Physical Asset Management

According to the asset management specification, PAS55 (Chapter 24), the assets can be categorized as: (1) financial assets; (2) Physical assets; (3) Human assets ; (4) Information assets; and lastly (5) Intangible assets. This book concerns about physical assets and provides a complete and detailed information on how to manage physical assets, which include items like plants, machinery, buildings, vehicles pipes and wires and to maintain their technical control and software systems that are used to serve a business or organization. The management activities comprise identification of necessary assets and funding requirements followed by their acquisition and to providing logistic and maintenance support for all assets and finally arranging for the disposal or renewal of new assets. The major problem an asset manager has to bother about is whether the assets are operational, safe and support the business aim. In short, the asset management is a concern from the concept to disposal. In an intensive business, asset management is essential to help carry out functions such as sales, operations, finance and human resources. This book is authored by a person, who has worked in British Army, in the industry as well as in the university environment, can be very helpful to any organization or business and particularly to managers whose concern is to maintain their physical assets. This very well-written book presents all aspects of physical assets management in a very friendly and simple language understandable even to a non-specialist and its usefulness is not restricted to a particular type of industry. This is applicable to even government or defence organizations as well. This reviewer recommends this to all of them.

Krishna B. Misra

This review has been published in the International Journal of Performability Engineering in Vol. 6, No. 3, May, 2010 on page 288.