The Case
You are the new Senior Asset Manager for Northwood Edison, a utility company that has powered the region for over 70 years. Unfortunately, much of the critical infrastructure is also from that era. The grid is showing its age. In the last 24 months, catastrophic failures of major transformers and circuit breakers have led to costly, widespread blackouts, and the board is getting nervous. The company’s long-standing maintenance philosophy—"if it isn't broken, don't fix it"—is now causing more problems than it solves.
The CEO has personally tasked you with overhauling Northwood's entire approach to infrastructure maintenance. The problem is twofold: the budget is tighter than ever, and public patience for power outages is nonexistent. Simply replacing everything is not an option. You need a smarter, more data-driven strategy.
Your predecessor left behind a mess of reactive repairs and patchwork fixes. Now it's on you to analyze the situation and present a formal recommendation to the executive team. You must choose a path that balances the checkbook against the urgent need for a reliable and safe electrical grid for the thousands of customers who depend on it every day.
Resources and Evidence
You have been given access to the following internal documents and data to inform your analysis and recommendation.
Key Document: MEMORANDUM: Q3 Financial Headwinds and Maintenance Budget
Northwood Edison: Critical Asset Maintenance History
| Asset ID | Asset Type | Location | Install Date | Last Failure Date | MTBF days | Emergency Repair Cost USD | Preventive Maint Cost USD | Predictive Maint Cost USD |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NE-TR-1101 | Transformer | Maplewood SS | 1992-04-15 | 2022-11-20 | 1250 | 215000 | 11000 | 2500 |
| NE-CB-2305 | Circuit Breaker | Oakridge Terminal | 2018-09-01 | None | 10500 | None | 1500 | 950 |
| NE-VR-8840 | Voltage Regulator | Pine Creek Junction | 2003-07-22 | 2021-03-10 | 3200 | 68000 | 3500 | 1800 |
| NE-TR-1102 | Transformer | Oakridge Terminal | 1995-11-30 | 2023-02-18 | 1100 | 240000 | 12500 | 2600 |
| NE-CB-2306 | Circuit Breaker | Maplewood SS | 1998-06-12 | 2020-05-15 | 2100 | 45000 | 2200 | 900 |
| NE-TR-1103 | Transformer | Willow Creek Sub | 2020-01-20 | None | 15000 | None | 9500 | 3100 |
| NE-VR-8841 | Voltage Regulator | Maplewood SS | 2019-03-14 | None | 11000 | None | 3000 | 1750 |
| NE-CB-2307 | Circuit Breaker | Pine Creek Junction | 2008-08-08 | 2023-04-01 | 4100 | 29500 | 1700 | 1100 |
| NE-TR-1104 | Transformer | Cedar Point Grid | 2005-10-05 | 2019-12-05 | 4500 | 155000 | 10000 | 2400 |
| NE-RC-5210 | Recloser | Willow Creek Sub | 1999-02-25 | 2022-08-30 | 1850 | 22000 | 1150 | 700 |
| NE-CB-2308 | Circuit Breaker | Cedar Point Grid | 2022-07-19 | None | 12000 | None | 1400 | 1050 |
| NE-VR-8842 | Voltage Regulator | Oakridge Terminal | 2001-12-01 | 2023-05-21 | 2550 | 82000 | 4100 | 1900 |
Key Metric: Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF)
Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF) is a critical measure of an asset's reliability. It represents the average time that a piece of equipment operates between breakdowns. A higher MTBF indicates a more reliable asset. This metric is essential for forecasting future failures and scheduling proactive maintenance.
Your Task
As the Senior Asset Manager for Northwood Edison, you must prepare a formal recommendation report (2-3 pages) for the executive leadership team. Your report must analyze the current crisis and propose a new, data-driven maintenance strategy for the company's critical grid components.
Using the resources provided, your report must:
1. Analyze the Data: Perform a cost-benefit analysis of continuing with the current corrective maintenance model versus adopting preventive and/or predictive maintenance strategies.
2. Propose a Strategy: Recommend a specific, blended maintenance strategy that you believe will best serve Northwood Edison. Clearly define which types of assets should receive which type of maintenance.
3. Justify Your Recommendation: Use specific figures and trends from the grid-asset-failure-data to build a compelling business case for your proposal. Your justification must address the CFO's concerns about budget while also prioritizing grid reliability and safety.
Your final deliverable is a professional report ready for executive review. It should be clear, concise, and persuasive.
Submit Your Work
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Next Steps
Excellent work completing this assessment. You've tackled a complex, real-world problem that asset managers face every day.
Please ensure you have uploaded your final recommendation report to the submission area above. Once your submission is complete, you can navigate back to the course home to continue your learning journey.