IDS Project Challenges Faced – NZ’s Asset Management Success Story Revealed (Video)

Transcription

Good morning, it’s Ross Waugh here from Inframanage.com. And we’re continuing our series of videos on Infrastructure Decision Support, the IDS project in New Zealand.

In our previous videos, we’ve looked at the successes and the model that we’ve been running with IDS. And in this video, we want to just be open and honest about some of the challenges that this project has had.

This collaborative model obviously had a lot of work that needs to be done. And over an 18-year project, we’ve been well aware of these challenges as an industry.

I’m here with David Fraser and Theuns Henning. And David you were going to lead off with some of those challenges that have been faced.

David:  Yes Ross, this is actually a very interesting question you’ve raised here. One of the challenges we faced is that people who are good at modeling don’t necessarily have a background of the practical side of the industry and so they have this attitude for modeling but don’t necessarily fully appreciate all the ins and outs and nuances that the seasoned practitioner would have from working in the field.

On the other hand, when you approach a seasoned practitioner, he may not have the real aptitude for modeling. So the challenge we have is how do we get those two parties together, understand their differences, understand the opportunities that each of them creates for the other and then proceed with what’s best for the asset, what’s best for the owner of the asset in the long run. And it’s quite a challenge.

Ross:   And I think in one of our previous videos, we’ve talked about there’s still road controlling authorities in New Zealand that were sitting there watching. And do you think that’s part of that dynamic with those people with a strong operational basis? Maybe the complexity of the model is something that they’re not convinced about?

Theuns: Absolutely Ross. Yes, I believe that’s one of the factors that keep them back. In the same way, there’s also a sense of complexity around the model. There’s mathematical equations. There are some basic statistics that are part of the modeling process.

And often being perceived by engineers as a very complex issue, and I think we often have technical staff as David said, that make very good modelers but they might not be always capable of selling the outcome in a simple understandable fashion. So we have had a number of iterations trying to improve especially on the communication side in doing that part better.

Ross:   I think that example is given of Central Otago in the previous video where they did take the model and the practitioners together to verify that the model was a real adaptation that’s come along recently that has added some strength to what’s been quite a challenge in this project.

Theuns: Indeed it reminds a challenge to get field people the appreciation for the different lengths that the model puts on the planning of road maintenance work is just a different perspective that the human eye and the human brain necessarily have.

So we want to give them a greater appreciation of the value that the outcomes bring to the field process at the same time we want to get the modelers to have a greater appreciation of some practical aspects of the modeling outcomes, that they can communicate better or perhaps they can gather some more practical aspects of the modeling process.

David:  And I think Ross even, to add to this, one of the complications we have is quite often there’s a turnover of staff in the council. So you may have somebody who’s been right in with the play, knows what’s going on, he moves on to another place or he or she moves on to another place and replaced by somebody who’s quite fresh to this and they don’t necessarily understand the background or the why’s or wherefores. So we have to make sure that we are available to actually help those people through when we can.

Theuns: One of IDS’s main strategies is to keep on replenishing our modeling group. The reality is they would say the good modelers get noticed. They get better offers somewhere else or they get promoted into more strategically within the organization. So we do these skills if they’re definitely in our group.

Ross:   Yes. I know from observing IDS and the industry over a long period of time, and it is part of the reasons why I’m making this video for New Zealand is with those changes in staff and personnel and political interface and senior executives in organizations, the story of what’s been going on with IDS is tended to get lost sometimes and people try to reinvent the wheel again and David, you might be in a good position to comment on that.

David:  Ross I think one thing we shouldn’t lose sight in that IDS and the modeling services it provides is strategic. So it’s actually a long-term talk.

And quite often people who are trying to understand what’s going on are very focused on the operational or the short-term needs and they can’t… it’s quite hard for people to grasp that what you do for the long term may not necessarily address the short term thing you see immediately. So there are some other challenges just in creating that understanding the long-term responsibilities and some of the trade-offs for the here and now.

Ross:   And so just to wrap up this video. The real tension between short-term operational – got to get the job done now, directions for the engineers who are in the road controlling authority of the network, looking after the network, versus the real gains that it can be got from strategic modelling and just maintaining the skill base and managing that tension is being one of the real challenges of the IDS project over the last 18 years.

Thanks for watching the video, just to invite you to continue to watch.

Our next video is going to be around “Can this model be deployed in other places.”

So we look forward to seeing you there.