Asset Hierarchy

A physical item of plant, equipment, or infrastructure that has value to an organization and is subject to management decisions regarding its acquisition, operation, maintenance, modification, and disposal. In asset integrity management, assets include pressure vessels, piping systems, storage tanks, rotating equipment, structural components, electrical equipment, and instrumentation systems. Each asset has an identity, a defined function, and documented attributes.

A comprehensive, structured inventory of all physical assets within an organization's scope of responsibility, containing essential information for each asset including unique identifier, description, location, classification, design data, material specification, operating conditions, and current status. The asset register is the single source of truth for the asset population and the foundation of all integrity management activities.

A position in the asset hierarchy that describes a function or location within a technical system, independent of the specific physical equipment installed at that position. Functional locations are permanent — they represent where a function is performed — while the equipment occupying that location may change over time. This separation enables tracking of maintenance history by location even when equipment is replaced.

Petroleum, petrochemical and natural gas industries — collection and exchange of reliability and maintenance data for equipment. This standard defines a taxonomy for equipment classification, failure mode coding, and data fields required for reliability analysis. It provides a common language for recording failure events across organizations and installations.