Where asset management experts working in the field can meet with scientists to exchange knowledge and expertise

Liberalisation and simplification at the infrastructural level requires new methods of management. The old focus on cost reduction and replacement is no longer appropriate. In this new environment, choices relating to the future appearance of infrastructure must be reflected in today’s asset management. Strategic asset management is the element that forms a link between the long-term policy of an organization and the management of its asset base. Choices about maintaining and replacing infrastructure must take into account the functionality, quality and availability of these infrastructural assets.

Sharing knowledge
Which asset management methods and techniques can be applied in different sectors? At which systems levels? And during which phases of the life cycle? What international developments are occurring in the field of asset management in science and practice? These questions and others – plus the answers to them – will be looked at during the meetings of the Next Generation Infrastructures Asset Management Platform. The Asset Management Platform provides a neutral platform for the sharing of knowledge about asset management between practitioners and scientists. The platform already has 35 members, including asset managers from various infrastructure sectors such as gas and oil, electricity, transport, drinking water, water management, telecommunication and many other service providers. Since 2007, these members have come together for a number of meetings.

Academic knowledge centre
The Asset Management Platform is an independent academic knowledge centre which is active in the field of strategic asset management within the Netherlands. The Platform facilitates a network in which asset managers can share knowledge and inspiration through meetings and master classes. The Platform also provides its members with the latest scientific knowledge through courses, simulation games and decision-taking models.

The Platform helps to carry out national and international research and is part of an extensive international network of renowned technical universities and research centres such as MIT and Carnegie Mellon University in the US and the Cooperative Research Centre for Integrated Engineering Asset Management in Australia. We are a member of leading academic networks and have helped to found organisations in the field of asset management: EURENSEAM European Network for Strategic Engineering Asset Management and ISEAM International Society of Engineering Asset Management.

The Platform is open to asset managers and service providers from Dutch networks who are interested in sharing their knowledge and expertise with colleagues from other sectors. This type of voluntary cross-sectional exchange of knowledge, supported and encouraged by state-of-the-art scientific knowledge development, will allow strategic asset management in the Netherlands to really get moving!