Asset Management

Тhe concept of asset management

Developing an accurate asset management methodology is the way to identify system critical points. These are the points at which costs are critical to managing the risks associated with potential asset crashes.

  • Аsset management offers a useful framework to organize management activities for capital assets, including everything, that is done, from cradle to derive the most value from  a physical or fixed asset. Activities include the full life cycle of management:
  • acquisition
  • construction
  • maintenance
  • renewal
  • and final disposal or replacement

Usually in asset management has the following basic five questions:

  1. What is the current state of my assets?
  • What do I own?
  • Where is it?
  • What condition is it in? What is its performance?
  • What is its remaining useful life?
  • What is its remaining economic value?
  1. What is my required level of service?
  • What is the demand for my services by my stakeholders?
  • What do regulators require?
  • What is my actual performance?
  1.  Which assets are critical to sustained performance?
  • How does it fail? How can it fail?
  • What is the likelihood of failure? 
  • What does it cost to repair?
  • What are the consequences of failure?
  1.  What are my best O&M and CIP investment strategies?
  • What alternative management options exist?

  • Which are the most feasible for my organization?

  1. What is my best long-term funding strategy?

  2. Asset management contributes to rational capital improvement plans that will be supported by the public and elected officials.

Asset management is a way to target the points in the system where spending is crucial to manage risks associated with potential asset failures – thereby optimizing spending to keep the system working reliably and customers satisfied.

The asset management methodology should treat the process of calculating the individual assessment of the condition of an asset, as well as the overall assessment of the overall complex facility (for example: element group, sub-object, object, etc.) based on the individual estimates elements included in its technological scheme. This process involves determining the weights and contribution to the overall evaluation of the individual sub-objects and groups of elements.

An exemplary structure of the asset management methodology may basically include (taking into account the existing “structure” and “maturity” of the asset management process):

    • Preparation of a system registry with a hierarchical description of all objects, sub-objects, etc. to the ultimate asset level (element) in a class system;
    • Preparation of weight (contribution) for each asset (item);
    • Completing the form with indicators for each asset / group of elements to form an assessment of the physical condition of the assets;
    • Determination of asset security;
    • Determination of the remaining physical life of the assets according to the factors by which each asset is valued.
    • Determining the remaining useful financial and economic life of key assets;
    • Identify future investments related to key assets.

Determining the risk for key assets through a group of indicators

Figure: Hierarchical structure of assets