WATER ASSET MANAGEMENTImproved data visibility, quality, and complianceResulting in improved response times, levels of service, quality, and cost.

Tararua District Council was created by an amalgamation of four main townships in 1989 covering 4,360km². Situated in the south-east of New Zealand’s North Island, the District is home to nearly 19,000 residents. Tararua Alliance is a collaborative partnership between the Council and Downer New Zealand Ltd. Together, they manage and maintain the Council’s transport and water infrastructure to improve outcomes for the community.

With its population spread across the district, there is strong dependence by communities and the agriculture industry on freshwater, wastewater and stormwater reticulation infrastructure. Stakeholder visibility, knowledge, and understanding of the Three Waters network is critical, and a key priority for the Alliance to enable the acceleration of asset performance for sustainably managed infrastructure.

Tararua District Council

RAMM Three Waters and Facilities Management

A system review was needed to drastically improve visibility and streamline processes The Alliance recognised the need to improve the management and maintenance of its water infrastructure, in addition to its capital works needs and asset valuation process. As with most local government authorities, multiple asset management systems were in place across various infrastructure and property asset repositories. The challenge of managing disparate systems, each with different workflows and varying levels of functionality and performance, presented an opportunity to review the systems in place to support their objective.

One of these systems was RAMM, Thinkproject’s geospatially enabled and fully integrated solution for asset management, operation and maintenance. RAMM had been in situ for decades for the transport infrastructure, with the Alliance utilising the complete Asset Management, Work Management, and Field Management solution suite. An alternative asset management system was used for other asset classes including water, property and facilities, and open spaces. This, however, did not include any spatial functionality, limiting the ability to view assets beyond a one-dimensional aspect.

Following the review, the Alliance decided to standardise on RAMM to better meet the requirements, scale, and complexity of its infrastructure and property asset repositories.

To provide an analytical basis for comparison of the asset management systems, the Alliance decided to perform a time-in-motion study. And the results speak for themselves – RAMM was 10 times faster. Creating and displaying an asset, with the added benefit of being able to visualise that asset on the map, provided a major improvement for the Alliance in terms of time taken to create, identify, and view assets spatially in relation to each other. In the field, significant time was saved by identifying assets on the Map and capturing data in real-time using Pocket RAMM, the Field Management solution. Streamlining workflows provided further time savings and, with minimal training required to be able to efficiently operate within RAMM, the team were up and running quickly and effortlessly.

10x

RAMM was 10 times faster in a time-in-motion

study

Effortlessly manage asset and maintenance work

directly on the integrated map

Simplify visualisation,

analysis, interpretation and

understanding

“The amount of training required to get someone up to speed is minimal, and on-going learning can be self-directed as RAMM is very intuitive. RAMM’s Help videos have been invaluable for our staff when immediate help is not at hand.”

Data-driven decisions for better outcomes

The Alliance scoped their requirements and what was needed to remedy internal challenges, deliver ease of operation in the field, provide transparency and accountability between parties, and importantly, satisfy the public with accessibility and reliability to enhance community experience and satisfaction.

They also wanted to ensure they had a solution that supported data relevance, credibility, legitimacy, and effectiveness for data-driven decisions. The Alliance decided it was essential to adopt the New Zealand Asset Metadata Standards (NZAMS) to enhance the quality and consistency of three waters asset management schema. RAMM would then be used as the digital solution to aggregate, analyse, and share data insights to enable evidence-based decisions and reporting on asset criticality, condition, and performance.

Achieving compliance and powerful data insightsThinkproject are specialists in software development, configuration, data migration, and implementation, providing the Alliance with valuable capability and expertise for their project requirements. In collaboration with the Alliance, Thinkproject configured the asset hierarchy and data structure in alignment with NZAMS in order to support consistent, quality asset metadata and associated reporting.

Datasets for three waters and water treatment facilities were migrated into RAMM where they are now geospatially represented in a single source of truth, allowing for aggregated data analysis and reporting in line with the national standards.

Data quality is crucial in performing an accurate asset valuation of their entire water infrastructure, an essential process that is now achievable. Further, if asset data defined by NZAMS has not yet been captured or requires validation, RAMM’s flexible User Defined Tables system allows them to start their standardisation journey with the information available by deactivating fields, and reactivating as their asset data evolves. One data source supplied by the Alliance were 2D schematics, the actual piping and instrumentation diagrams, for the water treatment facilities. This presented an exciting opportunity to develop a unique and innovative solution to better visualise asset data in these complex plans and deliver real value for both the asset owner and contractor.

Schematic Navigator was developed in RAMM and implemented with the Alliance. The new module enables them to upload a library of documents and categorise them by the asset hierarchy and asset type. Assets and components are simply outlined on the document and linked to pre-defined asset metadata. When an asset is selected on the schematic, the asset record is displayed on a pop-up and in the asset hierarchy, and vice versa when an asset is selected on the hierarchy it’s displayed on the schematic. This allows them to navigate vertical and horizontal asset structures with ease, no matter how complex, to locate and update asset information. Asset records linked directly to the location on a diagram simplifies and streamlines asset management, operation and maintenance workflows.

The Alliance now has its three waters network and 13 water treatment facilities in RAMM for asset management, operation and maintenance activities. With its intuitive map interface, assets and task-based workflows are represented geospatially alongside the asset hierarchy. Custom map layers allow for water infrastructure assets and associated activity to be easily located and managed by the Alliance, whether in the office or out in the field.

Navigate complex vertical and horizontal asset structures with ease

They now have a holistic view of critical infrastructure, both transport and water, which produces powerful insights when combined with RAMM’s data visualisation technology.

Major capital projects for the water network have now been completed and robust decisions around forward work planning have been made using more detailed, accurate, and specific data. Locating an asset on the map and planning maintenance on other assets in the vicinity has helped the Alliance achieve greater efficiency of resources.

To further leverage the successful outcomes, Thinkproject and the Alliance are now planning the migration and implementation of RAMM for other asset classes – providing a truly single source of truth for all asset data.

Single source of

truth

RAMM

Smart asset management for sustainably managed infrastructure Visualising data is essential as assets become more intricate and equipped with connected sensors and virtual structures. They are so complex within a small area that GIS alone struggles to visualise them.

Data visualisation is transforming asset management by shifting from static, textual datasets to dynamic, data rich solutions with the application of visualisation principles in 2D, 3D, and 4D spaces. Our approach to data visualisation ensures that as the Alliance progress on their digital transformation journey, the solution transforms with them. The next phase is Schematic 3D Navigator, enabling 2D schematics to be converted into interactive 3D models, and for common 3D formats and BIM data to be imported directly into RAMM. The journey continues with digital twins, technology currently under development, where RAMM will combine asset data with real-time sensor data to drive predictive maintenance capabilities.

Thinkproject are collaborating with other private, public and academic sector leadership in the Digital Twin Challenge, led by the Smart Cities Council Australia New Zealand, to progress 13 projects that will accelerate the regions capability. Projects cover a wide spectrum of strategies, roadmaps and frameworks for planning and design, data management and sharing, utilising IoT and AI for digital twin performance, sustainability, education and community engagement, and asset optimisation. We’re co-leading the Asset Optimisation Framework and GIS to Digital Twin Roadmap.

RAMM is an innovative asset management, operation and maintenance solution with mobile apps enabling live and offline operation in the field. Connecting stakeholders in a single source of truth, RAMM promotes collaboration, transparency and efficiency across the asset lifecycle. With asset hierarchies aligned with national data standards, RAMM supports compliance, data quality and consistency while enhancing the ability to aggregate, analyse, and share data insights for evidence-based decisions and reporting on asset criticality, condition, and performance.

Thinkproject’s leading-edge technology combines RAMM asset data with 2D schematics, 3D models, and digital twins to accelerate asset performance and optimisation in conjunction with preventative and predictive maintenance capabilities for sustainably managed assets.

“We carried out a time and motion study to compare RAMM with the existing asset management system used for Three Waters. RAMM is easily 10 times faster – that’s significant savings in time and cost.

One of the biggest advantages of migrating to RAMM has been time.

Since moving our assets into RAMM, we have managed to improve quality, accuracy, and level of detail of our asset data across all Three Waters asset types.”

Nicky CampbellAsset Information TechnicianTararua Alliance

thinkproject.com

Europe-based Thinkproject is a leading construction and engineering SaaS provider. Turning intelligence from data and industry experts into an advantage for customers, it is at the forefront of the digitalisation and transformation of the AECO industry.

With 500 employees worldwide, Thinkproject provides digital solutions enabling the management of asset lifecycles to:

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