Analysis of Asset and Maintenance Management for Woolworths Group

This report delves into asset and maintenance management, using Woolworths Group Australia as a case study. It begins by examining the optimal organizational structure for asset management, advocating for a flat structure to enhance employee involvement. The report then analyzes Woolworths' budget cycle, highlighting the importance of each stage: preparing, approving, executing, and evaluating the budget. Next, it explores ISO 55000, the international standard for asset management, and its relevance to Woolworths. Finally, the report discusses the advantages and disadvantages of outsourcing asset management activities, considering strategic, business model, risk management, and regulatory aspects. The report draws on various sources, including journal articles and online resources, to support its analysis.

Asset and Maintenance Management

TABLE OF CONTENTS
QUSTION 1.....................................................................................................................................1
QUSTION 2.....................................................................................................................................1
QUSTION 3.....................................................................................................................................2
QUSTION 4.....................................................................................................................................3
REFERNCES...................................................................................................................................4

QUSTION 1
The organisational structure which is considered to as best for asset management is flat
one as it will be having no or few management levels so that each one is easily handled. This will
include less amount of supervision and increased involvement within decision making by
employees (Woolworths Group Australia: Organizational structure, 2018). As Woolworths
Group Australia is having operating in many types of products so they are not generally having
this flat organisational structure which means that their employees are not active into decision
making process.
Figure 1: Woolworths Group Australia: Organizational structure
[Source: Woolworths Group Australia: Organizational structure, 2018]
But for having the proper asset management within Woolworths Group Australia is it is
advised that they should be following the flat management structure so that they could deal with
employees effectively.
QUSTION 2
There are mainly 4 stages in preparation of budget of Woolworths Group Australia and
each of the step within this cycle is very much important and valuable affecting profitability of
company.
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Figure 2: Budget Cycle
[Source: Budget Cycle, 2018]
Preparing budget- In this first step Woolworths Group Australia will be generating the actual
budget for whole company. This step must be very carefully done as whole organisation will be
then depended upon this overall budget (Budget Cycle, 2018). There are certain points which
need to be considered while preparing budget like expected revenue, expense for employee
salary, cost of implementing technologies and operations.
Approving budget- For Woolworths Group Australia it will be very much important that they are
approving budget on timely bases which is done by top level management of company after
analysing it very closely.
Executing budget- This will include implementing the actual budget prepared finalising with
sources of funds and recording each and every transactions occurring within Woolworths Group
Australia.
Evaluating budget- This is the audit process which takes into account the planned and actual
expenditure that is occurring then matching or comparing both of them will be called to as
evaluating budget in Woolworths Group Australia.
QUSTION 3
ISO 55000 is the international standard that is covering asset management of all kind like
that of cash and land of organisations which was launched in 2014. Initially this was relevant to
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electricity, gas, road, water, air transport systems, manufacturing, public facilities and within
private or public companies. ISO 55000 is been divided into 2 parts which are specification of
infrastructure assets and 2nd is guidelines for the application of PAS 55-1 (Garleanu and
Pedersen, 2018). This title of ISO 55000 will be directly related to asset management system of
any company which is operating. The International standard will be giving proper overview of
asset management and system with giving context to ISO 55001 and 55002.
Almost all the areas of ISO 55000 is applicable to Woolworths Group Australia but the
changes which were there based on structure of this standard including aspects like that of plan,
context of company, leadership, support, improvement, operation and performance evaluation
will be best suited.
QUSTION 4
There are many reasons for outsourcing the assent management activities like that of
strategic, business model, managing risk, regulatory, security and service failure risk as well
(Campbell, Jardine and McGlynn, 2016). This will include combination of technology and better
expert services to help the investment firm and manage their growth.
Advantages-
 Swiftness and expertise
 Sharing of risk
 Reducing cost of recruitment and operation
 Concentration on core activities
Disadvantages-
 Exposure of confidential information
 Hidden charges
 Lack of customer focus
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REFERNCES
Books and Journals:
Campbell, J.D., Jardine, A.K. and McGlynn, J. eds., 2016. Asset management excellence:
optimizing equipment life-cycle decisions. CRC Press.
Garleanu, N. and Pedersen, L.H., 2018. Efficiently inefficient markets for assets and asset
management. The Journal of Finance, 73(4), pp.1663-1712.
Online:
Budget Cycle. 2018. [Online]. Accessed through:
<http://www.jblearning.com/samples/0763746681/31293_ch03_lee.pdf>.
Woolworths Group Australia: Organizational structure. 2018. [Online]. Accessed through:
<https://www.woolworthsgroup.com.au/page/about-us/our-leadership-team/management-
board>
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