NEN-2767 helped to define and manage assets
Menno Wieten is asset manager data and information at the water authority HDSR, and in his role, he is co-responsible for asset data and working with IFS Ultimo at HDSR. In this article, Menno explains the place of asset management in his Water Board, how working with the NEN-2767 standard helps them and what the benefits are of working with IFS Ultimo in the Cloud.
“In 2018, we actively began to give asset management a place in our organization. That same year, we began implementing IFS Ultimo. To secure asset management even more successfully, we started working with the NEN-2767 methodology. This helped us to define assets and manage the entire physical area of assets of our water system.
With the blueprint list established by the asset teams and based on the NEN, we literally went through the field and mapped everything. Starting with key assets, such as pumping stations. Then, starting in 2020, we introduced standardization in physical object types, asset definitions and tooling. Language and definitions are incredibly important in digital transformation. To communicate effectively and use technology appropriately, you need to be sure that all teams and departments are talking about the same thing.
As of 2017, there is also more focus on data management. And in 2021, the vision for digital transformation was formulated, with several goals. One of the goals is data-driven and asset-oriented work.
As a part of this, we are working on various digitization developments. One is the transition to IFS Ultimo in the cloud. With the options offered by the cloud and IFS Ultimo, we are better able to link with other data sources to ultimately implement balancing between performance, risks and costs (= asset management). But for this to happen, we first had to map out what features were possible.”
Working more efficiently with more features
We wanted to make it possible for the people in the field, through a mobile version of IFS Ultimo, to perform their work locally and more efficiently. This was possible through IFS UItimo’s mobile app in the Cloud; the IFS Ultimo GO. In the old situation, they first had to go to a physical workstation to access IFS Ultimo again to process their work report and inspection report. This was cumbersome and we felt it could be more efficient.
There was also a desire to work with the features of Ultimo’s Infra module, which was available in the cloud. So for us, this was a good reason to take advantage of the possibilities of the cloud. This transition to the cloud went smoothly. We now work a lot more efficiently, and in a uniform way. The next step for us is to even better and proactively monitor the performance and status of assets so that we take yet another step in being data-driven.”
