Bradley Hocking

Best-practice asset management is challenging and relies heavily on spreadsheets, Microsoft Word documents and individual knowledge, which makes strategic and tactical planning difficult.

Shoal Group Program Lead, Asset Management Systems Bradley Hocking led a team in developing an asset management system framework (AMSF) to address these challenges.

Using systems thinking to define an organisation’s asset management environment — including its needs, objectives, influences, resourcing, maintenance, compliance and risks — he developed a digital information model that is aligned with the International Organization for Standardization’s ISO55001.

Focused on defining how asset management activities are conducted and contribute to achieving organisational objectives, Hocking’s AMSF identifies and maps how activities are prioritised, planned and executed; how an organisation is set up to achieve this; and how the result affects an organisation.

This effort began as a research and development (R&D) project, for which Hocking explored the viability of such a framework. He then authored and co-authored papers that were peer reviewed, published and presented at two national conferences to gauge interest from the systems engineering and asset management practitioner communities.

The reception was positive, and Hocking established a team and led the development of the AMSF into a test-ready package.

Through Hocking’s leadership, Shoal then partnered with Hydro Tasmania to explore this information-centric approach to develop asset management plans.

The result was current, consistent asset information that optimises organisational asset management. AMSF is being applied across transport and infrastructure clients and is applicable across industries.

Judges’ comments:

“The applicant has presented a well-crafted case for their development of an asset management system framework. Asset management is a valuable area of practice, and any tools that improve practice in this area certainly have the potential for benefi t to the profession and to the communities that we serve.

“The applicant appears to have followed good practice in project management, taking care to ensure there was a viable market for the product, and then managing the stages of development and implementation to ensure a viable tool is developed.”