The AMDS team recently launched version 1.0 of the Asset Management Data Standard. We talked to Michaela James from the AMDS programme about the development approach for the first version and what can we expect in the future.
I am an Asset Management data consultant with a background in civil engineering, asset management, wastewater separation and design, and structural permitting. Having worked with asset management data for several years, I have been on the AMDS programme for 4 years, working closely with the other standard SMEs, applying my asset management knowledge, and developing an understanding of good practice in data modelling.
We started by using the Austroads Road Data Harmonisation programme as a reference, which provided the initial direction for AMDS. An ontological model of transport asset management in NZ was developed by our experts. Through this lens, we considered our legacy asset data and transformed it to allow a more consistent approach.
We have to understand what the drivers are in terms of data collection, as this is often linked to reporting and funding prerequisites.
How we have been doing this, and to accelerate standard development, we are working with Waka Kotahi and sector SMEs from Fulton Hogan, WSP, Downer, HEB, and Higgins. To understand and incorporate RCA requirements, we established the RCA Data Standard Working Group with members from small to large councils. This group meets regularly to discuss new standard developments and provides validation before formal releases of asset classes to the sector.
The standard is iterative and continues to be developed, with future phases being released.
Our focus includes the asset management lifecycle which will enable us to monitor trends in impacts, service performance, or asset condition improving the understanding of when and why maintenance renewal and improvement activities are needed, what different roadworks can achieve and cost, and how they should be designed and scoped to address all service defects and outcomes together for least disruption. This includes Forward Work Planning, where we recently engaged with AMDS SMEs for feedback on the approach and proposed framework.
AMDS will also support current and future multimodal networks, reflecting planning and design activities for asset management. For new phases, these will be released as a candidate release and circulated for feedback. We will continue with the four-week review cycle before incorporating feedback into the next release version.
As sector requirements change, this will be reflected in the standard. Examples include environmental and cultural concerns, carbon emissions, and modes of travel. We will look to incorporate this into our existing ontology and structure our data to reflect reporting requirements in the future.
Once we start collecting data and can produce good analytics, we may find some fields are not being used, or there is information not being collected that should be, so we will adapt our approach along the way.
