Effective management of assets in chemical and pharmaceutical production plant requires a knowledge of their technical, processing, and economic condition. in particular, for plant with high demands on availability it is the task of technical management to assure production capability by ongoing determination of the technical condition, diction of future wear and tear, and resulting maintenance measures. They thus make an important contribution to the overall value added chain. This review discusses asset management systems offering the technical management of production plant extended sources of information and diagnostic tools for determination of the technical condition of production plant. The article mentions the possibilities and the demands placed on such systems which support both plant-related and control engineering maintenance.