Asset Management Glossary
30 terms, defined plainly
The vocabulary of maintenance, asset management and public-sector capital planning, from FCI and useful life to work requests and PSAB tangible capital assets.
Strategic Planning7 terms
Asset Management Plan (AMP)
A documented strategy outlining how an organization will manage its physical assets over their lifecycle to deliver required levels of service.
Capital Planning
The process of budgeting for long-term asset investments, replacements, and major repairs over multiple years.
Condition Assessment
A systematic evaluation of an asset or facility to determine its current physical state, identify deficiencies, and calculate FCI.
Facility Condition Index (FCI)
A metric that measures the ratio of deferred maintenance costs to current replacement value, expressed as a percentage.
Network Condition Index (NCI)
A length-weighted roll-up of 0-100 condition scores across all features in an infrastructure network, giving one comparable health score per network.
Pavement Condition Index (PCI)
A 0-100 numerical rating of pavement surface condition based on a visual survey of distress types per ASTM D6433, where 100 is perfect.
UniFormat Classification
A standard classification system (ASTM E1557) that organizes building elements by function rather than by product or trade.
Asset Management5 terms
Asset Lifecycle Management
The process of managing an asset from acquisition through operation, maintenance, and eventual disposal or replacement.
Asset Replacement
The systematic process of identifying and replacing assets that have reached end of useful life or exceeded acceptable risk thresholds.
Enterprise Asset Management (EAM)
A comprehensive approach to managing physical assets across their entire lifecycle at an organization-wide scale, extending CMMS with capital planning and risk assessment.
Linear Asset
An asset whose extent and value are distributed along a length rather than a point - watermains, sewers, roads, cable and fibre runs, gas lines.
Useful Life
The estimated period an asset provides service - it drives amortization for accounting and replacement timing for capital planning.
Maintenance5 terms
Deferred Maintenance
Maintenance activities identified as necessary but postponed due to budget or resource constraints. The numerator in the FCI formula.
Predictive Maintenance (PdM)
A maintenance strategy using condition monitoring data and analytics to predict when equipment will fail and schedule maintenance accordingly.
Preventive Maintenance
Scheduled maintenance activities performed to prevent equipment failures before they occur.
Reliability-Centered Maintenance (RCM)
A systematic methodology for determining the most effective maintenance strategy for each asset based on failure modes and consequences.
Run to Failure (RTF)
A maintenance strategy where assets are intentionally operated until failure, appropriate for non-critical, inexpensive assets.
CMMS3 terms
CMMS (Computerized Maintenance Management System)
A software platform that centralizes maintenance information, automates work orders, and schedules preventive maintenance.
Work Order
A document that authorizes and tracks maintenance tasks, including labor, parts, and completion details.
Work Request
A formal submission from a non-maintenance user to report an issue or request service, entering an approval workflow before becoming a work order.
Financial3 terms
Amortization
The systematic allocation of a capital asset’s cost, less residual value, over its useful life - reducing net book value each year.
Tangible Capital Assets (TCA)
Non-financial assets with physical substance held for use - recorded at historical cost and amortized over their useful lives under PSAB PS 3150.
Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)
The complete cost of an asset over its full lifecycle, including acquisition, operation, maintenance, and disposal.
Operations3 terms
Field Service Management
The coordination of work performed by technicians at locations outside the main office, including mobile work orders and dispatching.
Service Level Agreement (SLA)
A contract defining the expected level of service between a provider and client, including response times, availability, and performance metrics.
Vendor Management
The end-to-end process of selecting, contracting, onboarding, monitoring, and managing external service providers.
