B&N is partnering with the City of Columbus Water & Power (CW&P) to develop a comprehensive asset management program for its water and power utilities.
Asset Management (AM) Process Evaluation, Strategic AM Plan Development and AM Roadmap
The program began with a review of existing asset management practices, including current processes, policies, documentation and data management practices. B&N met with the asset management steering team, department leadership and 14 staff groups across all four utility divisions (Water, Wastewater, Stormwater, Power) to understand organizational strengths, improvement opportunities and the challenges facing staff responsible for planning, operating, maintaining and managing utility assets.
Using this assessment, B&N developed an AM Roadmap with more than two dozen prioritized improvement initiatives. The roadmap provides a structured path for strengthening governance, improving consistency across utility divisions and better aligning people, processes, data and technology. B&N continues to support Columbus as the utility implements these initiatives and advances its asset management program.
Organizational Review, Training and Communications, Change Management
B&N performed an organizational review and recommended dedicated, centralized asset management positions to support roadmap implementation and sustainability. The recommendations addressed key functions such as maintenance and reliability, performance management, and sewer and watermain asset management. B&N also supports ongoing communication with the asset management steering team and department leadership team to share progress, gather feedback and build alignment around program priorities. Our team supports utility-wide communication of the goals and accomplishments of staff implementing AM.
Maintenance Management Fundamentals
B&N helped Columbus strengthen the foundational practices needed to manage assets consistently across its utility divisions. This included refining asset definitions; standardizing asset attribute and naming, work order types and the work order priority framework; and documenting the formal process for onboarding new assets before the utility takes ownership.
The onboarding process helps ensure new equipment, such as pumps, motors, blowers, piping and valves, is supported by complete asset information, critical parts data and a preventive maintenance strategy that can be integrated into existing maintenance programs.
Levels of Service
B&N researched candidate level of service (LOS) metrics from sources across the utility industry and reviewed them, alongside CWP’s historical LOS metrics, with utility leadership. B&N recommended metrics and targets to support performance tracking across the organization. The team also developed metric definition sheets to help clarify how each measure is defined, calculated and used to support decision-making.
Risk Framework
A set of standardized risk frameworks, including a comprehensive facility condition assessment framework and a department-wide consequence of failure framework, was recommended by the B&N team. Workshops at CW&P treatment facilities helped establish criticality levels for asset groups and individual assets, supporting consistent development of appropriate maintenance strategies and the prioritization of maintenance, asset renewals and other capital investment needs.
Preventive Maintenance Optimization
As part of early implementation, B&N developed a preventive maintenance optimization (PMO) tool that allows maintenance staff to evaluate the historical effectiveness of preventive maintenance work orders and adjust maintenance strategies. The tool supports changes such as modifying frequencies, removing low-value tasks and estimating resources based on actual performance.
B&N’s continued work with Columbus is helping strengthen governance, improve consistency across utility divisions and better align people, processes, data and technology. These improvements are designed to support more informed decisions, improve reliability, extend asset life and make effective use of maintenance resources while serving 1.4 million customers in central Ohio.