Change management and asset management go hand-in-hand in Kelowna

Background

Over the past 10 years, the City of Kelowna, British Columbia, has made great strides in advancing its asset management program, thanks in part to a grant from FCM’s Municipal Asset Management Program (MAMP). The grant was instrumental in helping the city develop an asset management policy, framework and strategy that identified roles and responsibilities and guided major initiatives, including implementation of a computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) and updates to asset management plans that are integrated into long-term financial plans.  This contributes to consistency in managing assets and coordinating activities and investment across business areas (e.g. transportation, parks, utilities, civic buildings).

As of October 2022, MAMP has approved 129 asset management grants for local governments in British Columbia, of which 55 are complete and the rest underway. MAMP has also funded four partner organizations in British Columbia which, along with MAMP's national partners, have reached 100 local governments in British Columbia through asset management training and awareness-building activities.

Highlights

• Early and ongoing Council, senior leadership, staff, and community involvement
• A corporate asset management policy, framework and strategy endorsed by senior leadership and communicated to Council, detailing governance roles and responsibilities and program stewardship roles
• Implementation of a CMMS used by more than 700 staff to schedule maintenance and track the condition of 30,000 infrastructure assets
• Regular updates to asset management plans that are integrated into the financial plan through annual update to the 10-Year Capital Plan
• More than 30 percent of the city’s capital budget invested in asset renewal

The challenge

Kelowna is a city of 143,000 people in the Okanagan Valley in southern British Columbia. It faces challenges that are familiar to many Canadian municipalities—aging infrastructure, a large infrastructure deficit, a growing community and ever-increasing service demands. When it started its asset management journey in 2012, the city had no formal asset management strategy and business areas that didn’t always communicate well, leading to fragmented decision-making and other inefficiencies.

The approach

The Kelowna team opted to involve Council, senior leadership, staff, and the community from the beginning, even knowing there would be gaps in the information being reported. This early involvement gave them diverse insights and helped them tailor the program to best serve community needs.

Taking specialized training with FCM, NAMS Canada and the Canadian Network of Asset Managers helped the team find a path forward. They identified business area responsibilities (e.g., scheduling maintenance and tracking asset condition, identifying timing of asset renewal, participating in asset management planning), and developed key performance indicators.  In addition, the community was invited to participate through an online tool that challenges them to choose infrastructure and services that are important to them while also trying to balance the budget and competing needs.

Kelowna uses an off-the-shelf software suite for its maintenance management system, with templates that are customizable for each business area. However, it is only a tool, and, to create buy-in and boost the return on investment, the team made sure the 700+ operational staff were an integral part of the customization process.

Key steps:

• Creating asset management and change management roles that combine a people and a business perspective, to manage challenges with implementation and maintenance.
• Kelowna’s Corporate Asset Management team has three dedicated asset management roles (Asset Management and Capital Planning Manager, Asset Planning Manager, and Asset Systems Manager) to champion the program. In addition, there are two dedicated Business Analysts from Information Services and two Asset Coordinators from the Infrastructure Division that are part of the core team.
• Linking asset data to long-term financial planning. The data are used to inform annual updates of the 10-year capital plan, and the infrastructure deficit is tracked as a performance measure. 
• Building top-down and bottom-up engagement and creating clear accountabilities, including detailing governance roles and responsibilities in the asset management policy and outlining program stewardship roles.
• Convening a steering committee and a cross-functional asset management governance team to stay on track.
• Taking advantage of resources on the FCM website to develop the strategy and roadmap.

“Change management is a huge and ongoing part of any successful asset management program, and it can get lost in the quest for data and tools. Keep people informed and involved and set clear expectations and accountabilities—and ensure compliance as needed.”

– Joel Shaw, Asset Management & Capital Planning Manager

Barriers

Managing change and expectations was a major challenge. Asset management is neither fast nor simple, and, as expected, there were some resisters. However, early and vocal endorsement from Council and senior leadership, along with a strong message that participation was mandatory, helped get everyone on board. In fact, as the benefits of using asset management data to guide decisions and support budget requests were demonstrated in practice, many of the resisters ended up becoming some of the most enthusiastic users.

The results

Kelowna’s corporate asset management policy, framework and strategy are fully endorsed by senior leadership and communicated to Council. Kelowna now invests more than 30 percent of its capital budget on asset renewal.

Kelowna developed and follows strong corporate asset management policies and processes that maintain continuity and consistency.

By integrating planning, finance, operations and engineering, Kelowna created a line of sight between community expectations and infrastructure and services, reducing fragmentation.

Having good asset management data means Kelowna knows its deficits and problem areas, from buildings to parks to pipes to pavement. The data are used to inform renewal decisions and target preventive maintenance decisions which help assets last longer and reduce operational costs.

In many business areas that were previously paper based, work orders, inspections and service requests are accessible online, making it easier to share activities seamlessly between the office and the field. This has improved operational efficiencies and data quality while reducing duplication of effort. Having digital data in almost near-time means staff can see trends, historical information and current work status at a glance, again supporting data-driven decision-making. 

Lessons learned

 “Overwhelming” is a word that comes up often in the context of asset management, especially in municipalities that are just getting started. Kelowna deliberately chose an approach that was both pragmatic and systematic, making sure it was geared to the city’s available resources and capabilities.

Ongoing staff engagement and timely user training are vital. In the end, it’s people who do asset management, and success comes with helping them understand the process and recognize and value its benefits.

In retrospect, Kelowna would have engaged business areas sooner, to identify and optimize their processes, and had the areas assign subject experts.

Next steps

Kelowna is updating its corporate asset management plan (2040 Infrastructure Plan) for expected release in 2024 and is amending its current plans to include climate considerations and natural assets.

Resources

• City of Kelowna’s 2030 Infrastructure Plan

Contact

Joel Shaw, P.Eng.
Asset Management & Capital Planning Manager
City of Kelowna, British Columbia