Effective asset management of critical assets

Kent County Council tackles complex tunnel asset management with Thinkproject.

Supporting the road network with safe, reliable tunnel infrastructure

Project

Kent County Council is “committed to excellent management of the highway network, not only to meet the present needs of residents, businesses, visitors and communities, but also considering the needs of future generations.” The council currently has numerous infrastructure improvement projects underway and upcoming, enabling a more efficient infrastructure network for the future. 

For busy councils, administrative tasks associated with operations and maintenance can quickly add up. KCC has a diverse set of assets, and ensuring they are properly maintained and operated is essential to maintaining safety and keeping Kent moving. These tunnels serve the residents of Kent and other road users; therefore, it is imperative that they remain in good condition, in operation and most importantly, meet the high safety requirements of the Council. 

Assets managed
  • 1,100
    bridges & viaducts
    570
    large culverts
    450
    other structures
    2
    tunnels & underpasses

About Kent County Council

Serving 1,578,500 residents, Kent County Council is one of the largest local authorities in England, and the largest of all the counties in the south east. Amongst the council’s duties, they are responsible for public services, transport, planning, public safety and more.

The highway network is a huge undertaking for the council, who maintain around 5,400 miles of highway network that serves not only residents, but other road users on a busy main highway system. Amongst their responsibilities are the tunnel structures and their associated assets, including bridges, underpasses, culverts and more, totaling a value of £1.3 million. Under the Highways Act 1980, the council has a statutory obligation to maintain the highway so that it remains safe and functional.  

  • “The support offered by the Thinkproject team has been a great help to us. The time and care spent onboarding our team means we have the knowledge to continue building and developing the tunnel records over time without being reliant on external parties. We had instant communication channels with Thinkproject, who have always been on-hand to answer our questions.”
    Helen Rowe
    Structure & Tunnels Asset Manager
  • “Using a system to map the assets in a way that mimics how we consider them in operational terms was a noticeable improvement and stood out when we were choosing our asset management solution. The further development Thinkproject is undertaking to support our safety goals will be a great addition for us.”
    Talha Ghaffar
    Structural Engineer
Optimising processes with a digital solution

Challenge

Previously, KCC was using a manual system to store, record and access hard copies of its data. This data was spread between the main servers and tunnel operations buildings, meaning without a central storage space accessible by all parties, documents were unable to be verified as in-date or still relevant. 

The council’s use of complex mechanical and electrical (M&E) equipment added extra administration that needed to be accounted for and needed a powerful platform to be able to handle this bespoke development. 

The council was able to identify its needs as it looked to an asset management solution to support with its operations. 

In short, a digital solution would enable project teams to rely on accurate information that could be accessed quickly by any permitted parties, speeding up efficiency and reducing potentially costly errors or duplicate work.

After exploring alternative competitive solutions that were not able to meet all requirements, the council chose to collaborate with Thinkproject with Asset Management (ASSET & WORK MANAGER). 

Needs

 

  • To access files quickly and verify if they are in-date 
  • Digital records of an asset’s inspection, maintenance or servicing requirements 
  • A map-based system to locate defects quickly 
  • An accurate, dated audit trail of an asset’s age and condition 
  • “We identified that our previous approach wasn’t enabling KCC to manage tunnels assets effectively. When we started exploring options for asset management support, we understood that the complexities of our assets meant we had to look for a powerful solution that could work with our specific needs."
    Helen Rowe
    Structure & Tunnels Asset Manager
  • "Thinkproject were able to work with us and find out how we needed to use the software, whilst offering further development to make sure we were using the platform to get the most efficient results for our operations.”
    Helen Rowe
    Structure & Tunnels Asset Manager
Improving clarity with a complete overview

Solution

A key requirement for KCC was having a clear overview of the assets linked with its M&E equipment. There was a challenge that needed to be overcome, where traditionally adding the ‘child’ M&E assets (for example, an individual jet fan) into the database would assign separately to other assets (such as bridges or culverts), whereas the team needed an overview of the entire ‘parent’ asset as a whole (fans, culverts, etc., being smaller assets within the larger tunnel asset). 

With Thinkproject’s asset management solution, KCC was able to develop its own asset hierarchy bespoke to its needs.

It was crucial to the teams working on different assets to have the ‘parent’ overview as well as oversight of all ‘child’ assets ongoing, as this clarity can avoid duplicate work, delays and improve efficiency. Most importantly, without this central database the required inspection and servicing frequencies ran the risk of not being legally compliant and could lead to jeopardised safety and quality. By being able to tailor the solution, such as grouping in specific folders, the council could gain greater control over the granularity of the asset mapping, allowing the modelling of the complex tunnel system as a whole.  

With critical safety requirements, the team was afforded a complete overview that ensured all assets within a tunnel were operating normally, meaning the risk of down-time was reduced, as well as being able to be on top of upcoming maintenance, inspections and associated audit activity. In addition to the asset hierarchy improvements, the spatial mapping built into the software means all asset locations are digitally mapped, giving new clarity to operations and the teams carrying out work, which could now see exactly where works are needed. 

Thinkproject was able to work closely with the KCC team during onboarding and set-up, ensuring the asset management solution was supporting the team to the full advantage. 

Every asset comes with its own unique complexities, and KCC has found that often, it is the structural part of an asset that is the least resource intensive. With the M&E assets requiring the most attention, being able to easily sort, find and report on the ‘child’ assets was a necessity for KCC that meant other structure asset management systems would not be the right fit.  

With Thinkproject’s asset hierarchy flexibility, ability to include folders to group assets together, spatial mapping and easy user interface, the asset management solution provides clear and intuitive viewing. The visual representation offered allows for clear and intuitive viewing of asset status and location on a map. Additionally, the ability to plot assets on different layers, such as for different asset types, and the option to toggle these layers on and off as needed, greatly enhances management and focus. 

Thinkproject offered

  • Customisation

    Customised asset hierarchy

  • Full overview

    Modeling the tunnel system as a whole

  • Improved management

    Greater control over granularity of asset mapping

  • Digital mapping

    Spatial mapping defects to their location digitally

  • Alert system

    Further configuration underway on alerts

Complex systems, simple management

Result

Tunnels are critical components when it comes to transport networks, they require specialised and skilled maintenance and monitoring. As a local authority, KCC’s key mission is to serve the public with a safe and reliable service, including tunnel infrastructure.  

With Thinkproject, ASSET & WORK MANAGER’s user-friendliness and customisation options make complex asset management a seamless experience for project teams, enabling them to continue the hard work of keeping the tunnels up and running to the highest standards of safety. With the continued work by KCC to input the assets into the database, plus Thinkproject’s intuitive visual representation of the assets, the complex tunnel maintenance can be afforded a clear overview that benefits the team, their stakeholders and the supply chain. 

Key results 

  • Data is more secure and easier to store and access than traditional paper-based methods 
  • Better clarity on assets means more informed decision-making in the future 
  • Ongoing development of the asset database means better strategic decisions 
  • Cloud-based solution reduces paper-based administrative errors 
  • The complex asset system can be managed holistically with flexibility to be adapted 

Next steps 

  • The ability for API integration with other systems within Thinkproject means the team will ensure improved collaboration with the supply chain 
  • Continuing development with the Thinkproject team will bring a new alert feature into the asset database, to notify when minimum operation requirements are not met 
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