The City of Canning started the process of implementing SAM four years ago. Since then, the Council has implemented SAM for buildings, which they have taken from core to advanced level, as well as parks and recreation, footpaths, plant and fleet, and their drainage network.

“[SAM] gave us a long-term outlook. We were able to then understand those [assets] and then inform our long-term financial plan. We wanted to ensure that over a 10-year period, we were planning to put aside enough money to service those assets’ needs. That became the real focus and benefit that we got from SAM,” said Kevin Gill, Leader Asset Management, City of Canning.

“By understanding what our asset needs were, we were able to then apply them to the services that are delivered. SAM allows you to understand how much you need to either maintain or modify your existing levels of service.”

During the process of implementing SAM, the City of Canning have realised numerous key learnings. Their biggest piece of advice – go at your own pace.

“You don’t have to rush the process, but you also don’t have to have everything in place,” Mr. Gill outlined. “A lot of organisations are faced with ‘do I have enough data; do I have the inputs I need to deliver meaningful and useful asset management plans through SAM?’ Yes, it’s important, yes, the accuracy and the reliability of those will yield better results. But you can also use a top-down approach.”

This was the approach that the City of Canning took. The Council began with a basic understanding of their assets – what they were, where they were located, what sort of asset condition they were in, and what the replacement costs were. With this information, they were able to take a top-down approach and fill in the gaps through assumptions, local experience, and the knowledge of their asset custodians. With this information they were able to prepare some modelling.

With this modelling, Canning was able to begin informing the long-term financial plan, albeit with a lower level of confidence at the beginning. But as Mr. Gill explains, that lower level of confidence went from low to moderate rapidly.

“It’s a cycle of continuous improvement. It’s only going to get better over time,” he added.