Asset Retirement Stage

The discourse in this chapter is focused on issues concerning the retirement stage in the life of an engineered asset. The emphasis here is how to implement the asset ‘end-of-life’ recommendations arising as a consequence of condition and performance assessments. Subsequent to condition monitoring and assessment, the initial part of the decision-making is to ascertain whether or not an asset has reached end-of-life, and if so, what the next course of action should be. Additional issues to be considered with the end-of-life recommendations include statutory requirements (e.g., environmental impact), contractual obligations (especially those that arise from the acquisition options), and valuation of the asset.