Quintessential was tasked as a strategic partner to Defence to undertake a pilot initiative across the Air Domain to design and implement an Asset Management program in accordance with the principles of the ISO55001 Asset Management standard. This standard was selected due to its flexibility to ensure that the asset management practices adopted could be applied in a contextually accurate and practical manner within a SPO environment. The purpose of the Asset Management Program was to implement a working system at an Aerospace SPO with which to:

1. Design and implement asset management methodologies and practices
2. Identify the different factors associated with asset management and how each contributes to the value delivered by the Platform capability
3. Manage the range of stakeholders involved and how they contribute to asset management
4. Articulate the roles and scope of responsibilities for each stakeholder
5. Create linkages between lower level ‘operational’ forums with higher level ‘strategic and governance’ forums

Quintessential undertook the design of an Asset Management program seeking to provide a means by which the decision makers could contextually understand the various factors that contribute to ability of the asset to deliver value. Specifically, it involved enabling those organisations that are part of the platform’s stakeholder community to most effectively deliver mission ready and cost-effective capability, as per the following:

“Asset management is an activity that is managed by the Unit and performed with the relevant stakeholders in order to enable the platform capability to be mission ready at an affordable cost of ownership, in support of operational requirements.”

Quintessential created the program as a parallel development involving concurrent design and implementation of new practices, both aspects informing each other through an iterative process.

Quintessential adopted the following approach:

• Development of an Asset Management Plan (AMP) as a practical guide
• Implementation of Asset Management forums and practices into Business-As-Usual operations
• Development of Value Streams that created a visual representation of the value drivers and to promote more effective decision making

The Value Drivers included:

• Maximising MISSION READINESS
• Assuring optimisation of COST OF OWNERSHIP
• Management of RISK

In order to minimise disruption to Unit and to enable it to perform its business-as-usual operations, Quintessential adopted an immersive approach that sought to understand their needs from internal observations and experience. The changes were implemented gradually with Quintessential coaching the Unit leadership through a series of iterative steps.

This strategy was deliberately crafted in preference to a large ‘step-change’ approach in order to enable:

• The opportunity for the Leadership Team to contribute and buy-in to the outcomes
• Time to reflect, consider and provide feedback to the changes
• Progressively shift behaviours, mindset and practice

As a result of the implementation strategy, the workforce progressively adopted these new practices through embedding of the concepts and ideas into routine activity. This adoption created new behaviours and the new behaviours started to enable new ways of thinking to raise novel possibility and opportunity.

The asset management practices were both documented and implemented at the same time as evidence by the delivery of the plan and also the creation of new behaviours and mindsets. Deliverables included:

1. CASG DOMEX Best of Breed Product Management concept development
2. Development of Asset Management Framework and Tools, including:
   1. Value Stream visualisation of Mission Readiness and Cost of Ownership
   2. Redesigned Commander’s Update Brief
   3. Creation of an Asset Management Working Group
   4. Practical application of Fundamental Inputs to Capability (FIC) elements
3. Platform Management Plan (PMP) – Management Unit level.

The implementation strategy enabled changes in workforce behaviours through the adoption of an asset management perspectives. This included a demonstrated ability to better understand and appreciate long term implication of platform management, and the ability to make more effective decisions in context of the platform’s stage of product lifecycle. It also brought together the Platform’s stakeholder community through better articulation of their accountabilities and responsibilities associated with their contribution to Mission Readiness, Cost of Ownership and Risk.

The project also included the coaching and mentoring of the Unit staff to facilitate transfer of knowledge to Commonwealth Personnel.