The report is being written in “plain English,” Ng said, adding that its focus is on “going beyond facts and statistics, looking instead at the human value of our assets, showing how they help the country. It’s a different way of looking at the corporate picture.”
Once the report is completed, Ng said he hopes that USACE employees, as well as decision-makers outside the Corps, will be better able to understand USACE’s strategic investment needs.
USACE has initiated a National Asset Management approach as a documented standard process. This approach looks at operational risk, the condition of critical components, and their relationship to keeping a lock operating. Photo by Jeff Hawk, USACE
“We [also] are working toward a resource investment priority system that is based on consistent, repeatable, transparent, and auditable data integrated across all project purposes and informed by assessment and analysis of asset condition and risk,” he said. These four factors come together to provide knowledge of investment alternatives and impact to value to the nation, which directly informs decisions that reflect national objectives.
One of the biggest initiatives for Ng’s Asset Management team has been to develop an asset inventory and map showing where the assets can be found. “We’ve been steadily piecing together all the different sources of information into one repository,” he said, which has required reconciling multiple data sources throughout USACE as well as leveraging existing capabilities and ongoing efforts being undertaken by the geospatial, navigation, and real property communities of practice.
To improve maintenance management of its infrastructure, the team has benchmarked USACE practices against similar industry and government practices, and identified opportunities for improved efficiency and effectiveness. “This is important to us to validate our direction and progress in maintenance and management of key assets,” Ng said.
The team is revising its current program management plan, he said, with a focus on integrating and updating the USACE Asset Management initiatives with specific actions, tasks, and responsibilities. The revision also will include a discussion on recapitalization and incorporate the Civil Works Strategic Investment Framework, which articulates how USACE is establishing a dynamic Asset Management corporate culture to meet current and future challenges.
“This is not an easy task, yet I’ve been very gratified to see the progress the AM [Asset Management] team has made on developing key foundational elements of a comprehensive, consistent, defendable new AM approach, with particular progress made with the inland navigation system,” said Steven Stockton, director of the USACE Civil Works program. “However, there is much work remaining to be done to fully mature AM in all Civil Works functions – and given the scope of the challenges ahead, it must be done corporately, quickly, strategically, and efficiently.”
This article first appeared in the 2011-2012 edition of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers: Building Strong®, Serving the Nation and the Armed Forces publication.