What is Asset Management?

For the purpose of this text, the definition of asset will be restricted to tangible assets, material goods that comprise the physical production structure of any industry.

Therefore, assets are material goods that have value in themselves or that produce value for their owners. Material goods are part of the value of a business.

According to the ISO 55000 standardization, asset management is the coordinated activity – the approach, planning, implementation of plans – of an organization to realize (generate) value from an asset. Typically, value realization will involve a balance between costs, risks, opportunities, and performance benefits.

Assets and asset systems are often complex and interdependent, causing failures originating in one piece of equipment or sector to cause cascading effects. The behavior of asset systems is dynamic and can change rapidly. The lifetime of assets varies from just a few years to several tens of years within the same industry. Assets need to be monitored, analyzed, and diagnosed. Asset management requires technical understanding, with engineering or even scientific foundations.

WHAT MAKES ASSET MANAGEMENT IMPORTANT?

For many industries, asset management is the next frontier in creating value and decreasing risks for a business.

Among, but not limited to, the benefits of asset management are:

• Improved financial performance;
• Effective management of value generation, risk management and liabilities;
• Support for asset investment decisions;
• Improved services and production outputs;
• Reduced capital and maintenance costs
• Increased safety of people and processes;
• Increased availability of the asset;
• Contribution to the reputation of the organization.

Asset management is a strategic and indispensable issue in the overall planning of the organization. The definition of value as a whole, and how this value generation will be delivered, will require the definition of objectives and key performance indicators for assets or asset systems. Subordinate to maintenance, modern asset management puts responsibility in the hands of financial management, engineering, operations, or quality management. Asset management implies a commitment to continuous improvement in the organization.

WHO PERFORMS ASSET MANAGEMENT?

The people. Therefore, their knowledge, competence, motivation, and teamwork have a huge influence on results. Of course tools and technology are important, but leadership ability, workforce engagement, and collaboration across different functions and departments are essential for effective asset management.

PLANNING ASSET MANAGEMENT

The asset life cycle begins with the definition of the asset’s demand, its acquisition, operation, maintenance, and disposal. Parks or true portfolios of assets are inventoried and recorded in an appropriate information system.

The maintenance plan is one of the results of asset management planning. The objective of maintenance is to prevent or mitigate performance deterioration of assets in use and to manage the risks of failure.

The maintenance plan defines maintenance standards and specifications; asset inventory; asset performance and condition information; and techniques for determining which asset systems will be jointly maintained and at what time. Among the tasks of the maintenance plan are inspection, testing and monitoring of assets, preventive maintenance, and corrective maintenance.

The so-called Industry 4.0 is moving towards the anticipation of potential problems with assets through the use of sensors for monitoring their condition, spectral analysis and predictive maintenance. Thus, the asset reliability during its life cycle is defined and the necessary interventions are done without surprises, at the lowest possible cost.

ASSET RISK ASSESSMENT AND MANAGEMENT

In ISO 55001, risk is defined as the effect of uncertainty on objectives, i.e., the deviation from what is expected. ISO 31000:2009 sets out a series of risk management principles. Risk management deals with uncertainty in a systematic and structured way using the best available information to arrive at the best possible decisions. Risk management activities include identifying, assessing, prioritizing, and treating risks. The purpose is to monitor, control, and reduce the consequences of undesired events that will hinder or prevent the achievement of the organization’s objectives.

As an auxiliary tool in the management of assets, their risks and reliability, the DynaPredict is an industry 4.0 device that plays a relevant role due to its autonomy, embedded technology, and competitive acquisition cost.