Transforming Freight Terminal Asset Management

A freight inland terminal was established on a former landfill site in the 1970s.  Strategically located within a major metropolitan freight hub, it plays a crucial role in linking the national transport network with key seaports.  The facility operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, making pavement maintenance particularly challenging.

By the mid 2010’s, however, the site’s infrastructure had reached the end of its service life.  The existing maintenance regime was unable to keep with the rate of deterioration.  Without structured asset management practices in place, repairs were reactive and financially unsustainable.  Pavement and drainage conditions were effectively running away from the maintenance regime, leading to mounting operational inefficiencies, increased safety risks, and escalating costs.

Lack of structured asset management systems drove reactive, unsustainable maintenance and persistent safety issues

With the terminal’s infrastructure already in decline, the challenge was not to simply repair the assets, but to sustain operations under limited budget.  This meant tackling the problem with better efficiency.

Key issues included:

• Widespread pavement failures creating ongoing and significant potholes leading to lower operational speeds of hoists and trucks
• Safety risks such as hoist operator back injuries and cracking of hoists frames
• Additional hoists were needed due to downtime for repairs
• Reactive patchwork pothole repairs left uneven surfaces, preventing surface drainage causing ponding, which further weakened the pavement structure
• Reactive, unsustainable maintenance that consumed resources without improving long-term outcomes.

The change was to shift from reactive repairs to a disciplined asset management approach that could deliver safer, more reliable performance without an increase in funding.

Ageing assets cannot be sustained through reactive maintenance

The only maintenance strategy at the terminal was reactive maintenance - fixing issues as they appeared.  This approach worked for many years, but when the assets reached the end of service life there was no recognition of the gradual decline, and the reactive strategy became unsustainable.

To address the problem, an Asset Management Framework, guided by ISO 55000 and the International Infrastructure Management Manual (IIMM), was established and implemented.  The framework followed the IIMM structure and provided a comprehensive management system of procedures, task instructions, and templates.

Key applications of the framework included:

• Documenting the asset management objectives, policy, and scope for the terminal
• Establishing customer levels of service and associated performance measures
• Reviewing existing performance (zero harm, pavement condition, operational performance)
• Review maintenance strategies (reactive, renewal, and proactive life-extension)
• Developing and managing the risk register
• Developing a forward works plan, informed by alternative pavement design options
• Preparing a financial forecast
• Implementing an improvement plan and monitoring regime
• Updating the Facilities Manager’s asset management responsibilities to include proactive maintenance strategies using the framework
• Adopting a new procurement method for preventative maintenance, including condition monitoring using road maintenance techniques.

Through this customer levels of service exercise, additional benefits were realised.  For example, line marking – which provides critical wayfinding – had been de-prioritised under the reactive regime due to lack of funding, was reinstated at minimal cost.

The adoption of ISO 55000 and the IIMM framework directly enabled the performance improvements that followed.

The adoption of an asset management framework, guided by ISO 55000 and IIMM, enabled preventative maintenance and extended asset life

Implementation of the asset management framework delivered immediate and measurable improvements.  A review 12 months after the implementation of the change revealed that:

• Pavement condition visibly improved, with surface drainage restored
• Operational turnaround times improved, reducing operational delays
• 25% increase in hoist tyre life as surface conditions improved
• Maintenance-related disruptions dropped significantly, allowing smoother operations
• No further cracked hoist frames were reported – eliminating what had previously been a monthly occurrence
• The hoist fleet size was reduced
• No further back injuries reported

The asset management framework delivered immediate and measurable improvements in safety, efficiency, cost, and asset performance

Broader business outcomes were also achieved

• Asset Management maturity improved from ‘Basic’ to ‘Intermediate’ with an improvement roadmap agreed
• Governance structures embedded asset management into corporate decision-making, reducing reliance on reactive spending
• Lifecycle costing informed a 40-50 year financial outlook, aligning capital expenditure with long-term service needs
• Improved stakeholder confidence and collaboration