents, data and other asset management activities are directed to the key documents that GPG has used to inform this part of the standards and guidelines. They are:
ISO 55000 describes asset management as the “co-ordinated activity of an organisation to realise value from assets” (ISO 55000: 2014a, pg.4).
The IIMM describes the objective of asset management as “To meet a required level of service, in the most cost effective manner, through the management of assets for present and future customers” (IIMM: 2011a, pg.1–7). With the required level of service determining what assets and their performance levels.
The key benefits of asset management include, but are not limited to (ISO 55000: 2014a, pg.1):
Asset management can be best understood by referring to the Asset Management System (AMS) as described in ISO 55000. It describes an AMS as a framework used by an organisation to develop, direct, co-ordinate and control asset management activities, and align those activities with organisational objectives (ISO 55000, 2014a, pg.4). ISO 55000 goes on to state that “the elements of the AM system should be viewed as a set of tools, including policies, plans, business processes and information systems which are integrated to give assurance that the asset management activities will be delivered” (ISO 55000. 2014a, pg.4). As an example Figure 1 (pg.19) presents Inland Revenue’s (IR) AMS and how it links to Inland Revenue’s wider strategies and plans.
It should be noted that the Government has higher asset management expectations of departments and Crown entities, especially Crown agents who are classified as capital-intensive in relevant Cabinet circulars.
The IIMM provides the most comprehensive overview available of the various tools that comprise an AMS. The IIMM describes the key AMS elements or activities, what each is, why each is important to asset management, and how the requirements of each can be met. The IIMM methodology was developed to be applied specifically to infrastructure assets (refer also to the 2006 NAMS Property e-Manual a companion document to the IIMM which focuses specifically on property assets). However, it is also applicable to other asset types, including lessee assets. The IIMM was first developed in New Zealand and is the key guidance in this country for the asset management of infrastructure assets. Its asset management process has been used by territorial local authorities and a number of capital intensive government agencies. Also, it was used by GHD in 2011, when it undertook an independent assessment of asset management capability in capital intensive agencies for the Treasury.
The IIMM (2011b, pg.3) emphasises that it is up to each organisation to determine the scope of its own AMS. That is, asset management is not intended to be prescriptive and applied to the same level in all organisations.
Put another way, asset management should be appropriate for the size, complexity, criticality and value of the assets, but also for the risk associated with asset failure (IIMM, 2011a, 2-7). Asset management also needs to reflect the costs and benefits of asset management to the organisation, given the organisations scale and resources, and customer expectations (IIMM, 2011a, 2–7).
For most government agencies, the criticality and risk around lessee assets is not sufficient to require ‘best practice’ asset management. What government agencies should be aiming for with respect to their lessee assets is ‘best appropriate practice’ asset management.