UIC, in close association with Korea Railroad Research Institute (KRRI), is organising the Asset Management Seminar in Daejeon (Korea) from 6 to 7 October 2011.

Infrastructure Managers and Railway Undertakings have had to adopt a more business-like attitude: their management focus has shifted from a technical approach towards costs and performance.

For many Infrastructure Managers, this development has led to a situation where stakeholders (such as the government and local authorities, train operators and the public) have started to impose more severe requirements with respect to performance and costs, forcing infrastructure managers to perform new and transparent trade-offs to be able to make the right decisions.
This alternative way of managing infrastructure is called ‘asset management’.
Asset management comprises all systems, methods, procedures and tools to optimise costs, performance and risks for the complete rail infrastructure life cycle. The aim is to achieve optimum value for money. These methods of optimisation intend to address all infrastructure activities (building, maintenance and renewal, including machines and materials) over the whole life cycle as well as the consequences of these activities for the government as owner and for the train operators and passengers as users.

Asset management should consider the following:

• Company mission, its shared values, leadership and communication.
• Information management and knowledge management: direct access to all relevant data, at the correct level of integration, in the correct format.
• Risk awareness: performing risk analyses and evaluating results shall be a standard practice as part of the decision-making process.
• Long-term vision: taking long-term effects into account when making short-term decisions (Life Cycle Cost Analyses).
• Adequate instruments: object registration, risk analyses methods, maintenance concepts, work planning, control, infra condition measuring & monitoring and the filing of asset maintenance history and asset status history.

The management of physical assets (their selection, maintenance, inspection and renewal) plays a key role in determining the operational performance and profitability of industries that operate assets as part of their core business.

The main goal is to achieve optimum value for money.

Over the years, and as the need for infrastructure managers (IM) to adopt a more commercially-oriented attitude has developed, it has proven to be vitally important for every IM to understand the link between accounting and charging, requiring the adoption of a business logic ensuring that cost drivers are properly identified and controllable and that investments are made taking into account future needs. To this end, railway infrastructure cost accounting frameworks should deliver more than just important background information for setting charges – crucial for good business management is the ability to produce a cost and revenue comparison by market segment. This can then underpin decisions as to which services business activities should focus on and what levels of public funding are required to fulfil Public Service Obligations (PSO) agreements in the scope of multi-annual contracts with predefined levels of service.
The seminar will also serve as an opportunity for Europe and overseas countries to exchange best practice in the area of Asset Management.

Seminar venue: Hotel Riviera in Daejeon.