Abstract

Asset management serves to schedule interventions to maximize the condition of municipal assets. However, municipalities face the daunting task of dealing with a wide variety of assets (civil infrastructure, facilities, buildings, vehicles, machinery and equipment) with a limited budget. There is a lack of an approach to optimize the scheduling of interventions across all types of municipal assets. There is also a disconnection between the effectiveness of the budget and its ability to upkeep the value of the assets as demanded by accounting and financial regulations. Previous attempts to handle multiple assets face problems in budget balancing given the dissimilar units of measurement of condition indicator for each asset type. This research proposes a value-based approach supported by deterioration and depreciation curves. Treatments are used to sustain or increase the value of all assets. A case study of the municipality of Kindersley is presented to showcases how the value-based approach is more financially-sustainable, yet cost-effective. The approach is flexible enough to accommodate all types of municipal assets, however for limitations of data the case study considers: street names, signs, hydrants, lighting, sidewalks, roads, sanitary pipes and water mains. An Excel platform with a special Add-in is used to host the database and performance curves and to define the optimization problem. An external solver is used to find the optimal solution. Results demonstrate a more stable long term progression for the value-based approach as compared to the condition-based. Meanwhile budget remain at very similar levels.