Green Paper A2

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PREFACE

Opinions differ about whether physical asset management is a traditional, timeless method of managing resources or an emerging, modern discipline; but in either case, asset management has always been a ‘hands-on’, practice-driven approach, usually defined in terms of its working tools and techniques  Nevertheless, asset management must be more than an ad-hoc collection of tools and techniques.  Green Paper A1 explained why the mechanical use of checklists, templates and other procedures cannot substitute for a detailed knowledge of how the parts of the enterprise interact and a wider understanding of the whole; it recommended the use of ‘systems thinking’ as the basis for an asset management system capable of combining buildings and facilities with people and other resources at a strategic level.

This paper bridges between the concepts and theories of systems thinking, which were introduced in Green Paper A1, and a description of the practical methods of this approach - the models, tools and techniques, which will be the subject of Green Paper A3.  It is said there is nothing as practical as a good theory, but the truth of this statement depends entirely upon the link between abstract theory and applied methods; this link is known as ‘methodology’, and if it is missing or unreliable, then theory and practice can become disconnected.   The word ‘methodology’ is often used incorrectly to mean ‘method’, but its proper meaning is a set of ‘ … principles that must govern the use of methods in order that the philosophy / theory embraced by the approach is properly respected and appropriately put into practice.’ [1]  

The use of any tool or technique will depend upon the interpretation of some form of theory, whether or not the relevant theories are explicit or recognised.  For this reason, Green Paper A2 is an important step toward our goal of creating an industry-wide framework for managing property assets.  An understanding of the high-level principles or methodologies that support specific tools and techniques can explain why they don’t always operate as expected; knowledge about their limitations can prevent them being used in situations when they might fail or even do damage; but most importantly, no successful solution to a complex problem can be designed without a valid methodology.

We look forward to receiving your comments - you can respond on-line to the questionnaire on the next page and you may edit the document or annotate the text wherever the pencil icon is shown.  The final draft of this paper will be released as a White Paper after it has been endorsed by the project’s steering group.

CONSILIAN
November 2007

CONTENTS

Executive Summary

Introduction 

Business management systems 

Systems for action planning 

Systems for performance control 

Organisational structure and systems 

The Law of Requisite Variety

Management systems and residual variety

Command and control systems

Adaptive systems

Distributed, self-organising systems

Formalisation 

Alternative methods 

Communication and control 

Summary and conclusions  

Guiding principles 

References

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