Asset Management Improvement for a Regional Airport Operator

The client

This regional airport provides a significant avenue of entry for both domestic and international visitors supporting the local tourist industry. Consequently, it was important that the airport’s assets reflected an appropriate quality image for the region and the country with passenger traffic expected to grow significantly over the coming years.

The opportunity

The Airport Operator was on a journey to ensure that their assets were being managed appropriately to support achievement of their business objectives . To understand and then improve upon the maturity of their current Asset Management practices, the Airport Operator first sought to benchmark their Asset Management maturity against the AS ISO 55001 Asset Management standard. Although not seeking to be fully compliant or certified to the standard, the Airport Operator wanted to understand the gaps in compliance between their current practices and the requirement of AS ISO 55001 in order to determine their desired level of alignment and subsequently make decisions regarding the improvements that would deliver the most value to the business. Supporting this understanding of opportunities for improvement, the Airport Operator also required a more specific and detailed review of their organisational structure related to Asset Management and the effectiveness of the CMMS they were using to support maintenance activities.

How we helped

Working with the Airport Operator’s staff, we conducted an independent assessment of the maturity of the Airport’s Asset Management practices across the 27 requirement areas of the AS ISO 55001 standard using the UK Institute of Asset Management (IAM) maturity scoring scale. The assessment identified opportunities for improvement that were then prioritised for implementation based on the level of benefit to the business, especially in terms of mitigating risk. Supporting this assessment was a more detailed examination of the supporting Asset Management organisational structure and the usage of their CMMS. We provided additional recommendations regarding the organisational structure that would support good Asset Management practice and as well as recommendations that would enhance the effectiveness of use of their CMMS to support maintenance management and to provide better information for asset management decisions. 

Based on these recommendations, we then worked with the Airport Operator to  develop a high level roadmap for improvement. This provided the Airport Operator with the following information to support the implementation: priority, dependencies with other recommendations, estimated resources required, and suggested accountabilities. Using this roadmap, the Airport Operator was then able to further refine the improvement plan, allocating appropriate resources and timings for completion of prioritised recommendations. The roadmap also provided direction regarding the gaps that would need to be addressed in order to achieve compliance if certification were so desired or needed in the future.

Using this roadmap as the basis for improvement, the Airport Operator commenced improvement activities.

About a year after the initial assessment, the Airport Operator had made steady progress on a number of the improvement opportunities identified in the roadmap.  This included making alterations to their departmental structure, hiring a maintenance planner and progressing with the improvement and implementation of their CMMS to manage maintenance. There was, however, still much to do and the Airport Operator engaged us to review progress against their roadmap, and provide further guidance and advice with a particular focus on the improvements associated with the CMMS. The intent was to provide assurance regarding the work that had been done to date and provide guidance on further improvements.

In addition, the Airport Operator also engaged us to provide advice and guidance regarding the creation of an Integrated Management System that aligned Asset Management with their existing Environmental and Safety Management Systems. The intent was to develop a single, streamlined Management System that used, as far as was practical, common processes and procedures for Environmental, Safety and Asset Management.

Our review noted that the Airport Operator had made some significant Asset Management improvements over the previous year, particularly in improving the effectiveness and use of their CMMS. However, many opportunities for improvement still remained. We also provided recommendations regarding how best to develop and implement a single, Integrated Management System. These centred on each of the seven elements that are embodied in all ISO management standards, i.e. Context of the Organisation, Leadership, Planning, Support, Operations, Performance Evaluation and Improvement. We suggested that this be captured and documented in a central Integrated Business Management Systems Manual that would link to the processes/procedures required to satisfy alignment with the requirements of the different ISO Management standards.

Deliverables and benefits

Despite some delays relating to the COVID crisis, the Airport Operator is continuing to implement Asset Management improvements, the full benefits of which will be fully realised over the next few years. The benefits from undertaking this activity so far have included:

• Clear organisational understanding of the AS ISO 55001 requirements for Asset Management and the gaps that would need to be addressed to support a proposed future compliance or certification efforts;
• A clear roadmap of prioritised improvement initiatives which has helped to support and accelerate the implementation of good practice Asset Management practices and has maximised the value of their improvement efforts;
• Independent assurance that the improvement opportunities implemented to date are supporting good Asset Management practice; and

A suggested approach to creating an Integrated Management System that will streamline their management processes by eliminating unnecessary duplication and overlap across their Asset Management, Environmental and Safety management systems.

If you would like an independent assessment of the maturity of your Asset Management practices within your organisation, contact us now and talk to one of our expert consultants.