Key Principles
We have been ‘managing assets’ for a long time - however there are some vital adjectives that distinguish good practices in joined-up and optimized asset management from historical ‘merely managing the assets’. These adjectives are generic attributes:
- Holistic: asset management must be cross-disciplinary, total value focused
- Systematic: rigorously applied in a structured management system
- Systemic: looking at assets in their systems context, again for net, total value
- Risk-based: incorporating risk appropriately into all decision-making
- Optimal: seeking the best compromise between conflicting objectives, such as costs versus performance versus risks etc.
- Sustainable: plans must deliver optimal asset life cycles, ongoing systems performance, environmental and other long term consequences.
- Integrated: at the heart of good asset management lies the need to be joined-up. The total jigsaw puzzle needs to work as a whole - and this is not just the sum of the parts.
For more detail, case studies and other useful insights into the subject and how it is implemented in different environments, please go to the Asset Management Body of Knowledge (IAM members only)
