David C. Sklar, principal management consultant
Eddie Childers, Jr., City of Richmond DPU
David and Eddie will be providing a full presentation at the upcoming Utility Management Conference in Austin, TX at 3:30 p.m. on February 18.
MWH is working in partnership with the City of Richmond, Virginia, Department of Public Utilities (DPU) to implement a comprehensive enterprise asset management (EAM) program across water, wastewater, stormwater, natural gas and streetlight assets. The program was initially encouraged through the Building a Better Richmond initiative with specific links to promoting sustainability and the natural environment through balanced risk, cost and level of service.
David C. Sklar, principal management consultant
A key foundation to this effort is building a strong, centralized operating unit to lead the program moving forward. To embed asset management throughout the organization, DPU will establish critical roles for utility asset operations leaders that focus on implementing infrastructure strategies for all asset classes and categories. This hybrid approach will help to engage staff at all levels and ensure successful support, championing and ownership.
The centralized EAM operating unit and field-based operations leaders will serve as a core team of internal asset management specialists to lead the initiative forward, enhancing the culture at DPU and implementing formal risk-based decision-making processes. The intent is to create a collaborative organization that fosters new and exciting opportunities for DPU staff to grow and advance while also improving utility performance. DPU will also serve as an “incubator” for the development of an asset management framework that can be rolled out to other City departments in the future. Key roles that are currently being formalized include:
- Asset Management Steering Team to provide support, strategic guidance, and oversight
- Asset Management Business Leader to manage program strategy and implementation
- CMMS and GIS System Leaders to ensure IT infrastructure can meet business needs
- Asset Risk Strategy and Maintenance Leaders to develop risk-based maintenance and capital replacement strategies
- Asset Operations Leaders to optimize preventive maintenance, rehabilitation, and replacement programs
- Planners and Schedulers to centralize work management functions and enhance use of existing maintenance management systems
DPU has established a comprehensive strategy to formally roll-out key elements of the organization through a phased approach. The implementation plan includes key activities such as recruiting, staff onboarding, training, branding and messaging, and communication strategies. DPU’s approach was developed with several goals in mind:
- Centralize the asset management team to promote a strong and positive impact on the organization and provide leadership.
- Define asset management owners within operating groups to ensure boots-on-the ground ownership, participation, and accountability.
- Enhance IT skills and resources with a focus on centralized ownership of enterprise CMMS creating a central hub of asset management data and analysis.
- Promote formal service level and performance metric tracking to drive decision making and efficiency and consistency of operational KPIs.
DPU is implementing this new structure in parallel with other ongoing tasks including: selection and implementation of a new dispatching and mobile workforce solution, enhancement of existing maintenance management systems, and the development of formal preventive maintenance strategies for water and sewer linear assets.
