RAMS management

A good foundation for management and maintenance begins in the design

A good asset design not only focuses on functionality, but also takes into account the issues of maintainability, reliability, availability and safety. INNOCY's responsibilities on the Blankenburg Link included RAMS - Asset Management and, together with the BAAK team, ensured a good foundation for management and maintenance activities as early as the design stage. 

RAMS stands for Reliability, Availability, Maintainability and Safety. "With RAMS we look through long-term glasses, as it were, and through smart choices in the design we ensure an optimal balance in life cycle costs, risks and performance of, in this case, the Blankenburg connection," says Thijs van den Eerenbeemt, RAMS engineer at INNOCY. "All choices made in the design that affect operational reliability are argued through life cycle tooling and trade-off matrices. After all, designers do not always consider risks that arise during operation. With RAMS management, we make that insightful in order to make informed choices that pay off during the operation phase."

Reliability

INNOCY has now been active on the Blankenburg Link for 4.5 years. "Asset management is an integral part of the project," says Jasper Staadegaard, Business Development Manager at INNOCY. "At peak times, we were active on the project with a team of five employees who maintained close contact with the design team in order to keep reviewing the choices made. The Blankenburg connection is contained in a DBFM contract, in which the consortium signs for both the design, construction, financing and 20-year maintenance of the route. This means that the construction consortium will be responsible for 'operational safety' until 2044 and thus benefits from a well-considered design. Choices you make now must still be right 20 or 30 years from now." Van den Eerenbeemt adds: "At the end of a design phase, we as a RAMS team look back with satisfaction if we have arrived at the right balance of all RAMS and life cycle aspects and have built a good foundation for management and maintenance activities."

InfraNXT

INNOCY has also developed a comprehensive monitoring system with InfraNXT, which they use to monitor the object status of an asset in real time. "On the Blankenburg connection, we do this for local control and a notification is generated if there is a problem with technical installations, for example a CCTV camera or fans," Staadegaard explains. "The asset manager will weigh up whether to have the camera or fan in question inspected or replaced right away, or wait until the next maintenance time. Should several cameras, or an essential object, have failed anyway and fall short of a contractual performance requirement, a high-priority notification follows and quick action can be taken. Using InfraNXT, the asset management organization can act on data and information rather than gut feeling. It prevents the ad hoc and (often) unnecessary closure of a road section."

Standardization of processes

By generating specific asset data and releasing the right analyses on it, we can provide asset management organizations with the right decision information, resumes Van den Eerenbeemt. "So that they can make more efficient and better choices, ultimately achieving a better result. Standardization of those processes will also ensure that lead times are shortened. Especially in view of the enormous national replacement and renovation task, this is a requirement. The more standardized, the better you can focus on that 20-30% that really matters." Staadegaard adds: "And from INNOCY, we can serve the entire lifecycle of an asset, from the tender to the opening permit and, if required, we also provide complete asset management during operation."