Glossary
Acronyms:
| AM: | Asset Management | |
| AMI: | Automatic Metering Infrastructure | |
| AMP: | Asset Management Plan | |
| AMR: | Automatic Meter Reading | |
| ARRA: | American Reinvestment and Recovery Act | |
| CIP: | Capital Improvement Plan | |
| CMMS: | Computerized Maintenance Management System | |
| DO: | Dissolved Oxygen | |
| GIS: | Geographical Information System | |
| GPS: | Geographical Positioning System | |
| ICLEI: | International Council of Local Environmental Initiatives | |
| ISO: | International Organization for Standardization | |
| LOS: | Level of Service | |
| O&M: | Operations and Maintenance | |
| OIS: | Operator Interface System | |
| PM: | Preventative Maintenance | |
| NYSERDA: | New York State Energy Research and Development Authority | |
| R&R: | Repairs and Replacements | |
| SCADA: | Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition | |
| SOP: | Standard Operating Procedure | |
| USGS: | United States Geological Survey | |
| VFD: | Variable Frequency Drive | |
| WEF: | Water Environment Federation |
Key Terms:
Alternate Operating Procedure: Used when operational conditions require that an asset or process be modified or taken off-line; scheduled; periodic
As-Built: Engineering drawings showing the system or components of the system at the time of construction
Asset: Anything that a system owns that is used in it’s operations; in this context, asset refers only to physical assets or components of physical assets and NOT to financial assets (e.g. bank accounts, bonds, etc.)
Asset Condition: An assessment of the continued usability of a piece of equipment or building or plant
Asset Inventory: A listing of all the assets owned by a system with information on age, condition, location, remaining useful life and value of each
Asset Location: The actual physical whereabouts of an asset; an important component of the asset inventory
Asset Management: A technique of managing the assets of a system or community that seeks to meet a required level of service in the most cost-effective way through the creation, acquisition, operation, maintenance, rehabilitation, and disposal of assets to provide for present and future customers
Asset Management Plan: A written document outlining the elements and implementation of the asset management plan
Buy-In: The extent to which various employees within the system accept the tenets of asset management and the need for implementing them
Capital Improvement Plan: A document that lists the large equipment purchases or construction projects that a system anticipates it will need in upcoming years (ideally should be done for a 20 year time frame, updated annually)
Capital Improvement Reserve: A fund created specifically to accumulate monies for anticipated capital expenditures
Condition Assessment: A relative ranking system that rates the overall condition of each asset according to a scheme determined in advance (e.g., 0-5 or A- F); an important component of determining criticality and allocating maintenance resources
Consequence of Failure: An assessment of the total costs of all the ramifications of the failure of an asset (includes cost of repairs, social costs, costs of collateral damage, legal costs, environmental costs and public health costs)
Core Component: One of the five major elements of asset management (asset inventory, level of service, critical assets, life cycle costing and long-term funding strategy)
Corrective Maintenance Procedures: Used by field technicians for the repair of assets that are malfunctioning; activities undertaken to detect, isolate and rectify a fault so that the failed equipment, machine or system can be restored to its normal operational state
Cost Related to Collateral Damage: The cost of repair or replacement of other assets as a result of the failure of an asset (e.g., repair of payment after a main water line break causes a sinkhole)
Criticality: An assessment of the importance of each asset in terms of its liklihood of failure and the consequence of failure; an importance component of an asset management plan
Current State of the Asset: An assessment of the condition, age, location, remaining useful life and value of an asset at the current time
Emergency Operating Procedure: Used in emergency conditions; incorporated into overall emergency plan developed for utility
Environmental Costs Related to Failure: An assessment of the environmental impact of the failure of an asset; may be monetary or qualitative
Failure: The inability of an asset to do what its users want it to do; occurs any time the asset is not able to meet the level of service the system wants
Full-Cost Pricing: A rate-setting method that seeks to recover all present and future costs of operating the utility
Legal Costs Related to Failure: Costs resulting from legal action by individuals or businesses whose property, livlihood or health is damaged because of failure of an asset
Level of Service: A document defining the way in which the utility customers, owners, managers and operators want the system to perform over the long term
Life Cycle Costing: An assessment of the total costs associated with an asset over the entire period it is owned; includes acquisition costs, total life-time operational costs, potential repair costs, possible rehabilitation costs, and disposal costs
Long-Term Funding Strategy: A plan that indicates the source of money for various activities that the system anticipates in the future, such as O&M, capital expenditures, rehabilitation activities, system upgrades, expansions, etc.; at a minimum, the plan should look 5 years into the future
Preventive Maintenance Procedure: Developed to prevent failure and prolong asset life (e.g. overhaul); systematic inspection, detection, correction, and prevention of incipient failures, before they become actual or major failures
Probability of Failure: A value assigned to each asset that designates its likelihood of failure; usually determined by age, condition, failure history, and general experience and assigned to the asset using a numerical ranking; an important component of determining criticality
Public Health Costs Related to Failure: The impact or potential impact on public heath resulting from the failure of an asset (e.g., an outbreak of gastrointestinal illness resulting from the failure of a chlorination pump)
Rate Capacity: An assessment of how much customers are able or willing to pay for services
Rate Structure: An organized plan for charging the customers of the system for the services provided by the system according to each customer’s relative usage of those services; must, at a minimum, cover the operating expenses of the system and should provide funds for debt service and reserves for emergencies, repairs and replacements and the un-funded portions of capital improvements
Rehabilitation: An extensive repair of an asset that returns it to full function; generally intended to significantly extend the life of the asset
Reliability-Centered Maintenance: Developed to assist maintenance managers in predicting asset failures and lessening effects on facilities
Remaining Life of the Asset: An estimate of the length of time an asset can be relied upon to provide useful service
Repair: The returning of an asset to it’s full function after a relatively minor failure
Repair & Replacement Reserve: A fund established specifically to build up money to cover the costs of repair and replacing assets
Repair & Replacement Schedule: A list of repairs and replacements anticipated during an upcoming time period (ideally 20 years); should include the year of the repair or replacement, a description, estimated costs, the method of estimation, whether this is a one-time of a recurring cost and the time period of recurrence
Replacement Cost: The total amount of money required to completely replace an asset; should be used as the value of an asset, regardless of the age or actual condition of the asset
Risk Analysis: A procedure for assessing the relative criticality of assets in terms of their liklihood of failure and the consequence of failure
Routine Maintenance Procedures: Simple, small-scale activities associated with regular and general upkeep of buildings, equipment, machines, plant or systems against normal wear and tear; the process of performing regular maintenance tasks, such as lubrication; often can be performed without taking a machine out of service
Social Cost: The cost related to inconvenience, loss of confidence, or disruption of life related to the failure of an asset
Standard Operating Procedure: Specific procedures to be followed during normal, day-to-day operations.
Sustainability: An assessment of the ability of any system to continue to do what it does in the way that it does it for an indefinite period of time