Abstract
Physical asset management is commonly associated with the benefit created by managing mechanical equipment during operation more effectively to reduce life cycle cost. It is therefore often associated with the potential of condition monitoring and maintenance engineering for reducing maintenance cost due to the success that these engineering disciplines have had in doing so. However, physical asset management has much more to it than simply managing maintenance activities or even reducing maintenance cost. It is about balancing performance, risk and cost associated with an asset over its whole life to achieve an optimum solution to the business opportunity at hand.