AbstractsBusiness Management & Administration

The City of Cape Town water services is currently operating on the reactive mode and their maintenance system is not effectively and efficiently utilized. The lack of proper utilization of Physical Asset Management (PAM) has resulted in the technical department failure to meet the departmental objectives of providing planned and scheduled maintenance activities, reducing equipment downtime and ensuring planned delivery of quality spares at the appropriate time. The aim of the report is to provide guidance in the implementation of physical assets management. The report looks at different maintenance strategies available and evaluates the current operating scenarios for the department and further recommends the relevant strategy that will suit the department. Physical asset management as a maintenance program provides an effective planned and scheduled maintenance system to reduce labor and downtime. This ensures that the correct materials and parts are utilized and that the workmanship is of a high quality. A Maintenance Plan provides documented and sequenced tasks with labour and types of material required to execute the plan. Infrastructure assets are systems that serve defined operational needs, where the intention is to maintain the asset for continual use on a certain level. One of the main aspects in infrastructure network is the degree of interdependency not only within a particular asset network but also among networks. The failure of one component within a network may undermine the performance of other networks. One of the major objectives in an infrastructure network is to maintain the necessary service level through continuous maintenance while ensuring cost effectiveness The initial step is to choose certain maintenance tactics and then decide how often these tactics will be performed. The frequency of maintenance, its actions or tactics depends on the current condition of the equipment which is linked within the technical characteristics of failure and specific monitoring technique. “Regardless of the system you select, you must start from where you are and then develop an orderly series of steps to get where you want to end up, so start by assessing your current situation. The most essential ingredient in your maintenance management system is the people. An excellent system run by poorly trained or unmotivated people will be adequate at best but well trained people with positive attitudes can make an excellent system world class.”-Thomas Westerkamp