5 ways to professionalize your asset investment planning – beyond the MJOP

Do you know exactly when your assets need to be replaced – and what that will cost you? Many organizations don’t. They rely on estimates, scattered data and outdated plans. Asset investment planning brings structure to this: clear, substantiated and future-oriented. This way you avoid unnecessary maintenance, wrong investments and millions in waste.

15 October 2025 • 16 min read

What is asset investment planning?

Asset investment planning (AIP) is the professional version of what you know as the multi-year maintenance plan (MJOP). In government organizations, such as water boards, the term long term asset plan (LTAP) is used. The idea is the same: look ahead. Which assets do you replace when, and what does that cost? AIP helps you make these trade-offs in a substantiated manner, based on performance, risks and costs. This way you not only know what is needed now, but also what budget you need to reserve in ten or twenty years to keep assets in good condition. Where the classic MJOP mainly revolved around replacement maintenance, AIP focuses on strategic decisions: invest, postpone or replace. Not a separate list of costs, but one integral plan that connects maintenance, finance and operations.

How does it work in practice now?

In many organizations, AIP is still a collection of tables and assumptions. Someone manages an Excel sheet, the controller looks at it once a year, and the plan ends up in a presentation. Data comes from all over the place. Maintenance data is in the EAM system, costs in the ERP, documentation in shared folders.

The result? Assets are replaced too early, installations remain in operation for too long or budgets do not match reality. Departments work alongside each other: finance calculates with different figures than maintenance, and operations only hears afterwards why an investment has been postponed. That can be different. How do you tackle that?

1. Start with reliable data about your assets

The starting point is knowing what you have: which assets are in place, in what condition they are and what maintenance costs. Without reliable data, AIP remains guesswork. In practice, we see incomplete object structures, missing maintenance history and costs that are only in the financial system.

Therefore, link technical and financial information. With one version of the truth, you can see which pump or valve requires maintenance, what it costs and when replacement makes sense. That is the basis for every investment decision.

2. Break down silos between departments

AIP only works if departments work together. Maintenance, finance, operations and control must reason from the same data and principles. If this does not happen, the maintenance department invests in an installation that will soon be out of operation, or finance reserves budget for replacements that are technically not necessary for a long time.

By connecting data and processes, all those involved gain the same insight – and you make decisions that are technically, financially and operationally correct.

Handling large numbers of reports

Do you receive a lot of reports, up to hundreds per day? For example, because you maintain and manage large quantities of assets? You can simply have these reports come in via e-mail or a help desk employee without in-depth knowledge of the matter. The system ensures that each report is handled in the agreed manner.

3. Link risks to strategy

Every investment is a trade-off between risk and (business) value. What happens if a machine breaks down? And what does that mean for safety, the environment or reputation?

For example, at a waste processor it is decided to close a combustion line in five years. That changes the maintenance policy: why invest in revisions if that line will disappear anyway?

If you systematically link risks to the business strategy, you prevent money from disappearing into assets without a future. Technical risks are important, but organizational risks are just as important. Think of staff shortages, environmental requirements or reputational damage. Anyone who includes all these aspects in AIP makes choices that fit the course of the company.

4. Measure performance and adjust

Without performance insight, planning remains guesswork. How reliable are assets, how often do they fail and what is the real availability?

Take a tunnel that must be open 99.6 percent of the time. That allows only 0.4 percent downtime – at most a few nights per year. If you don’t achieve that, you need to know why. Is it due to the installation or to the assumptions in the plan?

By continuously monitoring performance, you can calculate scenarios: what happens if you postpone or bring forward replacement? This makes your plan dynamic: not a static document, but a control instrument for real-time adjustment.

5. Make decisions based on facts, not on feeling

Dare to rely on data. In many organizations, decision-making still rests on experience or intuition. That works until the key figures retire.

For example, at a container terminal, a lot of knowledge is in the heads of mechanics who have been working there for twenty years. No one has a complete overview of the area. Only after an inventory of the available asset data and the recording of processes does an overview emerge. Since then, the organization has been able to demonstrate to auditors that it is in control – with substantiated plans and transparent choices.

That is exactly what professional AIP does: facts come to the table, risks are clear and decisions become predictable.

AIP: strategy translated into technology

AIP affects your entire organization – from strategy to execution. That is why Gemba and Faam work together. Faam takes care of the strategic and methodical side, with maintenance-conscious design, risk-driven strategies, performance management and ISO 55000 working methods. Gemba translates this into technology with IBM Maximo Application Suite (IBM MAS), in which all relevant data, processes and performance come together. This makes AIP a practical process in which policy, maintenance and finances reinforce each other. You calculate scenarios, adjust plans and immediately see the impact of decisions.

Share this message

Blog Blogs