Perth – AMPEAK Showcase: Local Insights on Digital Innovation

Join us for an exclusive technical event hosted by the Asset Management Council, where we bring a selection of some of the best presentations from the 2025 AMPEAK National Conference to our Perth members. This event is a unique opportunity to gain insights into the latest trends, innovations, and best practices in digital asset management. Network with fellow professionals and industry experts while enjoying in-depth presentations that have captivated audiences at the national level. Don’t miss this chance to stay at the forefront of asset management excellence right here in Perth.

Featuring:

• Achieving better outcomes through integrated performance risk and decision framework, Ankur Maheshwari, AMCL
• Digital Risk-Based Planning to Create Value at Infrastructure Portfolio Level, Paul Davis / Shane Oldham, BetterAIM
• Revolutionising the way complex systems are engineered and managed using a digital model, Jim Stancombe, I&E System
• Introducing uncrewed aircraft to carry out effective BVLOS operations to deliver ‘Digital Visualisation’ outputs for ‘Linear Asset Inspections’ and ‘Right of Way Surveys’, Anthony Roe, Xplorate

About the Presentations and Speakers:

Achieving better outcomes through integrated performance risk and decision framework – Ankur Maheshwari, Technical Director Asia Pacific, AMCL  

Optimal asset management decisions hinge upon balancing asset performance and associated risks. Whilst the application of asset performance management and risk management for asset management is now evident in many utilities, the maturity levels of application vary between organisations.  A key differentiating factor is the extent to which these approaches are integrated, i.e. integration of asset performance management, risk management and asset management decision-making.  This presentation would discuss an end-to-end asset management decision-making framework that integrates multiple complex business capabilities. It can be applied to all asset management decisions and has lays the foundation for future asset management improvements.

Using a case study, the paper discusses how the new decision-making framework was tested to review an existing asset strategy concerning a key safety objective for a utility.  The application of this methodology identified existing business rules that should be selected for further review, to drive improved performance.  As these frameworks are applied over the time, they will enable improvements in efficiency and effectiveness from investments.

The presentation demonstrates the benefits of applying a structured approach and integrating performance and risk frameworks to drive transparent and informed asset management decisions.  It is expected to maximise value from investments and deliver optimal outcomes for stakeholders, through improved asset management decision-making.

Ankur Maheshwari is a highly experienced, seasoned asset management professional with over three decades of experience in a wide range of techno-commercial aspects of asset management in the utility, manufacturing and industrial sectors.  He is currently Technical Director Asia Pacific with AMCL Consulting. He has hands on experience in envisioning, leading and implementing asset management improvements that improve organisations ability to extract most value from its assets.  He is AMCL’s global lead for risk management service line.  He has experience in designing and implementing asset management decision making frameworks including performance and risk management frameworks for organisations of various size and a wide variety of assets including power, water, rail, facilities and defence assets.  Ankur has been actively involved in the revision of the Asset Management Landscape published by GFMAM.  Ankur’s commitment and dedication to the field is evident in his active involvement in Asset Management Council for many years.

Digital Risk-Based Planning to Create Value at Infrastructure Portfolio Level – Paul Davis, Technical Director Asset Management, BetterAIM 

While ISO 5500X promotes risk consideration in asset management, in reality, it is often not considered implicitly to inform operation, maintenance and asset renewals. In a resource-constrained environment where renewals backlogs can be high, opportunities to ‘sweat’ infrastructure, defer capital while understanding and managing risk to community can be lost.

This presentation outlines the implementation of a portfolio-wide, digital asset management planning tool covering infrastructure that provides diverse services and value to the community. Following a pilot presented at AMPEAK24, the digital planning tool has been expanded to understand asset risk in a consistent, repeatable manner across:

• Water Networks, Treatment and Recycling facilities
• Municipal Waste Facilities
• Buildings
• Roads
• Stormwater

The portfolio tool is interactive, transparent allowing the user to understand and communicate:

• Portfolio quantities – What assets do we own? Where are they? When were they installed? How much would it cost to replace them?
• Asset health across the network – What condition are our assets in? What is their probability of failure?
• Asset criticality – which asset classes in the portfolio impact our business and community the most and why?
• Asset risk – where is the risk across the portfolio, and how large is it?
• Risk mitigation – Can we mitigate the risk with the budget we can access?
• Investment planning – What are we doing, and where are we doing it? When?
• Business approvals – Can activities be aligned with other project drivers? Can we demonstrate prudency and efficiency?

Asset criticality across the portfolio was workshopped with key stakeholders in the organisation to identify the required operational response to asset failure and its consequences. Regardless of asset class, criticality was assigned in a manner consistent with the organisation’s enterprise risk framework, allowing consistent consideration of service provision risk, regardless of the asset class (e.g. water mains, vs roads, vs buildings). A Lifecycle Intervention model (LIM) was then developed to:

• Forecast the portfolio’s future asset deterioration and risk levels over a 10-year planning period.
• Align intervention methods (such as condition assessment, functional testing, maintenance inspections, repair, rehab, and replacement) with the business risk appetite.

Outputs from the LIM were visualised in a dashboard tool that is data-driven, fully interactive, and transparent. The innovative tool allows asset owners to effectively engage stakeholders, communicating investment needs at all levels, from board / executive to field crews and the community.

Paul is the Technical Director – Asset Management at BetterAIM. He has held previous roles in asset intensive organisations, leading asset performance monitoring, maintenance delivery, and asset design teams. Over the years, he has seen far too many written asset management plans gathering dust on the shelf, rather than being used to support effective decision making. His passion is to improve engagement and asset management collaboration across organisations through digital tools.

After 13 years in the British Navy, predominantly in the Operations and Maintenance Management disciplines, Shane moved with his wife and started a family in WA. Water Corporation gave him the opportunity to further his career in the Water Industry, where he enjoyed challenging roles in Asset Renewals, Maintenance, Asset Information Management and Asset Management Strategy. After almost 25yrs as an Asset Management practitioner, he took up the challenge of sharing his experience across other industries through BetterAIMs Advisory Services, sharing practical learnings across common issues. 

Revolutionising the way complex systems are engineered and managed using a digital model – Jim Stancombe, Director of Relationships, I&E Systems

To build and run efficient and productive operations you need to design, construct and commission complex systems. These complex systems are jam packed with hardware and software that is interconnected. Every object has different functions, different connections, and different relationships. During the lifecycle the system needs maintenance and upgrades. A deep understanding of these systems is essential to the ability to control a project and asset.

Surprisingly, in or digitally advanced world, teams of engineers still draw the designs for complex systems in a flat manner, much like a picture. This approach creates thousands of individual drawings and documents produced by different teams working on the system, all of which capture bits of information about it. If something is changed, all the related documents must be found and updated. Using decentralised processes that depend on individual drawings and documents to manage complex systems is extremely inefficient. BIM does not account for complex systems.

A digital model is a true representation of the complex system at any point in the lifecycle. It’s a real digital twin. It is a centralised database containing all current and historical hardware and software information about the system. It can be accessed simultaneously by engineers, managers and other stakeholders from any location, at any time.

From fibre optic networks to electrical, instrumentation, and control systems; from communications and IT systems to security, CCTV, and building management systems, this software solution can model any type of complex system.

Change leaders are transforming the way they engineer and manage complex systems. Fortescue recently used a digital model to design, construct and commission their complex systems on their $4bn Iron Bridge project without producing a traditional engineering drawing. Public Transport Authority of Western Australia (PTA) are currently using a digital model for their major Metronet program and have contractually mandated that service providers must handover a digital model at completion, not thousands of engineering drawings and documents.

Jim Stancombe is based in Perth, WA and is the Director of Relationships for I&E Systems. Jim is engaged in bringing about a revolution in the way complex systems are engineered and managed. This work is focused on embracing a digital model and eliminating decentralised processes that rely on drawings and documents. Jim worked at the National Australia Bank for 16 years where he held senior leadership roles in operations management, risk, and sales. Jim studied Economics at the University of Tasmania and received an MBA from Monash University. He is a certified black belt six sigma practitioner.

Introducing un-crewed aircraft to carry out effective BVLOS operations to deliver ‘Digital Visualisation’ outputs for ‘Linear Asset Inspections’ and ‘Right of Way Surveys’ – Anthony Roe, Chief Growth Officer, Explorate

This presentation will describe the benefits and challenges of using un-crewed aircraft to carry out Digital Visualisation ‘Asset Integrity Inspections’ and ‘Right of Way’ (ROW) Surveys over a linear distance of 540km using BVLOS (Beyond Visual Line of Site) techniques.

Traditionally, manned helicopters and fixed wing aircraft have been used to carry out the survey activities given the challenges of the long distances, and the weight of payloads required to execute the surveys.

The presentation will describe the approach and technical challenges to carry out successful BVLOS Asset Operations using un-crewed aircraft across a 540km pipeline in Australia.

The presentation will share the outputs using AI Models (artificial intelligence) for the features extracted, of both anomalies and points of interest and describe how the initial projects could be expanded into multi-modal, single mission sorties over long distances.

The project was a ‘first of a kind’ successful milestone in the use of BVLOS, long range, high payload, un-crewed helicopter systems.

Anthony Roe is an experienced practitioner in the introduction and operationalisation of Digital Asset Management. He specialises in the disciplines of industrial AI, digital twins and the digitisation of business and operational process. Anthony has deep global experience in the sectors of Oil and Gas, Mining, and Utilities. He has a keen strategic focus on Environmental stewardship, holds a BSc Degree in the Environment and is certified Petro-Chemical Mechanical and Production Engineer.