Condition assessment that produces a budget, not a report

A condition assessment is only worth doing if it ends in numbers somebody can put in a budget. Most produce a report full of adjectives, which changes nothing because nobody can act on "fair to poor".

Use a five-point scale, with the words written down

The scale matters less than everybody using it the same way, which means defining each point in terms of what you would do about it.

• •1 Good: as expected for its age, routine maintenance only
• •2 Fair: minor defects, no action beyond the schedule
• •3 Poor: defects needing repair within a year, still working
• •4 Bad: at or past the end of its life, failing or unreliable, replace within a year
• •5 Failed: not working, or unsafe, immediate action

Attach a cost and a year to every 3, 4 and 5

This is the step that turns a survey into a capital plan. Each finding needs an estimated cost and the year the work should happen. Rough is fine and honest ranges are better than false precision. What is not fine is a finding with no number, because it will not appear in any budget.

Assess consistently, or do not bother

Two surveyors scoring the same plant room differently makes the whole exercise worthless, and it happens constantly. Three cheap controls prevent most of it.

• •A written definition of each score, carried on the phone
• •Photographs required for anything scored 3 or worse
• •A calibration hour at the start where everybody scores the same three items and argues about it

Record what you did not see

Equipment that could not be accessed, was running, or was behind a locked door has to be recorded as not assessed. Silently scoring it as fair, which is what happens by default, is how a survey ends up with a comfortable average and an unpleasant surprise.

Do it in a cycle, not in one go

A fifth of the estate every year, so the whole portfolio is refreshed on a five-year cycle and there is always a survey happening. This is cheaper, produces a rolling budget rather than a spike, and avoids the situation where the last complete assessment was in 2019.

What to do with it

Sum the costs by year and you have a capital renewal forecast. Divide the total by the replacement value and you have a facility condition index, which is the number that wins budget arguments. Both fall out of the same survey if the costs were attached at the time.