Rotating and non-rotating assets in Maximo

In Maximo/TPAE applications assets can be either rotating or non-rotating. The difference between those two types of assets is sometimes not clear.

Rotating assets are assets that are interchangeable, such as motors, pumps, fire extinguishers, or PC monitors. Rotating assets have both a unique asset number and an inventory item number. The item number lets you track assets as a group as they are moved in and out of inventory and other types of locations, while the asset number is useful to track individual instances of the asset as it is moved from one location to another and from one site to another.
Non-rotating assets do not move in and out of storerooms. A non-rotating asset has a unique asset number, but does not have an item number because it is not tracked in inventory.

Rotating assets

1. Rotating assets are assets that are interchangeable.
2. Rotating assets have a unique asset number and an inventory item number; the item must be marked as rotating. Service Items cannot be marked as rotating; the items found in the Item Master or Tools application can be marked as rotating. Non-rotating assets do not reference an item number.
3. Before you can create a record for a rotating asset, the rotating item record must first be created in the Item Master application.
4. Rotating assets can be located in a storeroom, either an item storeroom or a tool storeroom.
5. Rotating assets can also exist in labor and courier locations where these have been set up to maintain a balance of an item. Non-rotating and rotating assets can exist in Operating Locations, Vendor, Salvage, and Repair Locations.
6. Rotating assets can have an Item Assembly Structure (IAS) applied. The IAS can be considered as a template for a hierarchy of assets, saving time when creating many similar asset hierarchies.
7. The classification of a rotating asset is determined from its rotating item. If the attribute values are updated on the rotating item, they are also changed on all rotating assets that belong to this rotating item.
8. During the receiving process rotating assets have to be given an asset number.

Example of a rotating asset

A company might have four identical (same make, same model) centrifugal pumps, so all four pumps would have the same item number. To track the use, the repairs, and the locations of each individual pump, each pump has its own, unique asset number.

Non-rotating assets

1. Non-rotating assets can be purchased, received, and issued directly to the person who requisitioned the item.
2. Non-rotating assets are not associated to an Item.
3. Non-rotating assets do not have to share a common classification.