Asset Maintenance Study of Woolworths Supermarkets

This report highlights the asset management study of Woolworths Supermarkets, focusing on the maintenance of their property or land. It discusses the needs and expectations of stakeholders, scope of the maintenance organization, use of life cycle costing for decision-making, and identifies gaps in current practices. The report concludes with recommendations for improvement.

Asset Maintenance

Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Needs and expectations of stakeholders.....................................................................................3
Scope of maintenance organisation............................................................................................3
Level of Documented system.....................................................................................................4
Commitment and support from leadership.................................................................................4
Use of Life Cycle Costing for decision-making........................................................................4
Gaps identified in current practices............................................................................................4
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................5
References..................................................................................................................................5

Introduction
The following report will highlight the asset management study of Woolworths
Supermarkets, which is a renowned supermarket chain in Australia, owned by Woolworths
Group limited. (Woolworths Group Limited, 2019). The specific capital intensive asset,
which has been selected for the study, is the property or land, which is used by the company
to carry out its functions and operations. The reason behind choosing this specific asset is the
fact that any supermarket chain is reliant on the property, to launch and develop its stores as
they are the sites which attract customers.
Needs and expectations of stakeholders
The internal stakeholders comprise senior management, property manager, and operations
and maintenance staff. The management needs to provide funds to maintain the property and
the maintenance staff take measures for the same. The external stakeholders include the
authorities responsible for collection of taxes and maintain the safety regulation, landowners
and customers. The internal stakeholders expect that the capital asset must maintain the
operations and services, and must be clean, easy to access and well maintained (Hassanain,
Vanier, & Froese, 2003).
Scope of maintenance organisation
The maintenance organization is charged for maintaining the infrastructure and cleanliness of
the store. The organization is also responsible for handling all the rent related issues in case
the store is operated on a rented land. All the documents need to be well-maintained and
taxes need to be paid from time to time to avoid any sort of legal disputes. It must maintain
the account receivables and payables and coordinate with the management to get required
resources for its maintenance.

Level of Documented system
All the documents related to the ownership of the land are well-maintained and organized by
the property maintenance department. The maintenance department also hires certain
agencies to manage the operations related to cleanliness and infrastructure. The documents
pertaining to those also need to be unmaintained. Apart from this, bills and accounts related
information also needs to be managed.
Commitment and support from leadership
The main risks associated with the property are related to the natural and man-made disasters
such as earthquakes and fires. In this case, the management of the company looks after all the
required resources and funds. The management makes sure that all the documents related to
the legal formalities, rent agreements are completed and are submitted.
Use of Life Cycle Costing for decision-making
The Life cycle costing method can be used by the organization in making decisions
pertaining to construction, operation and maintenance of a land or property over a given
duration of time. It includes the costs related to the development and maintenance of
infrastructure, managing the electrical, water and other kinds of supplies and such (Krigsvoll,
2019).
Gaps identified in current practices
The current practices are up to the mark but, a few improvements can be made in the
maintenance of the stores. The maintenance of ACs is not proper, the items are not placed in
the correct order in the shelves, the lights once fused take days to be repaired, the

maintenance staff starts working once the store gets opened and not before it. However, the
documentations are properly managed. The senior management needs to be more involved in
the activities.
Conclusion
In the end, it can be concluded that the capital intensive asset (property) is managed well. The
property maintenance department has been taking care of all the formalities, resources and
documentation. However, the department can take strict measures to improve the functioning
of maintenance staff and teams. Also, the repairing work needs to be done more rapidly and
the inspection of asset needs to be conducted on a frequent basis.
References
Hassanain, M. A., Vanier, D., & Froese, T. M. (2003). Framework Model for Asset
Maintenance Management. Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities, 17(2),
1-51.
Krigsvoll, G. (2019). Life Cycle Costing as part of decision making - use of building
information models . http://www.irbnet.de.
Woolworths Group Limited. (2019). Woolworths Supermarkets. Retrieved from
www.woolworthsgroup.com.au: https://www.woolworthsgroup.com.au/page/about-
us/our-brands/supermarkets/Woolworths