Taking care of tomorrow today: Asset management state of play

Whether it is leaky pipes or potholes or cities struggling under demands for growth, New Zealanders will have seen how important it is to look after and plan for infrastructure.

This report is a high-level snapshot of New Zealand’s approach to asset management. It incorporates the findings of independent asset management experts as well as expertise and observations from Te Waihanga.

Key findings

• There is limited awareness of the ‘what’ and ‘why’ of asset management in many sectors. We need to look at the big picture when it comes to infrastructure. This includes everything from strategic planning and management of assets through to the day-to-day maintenance.
• Capability and capacity are the biggest constraints in improving infrastructure asset management maturity in NZ. This includes improving the resourcing and skillset of the asset management workforce, as well as the leadership and governance of the asset management system across most sectors.
• There is little transparency of infrastructure and asset management performance and planning. This includes a lack of user-friendly access to information on how infrastructure is performing and what future funding intentions are.
• There is need to better provide for renewal and maintenance of infrastructure. In some cases, funding gaps for maintenance and renewals are known, but there is not always the appetite to achieve the investment required.
• Demand planning and management needs greater focus and we can go further than a Statistics New Zealand population forecast. This could include greater understanding of demographic change, customer behaviour, demand management strategies and potential future scenarios.
• Making the most of operational programmes is a key opportunity for improvement. Organisations can usefully quantify the levels of planned versus reactive maintenance to inform more cost-effective approaches to asset management.
• System and Improvement is one of the lowest scoring functions for all sectors. This is shown in a lack of asset management maturity progress for many sectors over the last ten years.
• The study contains recommendations under four key areas:
  1. Improving governance and leadership
  2. Improving transparency in asset management practices, infrastructure performance and medium-long term funding plans
  3. better prioritising of resilience over ‘recovery’
  4. Build asset management capacity and capability.