Austroads has published a new tool to assist asset management practitioners that develops their understanding of factors that enable and sustain continual improvement.
National, state and local governments in Australia and New Zealand are collectively responsible for over 900,000km of road, valued at more than $250 billion. Surveys have indicated road management organisations do not always have a structured continual improvement process that satisfies the requirements of ISO55001:2014 Asset management – Asset management – Management Systems – Requirements.
Having a structured process in place has the potential to provide significant value to organisations.
Austroads’ study suggests that at the core of every successful organisation implementing continual improvement, is a supportive and enabling environment. Once this environment is achieved, continual improvement will become second nature.
The guideline provides a high-level framework to help ensure successful implementation of continual improvement measures, including:
- Creating a continual improvement environment (that provides the support and capacity to best enable improvement to occur)
- Identifying improvement opportunities
- Evaluating and prioritising improvement proposals
- Implementing continual improvement initiatives
- Monitoring the results of the initiative and sustaining the improvement initiative
Continual improvement tools and techniques are also provided along with case studies from local councils and state government agencies which demonstrate the benefits of implementing continual improvement.
The guideline was developed through research and extensive engagement with around 80 industry professionals.
The background research report aims to provide asset management practitioners, in both small and large organisations, with an understanding of the methodology utilised to create the framework.
Read the full report here.
