Asset Information Handover Guidelines from Planning and Construction to Operations and Maintenance (2024)
Chapter: 11 Return on Investment
CHAPTER 11
Return on Investment
Benefits of Accurate Asset Data
Data must be accurate and easily accessible for airport stakeholders to rely on it to make decisions. A paper-based process is no longer the most efficient and effective way to store and manage asset information and data. New methods and advancements in software tools have improved the accuracy and availability of data on airport assets like baggage-handling systems, loading bridges, runways, and other systems. What’s more, the use of new software and technologies by design and construction teams creates opportunities for technology integration so that data can be transferred seamlessly from one phase of a project to another and to an asset owner at project closeout.
Understanding what your stakeholders need and then how to create the data to support their needs requires an investment of time, an understanding of asset management software tools and processes, and the ability to request such data via Division 01 project closeout specifications sections. Asset information handover as a process and the result of any design and construction project supports much more than airport maintenance. The data received as part of this process helps staff understand what they operate and manage for the life of each constructed asset. Knowing what data attributes are of importance to various stakeholders and documenting these attributes in a manner that can be communicated as part of the project closeout requirements simply makes good business sense.
Some likely benefits of developing SOPs and then ensuring that the procedures that support a functional asset information handover process are adhered to include the following:
- Effective decision-making, based on accurate asset data, which in some instances may help staff members mitigate risk.
- Reduced costs. Costs may be reduced because
- with increased data accessibility, staff will spend less time searching for data, and
- increased data accuracy will decrease (potentially costly) mistakes due to inaccurate data.
- Improved customer and stakeholder experience. Asset systems could see more uptime because of improved maintenance activities due to increased data availability and accuracy. This would have a positive impact on customer and stakeholder experience.
- Regulatory compliance. Several constructed assets in airports and specific building systems must adhere to and be maintained in accordance with various regulatory requirements. Knowing which of your assets must comply with regulatory requirements is important. Software tools can help airport staff track compliance requirements.
The Future of Asset Data
Yet another consideration for implementing an asset information handover procedure and ensuring it is enforced is the future of asset data with the advancements in technology, artificial
intelligence, and virtual reality. Whether your airport elects to progress into these areas or not, there is no denying that, in the future, these technologies could be as common as cell phones are today. Knowing that you have accurate and complete asset data will help your airport advance into this future reality.
Turning Asset Data into Useful Information
Collecting asset data as part of asset information handover is only one part of the process. This data must be relevant to airport stakeholders—help them perform their respective roles and fulfill their responsibilities—for it to be collected in the first place. Requesting enormous amounts of data is not useful if it does not help staff make decisions. Typically, when it comes to the built environment, having the right type of data will be informative; knowing every serial number on every asset will be overload.
Having too much data is unwieldy because it needs regular updating to stay accurate. Staff can become overwhelmed by the work of ensuring the data remains accurate over time. Inaccurate data is unreliable and thus becomes an impediment to sound decision-making. Turning accurate data into information is what is needed for data to be useful. Data collection is only cost-effective when the requested project closeout data that is received as part of the asset information handover process is appropriately stored in software systems so that stakeholders can generate reports and therefore see that data as information. Have your staff decide what it is they need to know about the airport’s constructed assets, and then, working backward, ascertain what data supports that information. You will then be able to ensure that such data is requested as part of Division 01 project closeout specifications sections, addressed within BIM execution plans, and provided during your projects’ asset information handover.
Basic suggestions to ensure a return on your asset information handover investment are the following:
- Ascertain what airport stakeholders need to know.
- Determine what data supports stakeholder needs.
- Collect only the data needed by stakeholders.
- Consider software tools such as a CMMS or an EAM system for data repositories and reports.
- Collect data with every new project, regardless of project size. Ensure this data is accurate and at the level of detail you require.
- Utilize the data as information and document any lessons learned for possible revisions to how you manage projects.
Costs of Collecting Asset Data
Project closeout has been a part of project phases for decades; its existence is nothing new. As projects have become larger and more complex and technologies have become more a part of the entire design and construction process, project closeout and the associated asset information handover processes should have improved. Nonetheless, it seems that few construction teams anticipate project closeout.
Improving this entire project closeout process and the accuracy of the asset information handover deliverables that are a part has been a goal of asset owners for years. Contractors who have not been keeping up with recording asset information throughout a project have sometimes chosen not to meet project closeout requirements because it is far less costly for them to forfeit any retainage that might be associated with delivering incomplete asset information than it would be to collect asset data retroactively. Ensuring that contract language connects
final payments to contractors with a successful asset information handover process, subsequent receipt of project closeout deliverables, and verification that the project closeout deliverables are complete and accurate are good practices, but they will not necessarily guarantee success.
Constructed assets have life cycles. The cost to obtain needed asset data is less when planned for. As the planning, design, and construction phases progress, the data and information that become available improve. This is the ideal time to begin documenting the data, especially anything that will be required as an electronic deliverable, instead of attempting to recreate it once construction is complete.
If you do not get what you need from construction contractors during asset information handover, there is always time after this process has concluded. However, sending airport staff to photograph nameplates, collect manufacturer information, download O&M manuals, and then associate those manuals with an asset record in your CMMS will cost a great deal more than if the construction team had completed the requirements of project closeout (see Figure 16). The next three sections discuss in more detail the costs associated with receiving asset data from the contractor at project closeout, collecting asset data after project closeout, and collecting asset data reactively, i.e., when it is needed because an asset is having operational issues or is failing.
Receiving Asset Data from the Contractor at Project Closeout
The most efficient and cost-effective way to receive information about your newly constructed assets is as project closeout deliverables provided as required by the Division 01 specifications sections of the project contract. Contractors should be compiling this information in the form of BIM design models, shop drawings, product data, manufacturers’ information, and other specified submittals as the various items are being acquired and installed into the project. Field installation verification and asset labeling (via a bar code) can happen as the asset is installed before it becomes hidden behind floors, walls, ceilings, and other assets. Collecting data during construction will typically cost less than waiting to collect it later.
Collecting Asset Data After Project Closeout
Whether an airport is using a third-party firm or internal airport staff resources to handle a project, it is unlikely that they will have expertise in asset management or understand what asset data truly is. To enable these entities to collect the needed asset data after a project is complete would require significant planning and the development of forms and procedures to help ensure they know what to look for on the record documents or within the BIM (assuming they are qualified to view BIM data). Coordination with airport operations would also be required so these
entities could gain access to newly constructed assets that are in restricted areas or concealed behind walls. In addition, the applicable manufacturers’ literature and O&M manuals should be located and downloaded, if these were not provided as part of the Division 01 project closeout deliverables, along with any other closeout requirements that were left incomplete. The cost of a post-project data collection effort can approach that of a small project itself.
Collecting Asset Data Reactively
The last, and usually most expensive, possibility is to wait to collect asset data until an asset fails or is having operational issues. Maintenance staff needs information about a failing asset to appropriately address whatever might be occurring with it. If they don’t have the information, they can’t react quickly to resolve the problem. Unfortunately, asset failure is when many organizations elect to research their assets and ascertain basic information, such as an accurate physical location, which could prove critical to a timely reaction and safe shut-down of an equipment item.
Maintenance staff should have readily available maintenance procedures for all assets and know whether the appropriate spare parts are on hand. If this data is not somehow documented and managed for such use, how will staff find the answers they need? If this data is not readily available to your staff, they will need to find it when they are addressing problems with the asset. You will be paying for this data and information with every executed work request, repeatedly, for the life of the asset.
Airports concerned with constructed asset life-cycle costs need to understand what it is they own, operate, and maintain. They need to develop internal processes and procedures to enable better management of their design and construction projects. There is an opportunity cost associated with the lack of appropriate data to conduct operations or maintenance optimization that can help prevent failures. Preventive maintenance saves money for organizations and has a positive overall effect on TCO.
Investing time and effort to receive accurate and complete asset information during the project closeout process will pay off. The more accurate and complete your constructed asset data is, the more efficiently these assets can be managed, and obtaining this data at project closeout is the least expensive option. With every successful asset information handover, you will improve both the accuracy and completeness of your airport’s asset data, and this will enable your stakeholder staff to operate, manage, and maintain these constructed assets more efficiently and effectively.
