IMC-2016 Learning Zone - 36:34
by Bob Leitch, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Civil Works oversees and administers an asset portfolio with more than $250 billion in capital investments and 3,000 operating projects located in all 50 states, as well as several international river basins. The portfolio continues to deliver daily benefits to almost every U.S. household that range from clean hydro-electric power and low-emission transport to recreational opportunities and flood mitigation. Reliable performance of the nation’s investment in infrastructure is essential to the asset portfolio’s ability to deliver safe and dependable service. The cornerstone of reliability is a maintenance management strategy developed to meet the organizational performance objectives.
This effort began in 2012, after USACE finished deployment of the U.S. Department of Defense’s Facilities and Equipment Management (FEM) system (based on IBM’s Maximo software) and completed a series of internal assessments of maintenance practices. This led to a surprising conclusion: while there was a proven track record of maintaining facilities well beyond their design life at the local project levels, USACE lacked a maintenance management strategy with which to enhance that reliable performance corporately. Although certain USACE maintenance management practices were identified as “best practices” for innovative and successful methods to maintain assets, the majority of existing maintenance management activities were very inconsistent nationally.
In response to this, USACE developed a corporate life-cycle maintenance management strategy as a fundamental part of its overall Asset Management strategy. The Maintenance Management Strategy addressed all maintenance practices and responsible elements (Planning, Engineering & Construction, Operations, and Logistics), and developed a framework for consistent maintenance planning, execution, and analysis.
