Asset Hierarchy

What is the Asset Hierarchy?

The asset hierarchy (also called the asset tree) is a structured, multi-level representation of your physical equipment, organized by functional and physical relationships. It starts at the site level and drills down to the individual measuring point where sensor data is collected.

A well-defined asset hierarchy lets you:

• Navigate and locate assets easily — find the right equipment for monitoring or deeper analysis fast.
• Get context at every level — zoom in and out, from the whole site down to a single measuring point.
• See criticality and health at a glance — priority and condition indicators are displayed at each level.
• Generate reports at the machine, component, or measuring point level.

The levels of the tree

Within a site, the asset tree follows this structure: Site → Area → Subarea → Machine → Component → Measuring Point → Orientation.

• Site — a physical location: a factory, plant, or facility. The top level of the asset tree; think of it as a pin on a map.
• Area — a sub-section of a site, such as a production hall, boiler room, or cooling system.
• Subarea — an optional further subdivision, used when a site has complex internal structure.
• Machine (or asset) — a complete piece of equipment, such as a pump, motor, or compressor. This is the primary unit of monitoring.
• Component — a functional unit within a machine that has its own distinct vibration signature and is monitored individually — for example a motor, pump, fan, or gearbox.
• Measuring Point — a specific physical location on a component where measurements are regularly taken, typically at bearing locations. A motor commonly has two: Drive End (DE) and Non-Drive End (NDE).
• Orientation — the measurement direction at a measuring point: Axial (A), Vertical (V), or Horizontal (H). This is the lowest level visible in the asset tree.

Above the site

Two organizational levels sit above the asset tree itself:

• A company owns or manages one or more sites.
• A tenant is the top-level container that groups one or more companies and defines the scope for user access. Tenants are created by Viking Analytics.

Users can be given access at different levels — for example, a user assigned at the company level can see all of that company’s sites.

Sensors, axes, and orientations

Sensors are the physical devices attached at measuring points. MultiViz is sensor-agnostic and supports three types: handheld devices used for route-based measurements, wired sensors connected to a data acquisition box, and battery-powered wireless sensors, which are typically tri-axial. A single site can combine sensors from multiple manufacturers and connection types in the same asset tree.

Note the difference between two related ideas:

• Axis is a property of the sensor itself — a tri-axial sensor’s axes (X, Y, Z) are physically marked on its body.
• Orientation describes directions relative to the machine: Axial, Vertical, Horizontal.

Because a sensor can be mounted in different ways, the mapping between sensor axes and machine orientations is configured per measuring point — the Z axis might map to Axial on one machine and Vertical on another, depending on how the sensor was attached. Each orientation’s data stream is what MultiViz calls a source, the unit at which measurements, modes, and priority are tracked.