The Cycle of Asset Life

Asset Life Cycle

So often to get to a destination we need something with wheels. Be it a bicycle, a backie, a car, or some sort of other vehicle. The wheel generally covers more ground faster than we can manage by walking or running unless it is a very small wheel. Our lives run on a cycle and who can forget that great song from the Lion King, The Cycle of Life.

Perhaps it should not be surprising to learn that our assets also run on a life cycle and in this image we can see a diagrammatic representation of the Asset Life Cycle.

• Asset Inventory
  • What do I own and where is it?
• Condition Assessment
  • What condition is it in?
• Asset Replacement Costing
  • What is its replacement cost?
• Asset Valuation
  • What is its remaining life?
• Asset Disposal and Replacement
  • What is its remaining economic value?

These five areas are critical when it comes to looking after our assets but they are useless without a central cog to drive the process or the wheel. In a similar way, our bicycle or vehicle wheels cannot turn effectively without a central cog to drive them.

In the above image, we need to view all of these areas almost as spokes in a bicycle wheel with the key central cog to make them all spin, being the Asset Care Performance Management System.

The five areas represent a process that is necessary for the wellbeing and health of all assets under our responsibility. The correct functioning of each of these areas is dependent on the ongoing wellbeing of the Asset Management Performance System, which will provide all the necessary information to correctly answer the above questions. Without this asset life cycle being in place and working effectively, the answers to the above questions would at best be a guessing game.

Asset Inventory – Asset Register

The first area that we are now going to focus on is the Asset Inventory and here we are going to discuss how we can establish and set up an Accurate Asset Inventory. This is the most important component of the asset life cycle. Without an accurate inventory, there is simply no asset control. It often surprises me to discover that a considerable amount of industrial and facility organizations still in this day and age, do not have an accurate Asset Inventory. This makes the identification of assets very difficult and for maintenance activities to function effectively. The recording of work activity, notifications, usage history, and attachments will be extremely difficult. There will be a very limited facility for historical information to be recorded and tracked for future maintenance improvement efforts.

Without an accurate Asset Register, it will almost be impossible to get an effective Asset Management Performance System off the ground. The life cycle wheel simply will not turn.

Our job is to make that wheel turn so let’s turn our attention now to discover how we can start to get our asset register set up accurately for effective use and get this wheel moving.

For more information email us at info@strobe-al.co.za or visit www.strobe-al.co.za