Asset Maintenance Guide

Writen by Mansi Aggarwal

Assets are not ends but means to some useful ends. Prudently managed assets can result in incredible gains. Assets can be tangible as well as intangible. A skilful management of assets leads to their complete exploitation and saving of organization funds. Inefficiency in management of assets can lead to loss of funds in the company and so its poor performance.

Any business is constitutive of numerous big and small issues such as cost management, capital budgeting, expense accounting, financial planning and reporting and so forth. But along with controlling or managing tangible goods, raw materials, finished products, vehicles buildings and other such items, businesses at present also need to take care of their intellectual assets. Asset management comprises of a commendable percentage of managing concerns in an organization

Due to its enticing results the lure as well as the role of asset management is increasing day by day. Asset management is turning out to be a global trend as international maintenance engineers are joining the expanding asset management group. Consequently many significant and novel strategies have evolved in this area. While traditionally asset management meant dealing mostly with the fixed assets of a company at every stage, in the contemporary world besides development of many commercial asset-managing firms that impart services for monitoring various resources of the company, different software packages are available to efficiently handle the assets of a company.

Planning for asset maintenance leads to specific or desired results in a cost-effective manner. This in a way guarantees that the company's asset portfolio remains functioning and productive for the least long-term cost.

The first step in asset maintenance is to evaluate the assets- which assets need must be preserved and which not. During this process the assets that have a relatively short life, require little maintenance such as furniture, might just be excluded. But for the assets that require regular maintenance, a well-framed asset maintenance strategy is necessary.

An asset maintenance strategy can be defined as a comprehensive plan that states the asset, the performance expected of it and the extent of its maintenance. It also describes the systems and procedures to be adopted to plan and handle the maintenance work. A maintenance strategy also chooses the means of resourcing and implementing maintenance and also hints at any requirements for in-house plant, equipment or spare parts. Last but not the least it presents the targeted costs of routine maintenance.

There are two factors that together contribute to the development of a maintenance strategy- the level of maintenance required for the asset and the maintenance priorities. The level of maintenance stands for the maintenance required of an asset and its expected performance. While maintenance priorities deal with higher priority maintenance tasks like those affecting the health and safety. This will enable maintenance effort to concentrate on these areas even if resources fall below the desired levels.

The asset maintenance strategy should then be transformed into annual maintenance plans that present the maintenance tasks to be performed ever year. An adequate maintenance plan entails an effective asset maintenance that in-turn leads to a long term reduction in life cycle costs, improved asset performance and service, optimization of asset life and better public opinion regarding the asset's service and safety standards.

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