Replicating the IDS Project Model – NZ’s Asset Management Success Story Revealed (Video)

Transcription

Good morning, it’s Ross Waugh here from inframanage.com and again we’re continuing the series of videos on IDS, New Zealand’s Infrastructure Decision Support project that’s been running for nearly 20 years now. With me is David Fraser and Theuns Henning.

In this video, we wanted to examine, can this model that we’ve been running, can this project be replicated in another country or another jurisdiction? And the first question that I would like to ask you Theuns is, should it be replicated?

Theuns: Good question Ross. And I wish I had a straight answer for that, the reality it all depends. I think that they may be different levels within a country, small regions or smaller authorities within the pocket of the country that can work together.

Taking it to the United States perhaps at the state level, it’s going to be a difficult process to do. But I think in smaller local authority areas, most of the country that we talked about that are doing asset management, it will be, they will reap the benefits from this model.

Ross:   And David you’ve been with IDS project for the 18 years that it’s been running. Do you think the model can be replicated outside New Zealand?

David:  Yes Ross. It’s an interesting question and if I pre-phrase my answer with the word “depends.” One of the challenges is you need a collaborative spirit, you need a common vision and you need some common goals. Now, to actually achieve that across the number of organizations that you need some good leadership.

And so I think it could be quite easily replicated with the right leadership and that leadership modeling the attitudes and the approaches it wants to see occur across the teams that would be involved.

Ross:   And one of the things that we discussed on the previous videos also is that this has been an 18-year journey for New Zealand, that we don’t have this understanding 18 years ago.

So just looking back over that entire period David, the understanding has grown, the collaboration is growing, the leadership’s come and gone but could you just give us a bit of an insight on that journey in terms of how you would start and where you would go from there.

David:  I think Ross, it’s bit like an athlete training at times. You cannot drop the ball. You got to keep yourself in good condition and fit. The enthusiasm from across the industry has waxed and waned a little. And sometimes when we make the assumption that everybody’s on board, you find it to have actually…..you’ve dropped the ball.

So we just need to make sure that we keep in touch, that people understand what the vision is. And as new people come into the relative workforce and different teams that they understand what it’s all about and why and how it’s happened. Yes, that’s part of the challenge.

Theuns: There’s differently a strategy needed for all the aspects that make up such initiative like this one. The resources, for example, the technical resources, you need to replenish that pool with the young ones, with new ones all the time.

The experienced modelers got places and they need that stimulation from the young ones challenging the status quo, coming up with new ideas. So you got to keep the whole process vibrant. And for each one of those aspects, you need a strategy to keep on doing the right things all the time.

Ross:   So just to summarize your responses, David and Theuns, I pick up that it can be a model that can be replicated but it’s a lot of hard work and it’s going to be a learning process as you go along. But we’ve got really got a lot of really good information as to how we managed this journey here in New Zealand.

And if somebody is interested in following us up a bit further, they could have a look at the IDS website. And make contact or reach out to there and if they wanted a bit more specific guidance in a particular area.

David:  Most definitely.

Theuns: Most certainly.

Ross:   Well thank you for watching this video and just to encourage you to watch the last video in the series about has this whole project been worth it? And thank you for taking the time.