Muhammad Nateque Mahmood

Asset management policies and guidelines of different states in Australia: A comparative analysis

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore and compare the asset management policies and practices of six Australian states – New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia and Tasmania – to improve understanding of the policy context to best shape policy focus and guidelines. Australian state-wide asset management policies and guidelines are an emergent policy domain, generating a substantial body of knowledge. However, these documents are spread across the layers of government and are therefore largely fragmented and lack coherency. Design/methodology/approach – The comparative study is based on the thematic mapping technique using the Leximancer software. Findings – Asset management policies and guidelines of New South Wales and Victoria have more interconnected themes as compared to other states in Australia. Moreover, based on the findings, New South Wales has covered most of the key concepts in relation to asset management; the remaining five states are yet to devel...

International aid and cyclone shelters in Bangladesh: adaptation or maladaptation?

This paper examines the unintended prospect of international aid-driven maladaptation in Bangladesh. While attempts by aid agencies to channel scarce resources to finance structural adaptation measures are commendable, complementary non-structural measures remain under the radar. Using an exploratory research approach this paper investigates the state of cyclone shelters in two coastal districts: Chittagong and Coxs Bazar. The findings indicate that the lack of adequate shelter capacity, maintenance funding, and community participation has exacerbated the vulnerability of Chittagongs marginalised urban population. The paper contends that international aid can avoid being maladaptive by accentuating community-based governance and facilitating community capacity to fund the maintenance of cyclone shelters in new ways.

Towards an Integrated Maturity Model of Asset Management Capabilities

Asset service organizations often recognize asset management as a core competence to deliver benefits to their business. But, how do organizations know whether their asset management processes are adequate? Asset management maturity models, which combine best practices and competencies, provide a useful approach to test the capacity of organizations to manage their assets. Asset management frameworks are required to meet the dynamic challenges of managing assets in contemporary society. Although existing models are subject to wide variations in their implementation and sophistication, they also display a distinct weakness in that they tend to focus primarily on the operational and technical level and neglect the levels of strategy, policy, and governance as well as the social and human resources—the people elements. Moreover, asset management maturity models have to respond to the external environmental factors, including climate change and sustainability, stakeholders, and community demand management. Drawing on five dimensions of effective asset management—spatial, temporal, organizational, statistical, and evaluation—as identified by Amadi-Echendu et al. [1], this paper carries out a comprehensive comparative analysis of six existing maturity models to identify the gaps in key process areas. Results suggest incorporating these into an integrated approach to assess the maturity of asset-intensive organizations. It is contended that the adoption of an integrated asset management maturity model will enhance effective and efficient delivery of services.

The state of multi-purpose cyclone shelters in Bangladesh

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the state of management practices of existing multi-purpose cyclone shelters (MPCS) facilities across the 16 coastal districts in the country, in the context of an identified need for 5,500 new MPCS facilities in Bangladesh. Design/methodology/approach – A “multi-capitals” framework – a conceptual model for appraising the state of MPCS facilities based on seven forms of capital resources – is adopted. Findings – MPCS facilities are not equitably distributed across the 16 coastal districts to cater to the needs of the highly vulnerable population. Nearly 9 per cent of the existing shelters are unusable in the event of cyclones. Once built, MPCS facilities have no maintenance funding and only around 19 per cent of shelters have a governance mechanism that enables community participation. A strong correlation (r = 0.65) was detected between the availability of maintenance funds and provision for community participation. Research limitations/implications – The...

Bridging the energy access divide for sustainable development in South Asia: policies and prospects in Nepal

Bridging the energy access divide is critical for meeting Nepal’s social and economic development objectives. Under the assumption that there are fertile opportunities for linking energy policy and market prospects, this paper explores the central question: ‘to what extent is the current policy environment in Nepal conducive to the uptake of solar energy at the household level?’ The paper makes use of an exploratory research approach to data analyses in order to address the research question. The findings reveal that the country’s renewable energy market is still in its infancy. Although donor-driven subsidy policy has been successful in promoting the uptake of solar energy, exclusivity of subsidy mechanisms coupled with the lack of cross-sectoral policy harmony are hindering the uptake of solar energy. The paper ends with a discussion on the need for a market-centric impetus to facilitate a renewable energy sector in Nepal.

A comparative study on asset management capability maturity models

Asset service organisations often recognise asset management as a core competence to deliver benefits to their business; however, it is less clear about how organisations know whether their asset management processes are adequate. This paper contends that asset management maturity models, which combine best practices with identified competencies, may provide a useful approach to test the capacity of organisations to manage assets. Existing capability maturity models are subject to wide variations in their implementation and sophistication. Drawing on five dimensions of effective asset management - spatial, temporal, organisational, statistical and evaluation - as identified by Amadi-Echendu et al. (2010), this paper undertakes a comprehensive comparative analysis of six existing maturity models to identify the gaps in key process areas. Results suggest incorporating these dimensions into an integrated approach to assess the maturity of asset-intensive organisations would provide a comprehensive approach towards assessing capabilities of asset service organisations.

An Integrated Approach to Strategic Asset Management

This chapter focuses on identifying and analysing the elements of Strategic Management for infrastructure and engineering assets and asks: what are the considerations and implications for adopting and implementing an integrated strategic asset management framework? We contend that corporate governance, policy, objectives and strategy as well as interagency collaboration should be considered as elements in a ‘staged approach’ to understanding how assets are managed within organisations. This will allow for a more comprehensive framework for engineering asset management that considers social and contextual elements. Asset governance details the policies and processes needed to acquire, utilise, maintain and account for an organisation’s assets. It stems from corporate governance principles and defines the management context in which engineering asset management is implemented. This will be examined to determine the appropriate relationship between organisational strategic management and strategic asset management to further the theoretical engagement with the maturity of strategy, policy and governance for infrastructure and engineered assets. The chapter draws on a document analysis of corporate reports and policy recommendations in terms of infrastructure and engineered assets. The chapter concludes that incorporating an integrated asset management framework can promote a more robust conceptualisation of public assets and how they combine to provide a comprehensive system of service outcomes.

Towards a best practice asset management framework for electrical power distribution organisations

Asset management in electrical power distribution organizations is becoming progressively explicit. However, organizations are encountering much difficulties in outlining and institutionalizing their asset management because of the complexity of the discipline. This paper has developed a useful capability maturity model for benchmarking and improving asset management for electrical power distribution organizations. In addition, a process-based framework is introduced for asset management, where thirteen key process areas and seven attributes are identified in this research for electrical power distribution organizations. Implementation of such model should enable these organizations to manage their assets more effectively for optimal service delivery as well as ensure reliability of their assets.

Developing tools to support complex infrastructure decision‐making

Purpose – The rapidly changing role of capital city airports has placed demands on surrounding infrastructure. The need for infrastructure management and coordination is increasing as airports and cities grow and share common infrastructure frameworks. The purpose of this paper is to document the changing context in Australia, where the privatisation of airports has stimulated considerable land development with resulting pressures on surrounding infrastructure provision. It aims to describe a tool that is being developed to support decision-making between various stakeholders in the airport region. The use of planning support systems improves both communication and data transfer between stakeholders and provides a foundation for complex decisions on infrastructure. Design/methodology/approach – The research uses a case study approach and focuses on Brisbane International Airport and Brisbane City Council. The research is primarily descriptive and provides an empirical assessment of the challenges of developing and implementing planning support systems as a tool for governance and decision-making. Findings – The research assesses the challenges in implementing a common data platform for stakeholders. Agency data platforms and models, traditional roles in infrastructure planning, and integrating similar data platforms all provide barriers to sharing a common language. The use of a decision support system has to be shared by all stakeholders with a common platform that can be versatile enough to support scenarios and changing conditions. The use of iPadss for scenario modelling provides stakeholders the opportunity to interact, compare scenarios and views, and react with the modellers to explore other options. Originality/value – The research confirms that planning support systems have to be accessible and interactive by their users. The Airport City concept is a new and evolving focus for airport development and will place continuing pressure on infrastructure servicing. A coordinated and efficient approach to infrastructure decision-making is critical, and an interactive planning support system that can model infrastructure scenarios provides a sound tool for governance.

Strategic asset management framework for the improvement of large scale PV power plants in Australia

The stringent environmental regulations and higher energy demands due to increasing population are main concerns for the energy industries. In order to comply with the environmental regulations and also to improve the energy supply of large scale photovoltaic (PV) power plants are developing rapidly as an alternative energy source to fossil fuels. Management of large scale PV power plants has become a challenging issue mainly due to the absence of less structured strategic asset management framework. This paper has addressed to this gap and proposed a well-structured strategic asset management framework for large scale PV power plants. The study have also pointed out that due to lack of clear policies and without having a specific framework for PV or solar assets, Australia is lagging behind in the production of solar energy than Europe and Asian countries despite having highest solar radiation per kilometer square. The proposed framework will provide a basis for understanding the current status of individual solar farms and the way forward to improve the asset management capabilities.