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The corporate asset strategy determines whether assets should be enhanced by capital investment, maintained to upkeep their position or disposed. Thus, the corporate asset strategy connects corporate objectives to the available production technology, and consequently, the production asset base has to be developed to support the company s objectives. Even it is evident that physical assets are key elements in bringing the corporate strategy into action many asset owners still don't couple asset management with corporate strategy. This paper examines the influence of the market demand and competitive situation to the asset management decisions, especially operative investment decisions in the capital intensive manufacturing industry. It proposes a practical semi-quantitative approach to support the business-driven asset strategy decisions. The empirical research was carried out in co-operation between researchers and companies. The results indicate that a systematic strategy oriented analysis can be successfully combined to the corporate asset management decisions.

Rolling element bearing is one of the most critical components that determine the machinery health and its remaining lifetime. Rolling contact wear is responsible for the damages initiating on and beneath the contacting surfaces of rolling element bearings. Wear prognosis aims to predict the defect and its evolution progress before it occurs. It addresses the use of automated methods to predict the degradation of physical system performance and the remaining lifetime. Actually, the fundamental need for predictive intelligence tools is to monitor the degradation rather than just detecting the defects, otherwise it will be hard to optimise the asset utilisation in cost effective manner. The current prognosis models are based on predetermined probabilistic damage functions or constant damage factors. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to develop a prognosis model which is able to predict the evolution of rolling contact wear, using systems dynamics approach. Instead of pre-determined damage functions, the dynamic development of wear process is proposed. The dynamic development of wear considers multiple wear mechanisms and their interactions with respect to surface topological and tribological changes. Moreover, it considers the stress concentration mechanisms and their propagation processes. Therefore, the paper utilizes a five-stage model to simplify the dynamic development of wear progress over the lifetime. The five stages are running-in, steady-state, defect initiation (dentations, pits, and inclusions), defect propagation (extended pits, propagated cracks), damage growth (spalls). The paper is relevant in enhancing the effectiveness of prognostics procedures of rolling element bearing wear.