industry news Friday 25 Nov 2016 @ 00:00 Nuclear Decommissioning Authority - When playing a game is a serious business…

 

A fun board game about asset management may sound pretty much like a contradiction. Synergy however, is a board game where teams spend Sellafield-minted money, worth £millions, on a range of facilities and infrastructure for the Sellafield nuclear site in Cumbria.  

Synergy was nominated for an award at the recent World Nuclear Exhibition in Paris, where, along with Russia’s Rosatom, it was second placed after EDF in the Knowledge Management category. The game then went on to win an international innovation award from the Institute of Asset Management. 


Synergy Board Game wins Innovation Award at Institute of Asset Management Awards 2016

Unlike some traditional board games, the goal of Synergy is not to amass a fortune but to invest with care, weighing up risks against possible performance improvements.

The importance of team work

Sellafield Ltd team learning about asset management by playing the Synergy Board Game

Teamwork is an integral part of the game. Players quickly realise that they need increasing levels of collaboration to play successfully. In other words, they must take a pragmatic approach based on sound Asset Management (AM) principles and value optimisation.

Asset management can be rather a dry, abstract subject for many people, often difficult to understand. But it is critical that the estate’s assets – buildings, infrastructure, IT systems, equipment, vehicles and much more – are maintained cost-effectively and to a level that is appropriate for their present and future function.

Is it, for example, sensible to spend large amounts of money on buildings that are ultimately scheduled for demolition? The answer is that it depends on a wide range of factors linked to its current condition, hazards, performance, risks, opportunistic reuse and more.

Asset managers need to understand all the issues but critically, so do many other members of the workforce who are involved in decision-making.

Find out more…

 

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