Planning to Extend the Life of Major Assets

Purchases of major long-life assets such as rolling stock, planes, wind turbines etc. represent a substantial investment by companies or governments, from which the owner needs to ensure maximum return over the asset's life. A big question facing industry is: “What tools and techniques could be used when planning to introduce a major long life (40+ years) asset, to extend the design life and could this be cost effective?” This paper discusses one particular example of how a customer explored the potential to extend the life of their asset purchase by approximately 50% and the methods they were using to achieve this.