This paper presents various methodologies and issues associated with a total asset management process that embraces the use of capital and maintenance expenditure to ensure assets meet the full spectrum of operational requirements, including safety, performance and return on investment. Pervading the entire process is a risk management process that is a function of the condition of the asset base and the responsiveness to identified needs.
Output from the asset management plan described in the paper includes distribution of costs across systems and areas, efficiency of the expenditure (including reactive versus proactive maintenance plus anecdotal notes on known problems), and effectiveness of the expenditure – management of the reliability and capability of the systems, where capability represents ability of an asset to provide its intended function with expected levels of flexibility, efficiency and quality.