As the majority of trading volume in the Taiwanese stock market is created by retail investors, the Taiwanese government has been aiming to promote professionalism by channelling the money from retail investors into the hands of professional asset managers. The Executive Yuan passed the third reading of the Amended Draft of the Securities & Exchange Law on the 30th June 2000 (Article 18-3, the Securities & Exchange Law) and the Securities & Futures Bureau approved on 5th January 2001 that investment & trust and investment consulting companies may offer services in the discretionary investment business. The discretionary investment business in, in nature, similar with the set-up of mutual funds; however, the discretionary investment business offers bespoke characteristics and specifications catering to specific requests of individual investors. The customization in the scope of investment and underlying targets is made possible to satisfy differing needs of individual clients. As institutional investors are sophisticated in mapping out investment strategies and dedicated in their fundamental analysis of macroeconomic and political situations, industry trends and financial reports of listed companies, they are able to better allocate assets and select the stocks. At first, this research reviews all the relevant literature and looks into the details of the legal framework governing the discretionary investment business. This paper argues that the originally well-intentioned regulations in fact, at least to some degree, hamper the development of the discretionary investment business. Then this research paper examines the characteristics, basic structure and the legal framework of the discretionary investment business, probes into the Taiwanese asset management market and uses Grand Cathay Securities Investment Trust as a case study, as an attempt to shed light to the future development of the discretionary investment business in Taiwan. In this case study, the author investigates the strategies employed by Grand Cathay Securities Investment Trust against the backdrop of the business environment and the market competition by deploying scenarios analysis, SWOT analysis and the Porter¡¦s competitiveness framework (cost leadership vs. product differentiations). The scope of the strategic considerations covers 4P, i.e. price, product, place and promotion. Finally, this research concludes that there are two competitive strategies in this market, i.e. cost leadership and product differentiations and summarize the operational, marketing and operational implications of these two strategies.

Traffic signs, which transportation agencies must inventory and manage, are one of the most important roadway assets because they are used to ensure roadway safety and provide important travel guidance/information. Traffic sign inventory and condition assessment are two important components that are essential for establishing a cost-effective and sustainable traffic sign management system. Traditionally, state departments of transportation (DOTs) have conducted traffic sign inventory and condition assessment manually, a process that is labor-intensive, time-consuming, and sometimes hazardous to field engineers in the roadway environment. Methods have been developed to automate sign inventory and condition assessment using video log images in previous studies. However, the performance of these methods still needs to be improved. Based on the need to inventory signs and manage them more effectively, this study has two focuses. The first focus is to develop an enhanced traffic sign detection methodology to improve the productivity of an image-based sign inventory for state DOTs. The proposed methodology includes two enhanced algorithms: a) a lighting dependent statistical color model (LD-SCM)-based color segmentation algorithm that is robust to different image lighting conditions, especially adverse lighting and b) an ordinary/partial differential equation (ODE/PDE)-based shape detection algorithm that is immune to discontinuous sign boundaries in a cluttered background. The second focus of the study is to explore a new traffic sign retroreflectivity condition assessment methodology to develop a mobile method that uses emerging computer vision and mobile light detection and ranging (LiDAR) technologies to assess traffic sign retroreflectivity conditions. The proposed methodology includes a) an image-LiDAR registration method employing camera calibration and point co-planarity to register the 3D LiDAR point cloud with 2D video log images, b) a theoretical-empirical normalization scheme to adjust the magnitude of the LiDAR retro-intensity values with respect to LiDAR beam distance and incidence angle based on the radiometric responses, and c) a population-based retroreflectivity condition assessment method to evaluate the adequacy of a traffic sign retroreflectivity condition based on the correlation between the normalized LiDAR retro-intensity and the retroreflectivity values. For the proposed traffic sign detection methodology, comprehensive tests using representative datasets (e.g. with different road functions, data collection sources, and data qualities) were conducted to validate the performance of the two enhanced algorithms and the complete methodology. For the proposed retroreflectivity condition assessment methodology, the fundamental behavior of LiDAR retro-intensity was comprehensively tested and simulated under a controlled lab and roadway environment to quantify the impact of beam distance and incidence angle. A preliminary test on Type 1 engineer grade stop signs was conducted in the field to validate the performance of the proposed sign retroreflectivity condition assessment method. The results from both of the proposed methodologies are promising.

Risk assessment is an essential part of an effective transportation asset management program. The 2012 surface transportation bill, Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century, requires state departments of transportation (DOTs) to establish risk- and performance-based asset management programs for the National Highway System. While the bill’s provisions include requirements only for pavement and bridge assets, they also recommend that DOTs consider other ancillary highway assets such as culverts and earth retaining structures, and hazards such as rockfalls and landslides. This research introduces an integrated risk framework with supporting algorithms to provide for the integration of ancillary assets and hazards into existing transportation asset management systems, and facilitate budget planning and resource allocation. The framework, Highway Assets Risk Management Decision-Support System (HARM-DSS), adopts a system-of systems perspective in defining and evaluating performance, and analyzing and addressing risk. The algorithms are developed using multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) and risk analysis methods; value functions are applied to scale performance attributes, and additive weighting to integrate multiple risk criteria. The methodology is applied at the corridor-level to analyze three different case studies using data with notable variability from New York, Minnesota and Oregon. The cases demonstrate the process for developing descriptive and visual information on multi-asset/hazard corridors, with sparse to medium data, in order to identify corridors that are vulnerable to failure, as well as exhibit high risk of failure within a transportation network. The results demonstrate that HARM-DSS can be applied across competing corridors or alternatives to produce descriptive and intuitive results that decision makers can use in budget planning and resource allocation. This research extends the risk-based thinking on transportation asset management, by moving it from a silo-ed to an integrated analytical platform that considers multiple non-homogenous assets and hazards simultaneously. It identifies data deficiencies and offers recommendations on the requisite data collection on asset inventory and condition to improve objectivity in the analytical process and confidence in the analysis results. In addition, it offers recommendations on the appropriate use of expert knowledge in supplementing existing data deficiencies in the interim. This work is potentially useful to decision makers involved in distributing resources to preserve the reliability and resiliency of transportation systems, as well as meet the existing performance- and risk-based Federal mandates for transportation asset management.

Η έρευνα αυτή παρουσιάζει συγκριτικά στοιχεία ερευνών σχετικά με τις απόψεις και τη συμπεριφορά των διευθυντικών στελεχών στις Ηνωμένες Πολιτείες, τη Γερμανία , την Ιαπωνία και Ταϊλάνδη. Στηριζόμενη στις τέσσερις πολιτιστικές διαστάσεις του Hofstede , διαπιστώνουμε ότι οι πολιτισμικές διαφορές είναι χρήσιμες για την κατανόηση των διαφορών μεταξύ των χωρών, οι οποίες δεν μπορούν να εξηγηθούν από καθαρά οικονομική και μόνο πλευρά. Οι διαχειριστές περιουσιακών στοιχείων που διαχειρίζονται τεράστιες ποσότητες συνήθως δισεκατομμύρια δολάρια για τις τράπεζες , τις ασφαλιστικές εταιρείες και τα αμοιβαία κεφάλαια, επενδύουν τα περιουσιακά στοιχεία που τους έχουν ανατεθεί σε παγκόσμιο επίπεδο ως κάτι το αυτονόητο . Επιπλέον , οι αποφάσεις τους λαμβάνονται με βάση τη θεωρίες για την κεφαλαιαγορά και για τη βέλτιστη κατανομή του χαρτοφυλακίου που είναι παγκοσμίως ομοιόμορφη. Έτσι, αναμένουμε ότι η συμπεριφορά των διαχειριστών περιουσιακών στοιχείων θα επηρεάζεται από ερεθίσματα που προκύπτουν από την ηλικία , την εμπειρία ,την εκπαίδευση κλπ και από τα θεσμικά στοιχεία και όχι από πολιτισμικές διαστάσεις. Στην έρευνα αυτή , αναλύονται οι απόψεις και οι συμπεριφορές των διαχειριστών περιουσιακών στοιχείων στην αγορά, εξετάζονται τα χαρακτηριστικά των ερωτηθέντων, όπως είναι το φύλο, η πείρα , η θέση ή το μέγεθος της επιχείρησης τους καθώς και τα χαρακτηριστικά του κεφαλαίου. Στο επίκεντρο της έρευνας είναι το ερώτημα , κατά πόσον οι πολιτισμικές διαφορές , όπως προβλέπει η πολιτισμική θεωρία, έχουν κάποια συστηματική επίδραση στη διεθνή βιομηχανία της διαχείρισης περιουσιακών στοιχείων. Διαπίστωσαν μάλιστα ότι πράγματι η διαχείριση περιουσιακών στοιχείων είναι μια παγκόσμια επιχείρηση που έχει κάποιες κοινές παγκόσμιες διαστάσεις. Ωστόσο, βρήκαν και ιδιαίτερες διαφορές μεταξύ των χωρών που δύσκολα μπορούν να εξηγηθούν από τη θεωρία της κεφαλαιαγοράς , αλλά αντ’ αυτού συνάδουν με την πολιτιστική επιρροή στις απόψεις και στις συμπεριφορές. Η δομή της διπλωματικής εργασίας ξεκινάει με το πρώτο κεφάλαιο στο οποίο θα ασχοληθούμε με τις κοινές παραδοχές στο διεθνές asset management όπως αναφέρονται από τους Beckmann, Menkhoff και Suto (2007). Στη συνέχεια, θα εστιάσουμε στις τέσσερις πολιτισμικές διαστάσεις του Hofstede, θα παραθέσουμε τα αποτελέσματα της έρευνας για κάθε μία από αυτές, στο δεύτερο κεφάλαιο θα δούμε μέσω μιας έρευνας του Hofstede ότι η κουλτούρα των ατόμων είναι αυτή που επηρεάζει περισσότερο τη συμπεριφορά και τη στάση τους, πάρα η ηλικία, το φύλο, η θέση τους μέσα στην επιχείρηση και γενικά την κατανόηση των εθνικών πολιτισμικών αξιών και η επίδρασή τους στη συμπεριφορά και στις αποφάσεις των managers. Στο τρίτο και τελευταίο κεφάλαιο θα αναλύσουμε πως αντιμετωπίζεται ο πολιτισμός και η κουλτούρα στην περίπτωση που δυο εταιρείες ενσωματωθούν και στο τέλος, θα αναφερθούν τα συμπεράσματα της μελέτης αυτής. Ορισμένα συμπεράσματα που πρόεκυψαν από την έρευνα αυτή είναι τα εξής : ότι ο υψηλότερος ατομικισμός εξηγεί τη λιγότερο αγελαία συμπεριφορά, η μεγαλύτερη απόσταση εξουσίας οδηγεί σε σχετικά μεγαλύτερους σε ηλικία διαχειριστές που είναι σε υψηλότερη ιεραρχία, η αρρενωπότητα οδηγεί τους άντρες σε υψηλές θέσεις και συνεπάγεται ισχυρή επιρροή του φύλου στον υπό διαχείριση όγκο περιουσιακών στοιχείων υπό προσωπική ευθύνη και η υψηλότερη αποφυγή της αβεβαιότητας σχετίζεται με υψηλότερα περιθώρια ασφάλειας έναντι του επιτρεπόμενου tracking error και με μεγαλύτερη ερευνητική προσπάθεια. Αυτές οι συνέπειες, επηρεάζουν εμφανώς την επενδυτική συμπεριφορά. Επίσης , η πολιτισμική διαφορετική σημασία της αγελαίας συμπεριφοράς, της ηλικίας, της εμπειρίας, του φύλου, του στυλ της ενεργούς διαχείρισης περιουσιακών στοιχείων και της προσπάθειας για έρευνα για πληροφορίες επηρεάζει και γενικότερα την οργανωτική συμπεριφορά των μάνατζερ. Οι μάνατζερ μπορούν να διαπιστώνουν τις αξίες που υπερισχύουν στις διάφορες χώρες και παράλληλα να ομαδοποιήσουν χώρες που έχουν τις ίδιες αλλά και πολλές φορές διαφορετικές αξίες. Η καλύτερη κατανόηση των αξιών, των πεποιθήσεων, των προτύπων, της κουλτούρας δηλαδή, όπου ανήκουν οι υπάλληλοι, θα τους βοηθήσει να γίνουν αποτελεσματικότεροι στο έργο τους. Ο Πολιτισμός αποτελείται από κοινές μακροχρόνιες αξίες , πεποιθήσεις και παραδοχές που επηρεάζουν τη συμπεριφορά κάποιου , τη στάση , και το νόημα σε μια εταιρεία ή και σε μια κοινωνία. Η κουλτούρα επηρεάζει το πώς οι άνθρωποι συμπεριφέρονται και πώς κατανοούν τις δικές τους ενέργειες. Νέες πολιτιστικές αξίες που επιβάλλονται στους ανθρώπους σπάνια μπορούν να αντικαταστήσουν υποκείμενες αξίες και τις πεποιθήσεις κάποιων σε μια μακροπρόθεσμη βάση. / This research presents comparative survey data on attitudes and behavior of managers in the United States, Germany, Japan and Thailand. Based on the four cultural dimensions of Hofstede, we find that cultural differences are useful for understanding the differences between countries, which can’t be explained by purely economic and side only. The asset managers that manage huge amounts usually billions of dollars for banks, insurance companies and mutual funds, investing the assets entrusted to them worldwide as a matter of course. Furthermore, decisions are taken based on theories of capital and optimal portfolio allocation that is globally uniform. Thus, we expect that the behavior of asset managers will be influenced by stimuli arising from age, experience, education, etc., and by institutional factors rather than cultural dimensions. In this study, analyzed the opinions and attitudes of asset managers in the market, looking at the characteristics of respondents, such as gender, experience, position or size of their business and the characteristics of the capital. The focus of research is the question of whether cultural differences, such as providing cultural theory, have a systemic impact on the international industry of asset management. They found that indeed even asset management is a global company that has some common global dimensions. However, they found specific differences between countries can hardly be explained by the theory of capital, but instead are consistent with their cultural influence on the opinions and attitudes. The structure of the thesis begins with the first chapter in which we will deal with the common assumptions in international asset management as reported by Beckmann, Menkhoff and Suto (2007). Then we will focus on four cultural dimensions of Hofstede, we will describe the survey results for each of these, the second chapter will look through a survey of Hofstede that culture of people is that most affects the behavior and attitudes , too, the age, location within the enterprise and general understanding of national cultural values and their influence on the behavior and decisions of managers. In the third and final chapter will analyze how should civilization and culture where two companies incorporated in the end, will be reported to the conclusions of the study.That higher individualism explains the less gregarious behavior, greater power distance leads to relatively older managers who are at a higher hierarchy, masculinity leads men in high places and implies a strong influence in the volume under management assets under personal responsibility and higher uncertainty avoidance is associated with higher safety margins against the permissible tracking error and greater research effort. These effects clearly affect investment behavior. Also, the different cultural importance of herd behavior, age, experience, gender, style of active asset management and effort for research and general information affects organizational behavior manager. Managers can find the values that prevail in different countries, and to group countries are the same and sometimes different values. A better understanding of the values, beliefs, standards, namely culture, where employees belong, will help them become more effective in their work. Culture consists of shared long-term values, beliefs and assumptions that affect one's behavior, attitude, and meaning in a company or a society. Culture influences how people behave and how they understand their own actions. New cultural values imposed on people seldom can replace the underlying values and beliefs of some on a long term basis.

This research project acknowledged that the introduction of PS 3150 guidelines were presented to Ontario municipalities as a new, unfunded mandated responsibility which was viewed by these municipalities to be an impossible challenge within the completion timeline. This research project identifies impacts that PS 3150 guidelines will have on infrastructure planning for municipalities, with a population of less than 5000, in Northern Ontario. The PS 3150 guidelines were created by the Public Sector Accounting Board (PSAB) of the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants (CICA) to outline the general process for public sector organizations to change from a modified accrual format to full accrual accounting complete with new financial statements. Municipalities have had to better account for both financial and non-financial assets when reporting on revenues and expenditures. The evaluation of the policy mandate outlined in PS 3150 guidelines has yet to be completed, however the impacts of the guidelines can be assessed based on the development and subsequent implementation of Tangible Capital Asset policies and asset management plans by municipal governments. The findings identified four key similarities among responses from the municipal representatives. The Impacts of PS 3150 legislation are primarily related to personnel, financial, planning, and technical issues. The key recommendation arising from the completion of this research is that municipalities need to move forward, pursue complete asset management plans, in order to demonstrate in a quantitative manner the costs associated with municipal infrastructure planning.

This research project acknowledged that the introduction of PS 3150 guidelines were presented to Ontario municipalities as a new, unfunded mandated responsibility which was viewed by these municipalities to be an impossible challenge within the completion timeline. This research project identifies impacts that PS 3150 guidelines will have on infrastructure planning for municipalities, with a population of less than 5000, in Northern Ontario. The PS 3150 guidelines were created by the Public Sector Accounting Board (PSAB) of the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants (CICA) to outline the general process for public sector organizations to change from a modified accrual format to full accrual accounting complete with new financial statements. Municipalities have had to better account for both financial and non-financial assets when reporting on revenues and expenditures. The evaluation of the policy mandate outlined in PS 3150 guidelines has yet to be completed, however the impacts of the guidelines can be assessed based on the development and subsequent implementation of Tangible Capital Asset policies and asset management plans by municipal governments. The findings identified four key similarities among responses from the municipal representatives. The Impacts of PS 3150 legislation are primarily related to personnel, financial, planning, and technical issues. The key recommendation arising from the completion of this research is that municipalities need to move forward, pursue complete asset management plans, in order to demonstrate in a quantitative manner the costs associated with municipal infrastructure planning.

A model for optimizing the differential cost between a preventive maintenance program and a traditional run-to-failure program on managing assets under uncertainty is developed to assist electric power utilities in decision-making. The assets studied, though not necessarily critical to power delivery, are so numerous in number that the failures of thousands of them result in millions of dollars in instantaneous replacement cost to the utility. The ages of some of the assets are approaching an excess of one hundred years, the age of commercial electricity in the United States. The developed model includes the economics of inspections and replacements as random variables, where the cost of corrective replacements could significantly exceed the cost of planned or preventive replacements. The model also relies on uncertainties in annual failures and inaccuracy of diagnostics that drive planned replacements. Age-specific fragilities of the assets under environmental stress are assessed, and the likelihood of failures of the assets was found to increase significantly as they approached one hundred years, past some initial age of failures that are comparable to new assets. This finding led to the development of an improved geographical inspection scheme, where only components past that initial age are recommended for diagnostic evaluation. The optimization results suggest that the present net benefit/cost of preventive replacement programs of the electric power utility to the unpopular run-to-failure program can be improved on. This, by using the developed models and adopting the frameworks presented in the research work. Implications for future research are also discussed.

Electrical power systems play a key role in production and services in both the industrial and commercial sectors and significantly affect the private lives of citizens. A major asset of any power delivery system is the transformer. Transformers represent extensive investment in any power delivery system, and because of the notable effect of a transformer outage on system reliability, careful management of this type of asset is critical. In North America, a large proportion of transformers is approaching the end of their life and should be replaced. In many cases, unexpected transformer outages can be catastrophic and cause both direct and indirect costs to be incurred by industrial, commercial, and residential sectors. Direct costs include but are not limited to loss of production, idle facilities and labour, damaged or spoiled product, and damage to equipment. For commercial customers, the effects may include damage to electrical and electronic equipment, and in some cases damage to goods. For residential customers, outages may cause food spoilage or damage to electrical equipment. In addition to direct costs, there are several types of indirect costs may also result, such as accidental injuries, looting, vandalism, legal costs, and increases in insurance rates. The main goal of this research was to assess the health and remaining lifetime of a working transformer. This information plays a very important role in the planning strategies of power delivery systems and in the avoidance of the potentially appalling effects of unexpected transformer outages. This thesis presents two different methods of assessing transformer end of life and three distinct methods of determining the health index and health condition of any working transformer. The first method of assessing transformer end of life is based on the use of Monte Carlo technique to simulate the thermal life of the solid insulation in a transformer, the failure of which is the main reason for transformer breakdown. The method developed uses the monthly average ambient temperature and the monthly solar clearness index along with their associated uncertainties in order to estimate the hourly ambient temperature. The average daily load curve and the associated uncertainties in each hourly load are then used to model the transformer load. The inherent uncertainties in the transformer loading and the ambient temperature are used to generate an artificial history of the life of the transformer, which becomes the basis for appraising its remaining lifetime. The second method of assessing transformer end of life is essentially an economic evaluation of the remaining time to the replacement of the transformer, taking into consideration its technical aspects. This method relies on the fact that a transformer fails more frequently during the wear-out period, thus incurring additional maintenance and repair costs. As well, frequent failures increase during this period also costs related to transformer interruptions. Replacing a transformer before it is physically damaged is therefore a wise decision. The bathtub failure model is used to represent the technical aspects of the transformer for the purposes of making the replacement decision. The uncertainties related to the time-to-failure, time-to-repair, time-to-switch, and scheduled maintenance time are modeled using a Monte Carlo simulation technique, which enables the calculation of the repair costs and the cost of interruptions. The repair, operation, and interruption costs are then used to generate equivalent uniform annual costs (EUACs) for the existing transformer and for a new transformer, a comparison of which enables the determination of the most economical replacement year. The case studies conducted using both methods demonstrate their reliability for determining transformer end of life for assessing the appropriate time for replacement. Diagnostic test data for 90 working transformers were used to develop three methods of estimating the health condition of a transformer, which utilities and industries can use in order to assess the health of their transformer fleet. The first method is based on building a linear relation between all parameters of diagnostic data in order to determine a transformer health index, from which the health condition of the transformer can be evaluated. The second method depends on the use of artificial neural networks (ANN) in order to find the health condition of any individual transformer. The diagnostic data for the 90 working transformers together with the health indices calculated for them by means of a specialized transformer asset management and health assessment lab, were used to train an ANN. After the training, the ANN can estimate a health index for any transformer, which can be used in order to determine the health condition of the transformer. The third method is based on finding a relation between the input data and the given health indices (calculated by the specialized transformer asset management and health assessment lab) using the least squares method. This relation then can be used to find the health index and health condition of any working transformer. The health condition determined based on these methods shows excellent correlation with the given health condition calculated by the specialized transformer asset management and health assessment lab.

Thesis (M.S. in Civil Engineering)--Kansas State University, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 61). Also available online.

Thesis (MEng)--Stellenbosch University, 2015. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Most industries are being forced to operate at lower costs while delivering more outputs and ensuring a safe working environment. An opportunity to achieve this for asset intensive industries lies within the complex and integrated field of Physical Asset Management (PAM). This study is specifically concerned with the maintenance subset of PAM, more specifically, the proactive maintenance strategy. A field known as prognostics emerges when combining two maintenance tactics, namely predictive and preventative maintenance. Prognostics uses historical failure data from preventative maintenance and variable readings used in predictive maintenance to estimate asset reliability. Reliability is estimated using statistical models commonly known as reliability models or survival models. Variable readings used must describe or portray the health of the assets considered and are called covariates. A problem that exists in the maintenance subset of PAM is concerned with the data needed for the survival models. The historical failure data is difficult to come by or non-existent in industry and the covariate data is often noisy and inaccurate. This poses a problem when wanting to make important maintenance decisions because the prognostics survival models require both the historical failure data and the covariate data. The covariate data is generally acquired by applying Condition Monitoring (CM) to assets, monitoring characteristics reflecting the asset’s health. Prognostics can aid with maintenance decisions because once the equipment reliability has been estimated, it is possible to predict the time that an asset can still operate at its prescribed level of performance. This time of operation, which the asset can still operate, is more commonly known as its residual life (RL). To overcome this problem, six of the most popular survival models found in literature, namely the Accelerated Failure Time Model (AFTM), Additive Hazards Model (AHM), Proportional Covariate Model (PCM), Proportional Hazards Model (PHM), Proportional Odds Model (POM) and the Prentice, Williams and Peterson (PWP), are considered and populated with historical failure data and the covariate data elicited from people. The people whom the data is obtained from are considered as experts in the field this study is conducted in. Also, the data is subjective because each expert has their own opinions and judgement concerning the assets in this study. The purpose of this study is, thus, to investigate whether subjective data can be used to populate survival models, therefore, allowing RL predictions of the assets considered. A guideline consisting of five steps that aid with what system variables to consider as covariates, which people can be selected as experts and selecting the most appropriate survival model, is created and presented. Following the guideline, a case study is conducted on power transformers at an organization in South Africa. Results from the case study reveal that the PCM is the most appropriate survival model reviewed. Using the PCM, RL predictions are made after the models are populated with subjective data and objective industry standard data. The results indicate that the subjective data yielded the same general trends but less conservative estimates when compared to industry standard data. Subjective data can, therefore, be used to populate survival models but this is inherently risky because of the less conservative results noted from this study. This study is based on a single case study, it does prove that it is possible to use the subjective data as an alternative to objective data. It is possible, however, that this characteristic does not apply for other asset types. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die meerderheid nywerhede word onder geweldige druk geplaas om laer bedryfskostes te handhaaf en ter selfde tyd word dit van hulle verwag om hul uitsette te vermeerder en ´n veilige werksomgewing te bied. Bate intensiewenywerhede het ´n geleentheid om hierdie druk te verlig deur gebruik te maak van ´n komplekse en geïntegreerde veld bekend as Fisiese Batebestuur (FB). Hierdie studie is gefokus op die instandhouding onderafdeling van FB, spesifiek die proaktiewe instandhoudingsstrategie. Twee proaktiewe instandhoudingstaktieke, naamlik voorspellende en voorkomende instandhoudingtaktieke, word saamgesmelt en vorm ´n veld bekend as prognostiek. Prognostiek gebruik historiese falingdata van voorkomende instandhouding en veranderlike aflesings vanaf toestandmoniteering toeristing gebruik in voorspellende instandhouding om bate batroubarheid te bereken. Hierdie betroubaarheid word bereken deur gebruik te maak van statistiese modelle bekend as oorlewingsmodelle. Een van die probleme wat voorkom in die instandhouding onderafdeling van FB het te doen met die beskikbaarheid van die data wat benodig word vir die oorlewingsmodelle. Historiese falingdata is selde beskikbaar of bestaan glad nie en die toestandsmoniteering data is dikwels onakuraat. Prognostiek word gebruik om belangrikke instandhoudingsbesluite te motiveer, dus is die beskikbaarheid en betroubaarheid van die nodige data van belange. Om hierdie struikelblok te oorkom bestudeer hierdie studie die gebruik van subjektiewe data bekom vanaf deskundiges in prognostieke oorlewingsmodelle. Die doel van hierdie studie is dus om vas te stel of subjektiewe data gebruik kan word in prognostieke oorlewingsmodelle. Ses oorlewingsmodelle wat gereeld voorkom in literatuur word nagesien in hierdie studie, die modelle sluit in die “Accelerated Failure Time Model” (AFTM), “ Additive Hazards Model” (AHM), “Proportional Covariate Model” (PCM) , “Proportional Hazards Model” (PHM), “Proportional Odds Model” (POM) en die “Prentice Williams and Peterson” (PWP) model. Hierdie modelle word aangevul deur die subjektiewe data wat onttrek is van deskundiges in ´n sekere gebied, vir hierdie studie is die gebied krag transformators. Met gebruik van hierdie modelle kan die betroubaarheid van die betrokke toerusting bereken word. Sodra die betroubaarheid bereken is kan die oorblywende lewe van die toerusting voorspel word. Die oorblywendelewe is die tyd wat ´n stuk toerusting nog moontlik kan werk sonder om te faal. Dit is belangrik omdat nodige instandhoudingsbesluite geneem moet word. Hierdie studie stel ´n metode voor vir die uitvoer van die navorsing en soortgelyke studies. Die metode dui vyf stappe aan wat voorstel watter veranderlikes om te gebruik as kovariate in die oorlewingsmodelle, watter mense as deskundiges gekies kan word, en hoe om die mees toepasslikke oorlewingsmodelle te kies. Nadat hierdie metode voorgestel is word dit toegepas op krag transformators in ´n gevallestudie wat plaasgevind het in Suid Afrika. Vir die gevallestudie is die PCM die meestoepaslikke oorlewingsmodel. Die oorblywende lewe voorspellings wat die metode opgelewer het is met die voorspellings gebaseer op die industriestandaard data vergelyk. Die resultate dui aan dat deskundiges minder konserwatiewe beramings lewer. Dus kan die subjektiewe data gebruik word in oorlewingsmodelle maar die beramings is minder konserwatief en daarom van natuur meer riskant. Hierdie studie se gevolgtrekkings is gebaseer op ´n enkele gevallestudie. Dit is dus moontlik dat die subjektiewe data dalk nie as ´n alternatief gebruik kan word met ander tipes toerusting nie.