Abstract
Infrastructure Asset Management (IAM) as a specialised field/discipline has gained prominence internationally over the past two decades as business entities attempt to improve the life span, efficiency and cost effective utilization of their assets. This is not surprising as infrastructure, including water infrastructure, is by its very nature generally expensive to build and maintain and is meant to perform effectively throughout its lifecycle, which on average spans over several decades (Alegre, 2010). Throughout the lifecycle of an asset, decisions need to be taken that relate to maintenance, technological refreshment (upgrades) and disposal of the operational asset. At the heart of this decision making and implementation of these decisions is technical information. In the year 2012 the organisation formally adopted asset management and as part of that process it undertook an exercise in which it evaluated its asset management practices. The exercise looked at 17 Key Performance Areas which if according to the measurement framework that was utilised, were at best practice levels, would indicate that the organisation was managing its assets well. One of the KPAs that was assessed was technical information management and it was found that the accuracy and availability of technical information in the organisation was between 50 – 70 %. Such relatively low levels of information and accuracy were impacting the effective management of the organisation’s assets. This study sought to establish the current state of information availability and accuracy, and outline the factors that influence the availability and accuracy of information. This in turn would give...
M.Phil. (Engineering Management)