Asset groups in Enterprise Asset Management

  • Release version: Zurich
  • Updated July 31, 2025
  • 5 minutes to read
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    Summary of Asset groups in Enterprise Asset Management

    Asset groups in Enterprise Asset Management provide a structured way to logically group assets within complex ecosystems, enhancing data integrity and enabling actionable insights. These groups can be used across various workspaces including Enterprise Asset, Facility Asset, Medical Asset, and Operational Technology (OT) Asset Workspaces.

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    An asset group can contain multiple subgroups, though each subgroup belongs to only one asset group. Assets themselves can belong to multiple groups. Asset groups and their subgroups are displayed in a hierarchical content tree within the Enterprise asset estate view, facilitating easy navigation and management.

    Asset groups can reference service instances to automatically pull related assets from a specific node in a hierarchy or be defined without such references to allow manual asset selection. Subgroups inherit certain fields from their parent asset groups, streamlining configuration.

    Sites and Asset Groups

    Sites are hierarchical entities based on the ISA-95 model, organized in levels such as site, area, work center, and work unit. Asset groups can be associated with these sites, which enables automatic association of configuration items (CIs) from that site to the asset group. Only assets from the associated site and location can be added to the group, ensuring data relevance and security.

    If an asset group references a service instance linked to an entity record in the ISA-95 model, the Site field is auto-populated; otherwise, the asset group is listed under an "Unassigned" site group. All sites and associated asset groups are viewable within the Asset groups tab.

    Key Considerations for Asset Groups

    • An asset group cannot include itself as a subgroup.
    • Models or model categories cannot be asset groups, as they are separate entities.
    • Service instance links on asset groups are allowed only if the parent group has one or if there is no parent.
    • Asset groups containing subgroups or assets cannot be deleted without first removing those dependencies, requiring specific administrative roles.

    Adding Assets to Asset Groups

    Only users with the sneam.enterpriseadmin or sneam.enterpriseassetmanager roles can create asset groups and add assets.

    Assets can be added depending on whether the asset group references a service instance:

    • If no service instance is referenced, any asset not already included in an asset group can be added.
    • If a service instance is referenced, only assets with a CI relationship to that service instance or its descendant tables can be added.

    Additional rules include:

    • Only assets without parents can be added; child assets are not automatically included.
    • Assets must be from the same or descendant location of the asset group.
    • Only hardware and enterprise assets are allowed; consumables, linear assets, segments, or pallets cannot be added.
    • Assets must be in "In use" or "In maintenance" states.
    • If a subgroup does not reference a service instance but an ancestor does, asset addition is constrained by the ancestor’s service instance relationship.

    Limitations in Workflows and Workspace

    Asset groups are not supported in the following scenarios:

    • Asset resale flows
    • Transfer and repair order lines
    • Disposal orders
    • Shipment asset creation
    • Contracts and move orders
    • Any flow requiring asset models

    Additionally, asset groups do not appear in asset hierarchy contextual side panels or in asset lists in the Enterprise Asset Workspace.

    Plugin Dependency

    To utilize asset groups, the snisamodel plugin must be installed.

    Asset groups in Enterprise Asset Management provide organizations with a systematic approach to asset structuring for complex asset ecosystems thereby improving data integrity and providing actionable insights.

    Overview of asset groups in Enterprise Asset Management

    An asset group is a logical grouping of assets.

    Asset groups can be used in the Enterprise Asset Workspace, Facility Asset Workspace, Medical Asset Workspace, and the Operational Technology (OT) Asset Workspace.

    An asset group can have multiple subgroups; however a subgroup can be a part of only one asset group. Asset groups and subgroups can have assets and an asset can belong to multiple groups.

    Asset groups are listed in the Asset groups subtab, located within the Asset groups tab in the Enterprise asset estate view. The asset groups and the descendant asset groups are displayed in a content tree. For details on creating asset groups and subgroups, see Create an asset group in Enterprise Asset Management and Create an asset subgroup in Enterprise Asset Management.

    Enterprise Asset Management administrators can configure the Asset groups tab to show or hide in the Enterprise Asset Workspace, Facility Asset Workspace, Medical Asset Workspace, and the OT Asset Workspace. For more details, see Configure tabs in the Enterprise Asset Workspace.

    An asset group or subgroup can optionally refer to a service instance that helps in pulling in all related assets from a chosen node in that hierarchy. Alternatively, a subgroup can be defined without referencing the subgroup to a service instance, allowing users to manually select assets. For details on adding assets to asset groups, see Add assets to an asset group or subgroup.

    A subgroup inherits some fields from its parent group. For details on the fields that get inherited, see Fields inherited from a parent asset group to a sub group.

    Sites in asset groups

    A site is an ISA-95 hierarchical entity model. Sites are entity records in the Equipment Model Entity [cmdb_ci_ot_isa_entity] table, organized in a hierarchical structure with site being the top-level entity, followed by area, work center, and work unit. Each level of the ISA-95 entity model can be associated with CIs.

    You can associate an asset group to a site. Associating an asset group to a site enables all CIs associated with that specific site to be also associated with the asset group.
    Note:
    Only assets from the associated site and its specific location can be added to the asset group. You don’t have access to add assets from outside the associated site and location.

    If an asset group references a service instance, and that service instance is an entity record in the Equipment Model Entity [cmdb_ci_ot_isa_entity] table, the Site field in the asset group record is automatically populated.

    If an asset group doesn't refer to a service instance, or it's referring to a service instance that doesn't have entity records in the cmdb_ci_ot_isa_entity​ table, then a site for that asset group doesn't exist and that asset group gets listed under the Unassigned site group in the Asset groups subtab.

    All sites for asset groups are listed in the Sites subtab, located within the Asset groups tab in the Enterprise asset estate view. For details on creating sites, see Create sites in the Enterprise Asset Management.

    Considerations for asset groups

    The following are some considerations to keep in mind for asset groups:
    • An asset group can’t contain itself as a sub group.
    • An asset group can’t have a model or model category as it's a separate entity.
    • An asset group can have a service instance link only if its parent group has one or if it has no parent.
    • An asset group can't be deleted if it contains subgroups and assets. To delete an asset group, the sn_eam.enterprise_asset_manager or the sn_eam.enterprise_admin role must first remove the subgroups and assets within the asset group.

    Considerations for adding assets to asset groups

    The sn_eam.enterprise_admin role and the sn_eam.enterprise_asset_manager role can create asset groups and add assets to asset groups.

    The Service instance field on the asset form refers to the Application Service [cmdb_ci_service_auto] table and to its following descendant tables:
    • Mapped Application Service [cmdb_ci_service_discovered] table
    • Calculated Application Service [cmdb_ci_service_calculated] table
    • Equipment Model Entity [cmdb_ci_ot_isa_entity] table
    Keep the following considerations in mind while adding assets to asset groups:
    • If the asset group isn’t referring to a service instance, the cmdb_ci_service_auto table, or any of its descendent tables, you can add any asset that is not included in any asset group.
    • If the asset group is referring to a service instance, the cmdb_ci_service_auto table, or any of its descendent tables, you can add assets whose asset CI has a CI relationship to the service instance, the cmdb_ci_service_auto table, or any of its descendent tables, referenced by the asset group.​
    • You can only add assets without a parent.​ The child assets won’t be added automatically to the asset group. Any assets that have as their parent the asset that was just added to the asset group won’t be added automatically. For example, you add a pre-assembled asset that has no parent. The child assets of that pre-assembled asset won’t also be added.
    • Assets that are from the same location as the asset group’s location or a descendent of the asset group’s location.
    • Only hardware and enterprise assets can be added.
    • Consumable asset, linear assets, linear segments, and pallets can't be added.​
    • If a subgroup isn’t referring to a service instance, the cmdb_ci_service_auto table, or any of its descendent tables, but an ancestor asset group is referring to a service instance, the cmdb_ci_service_auto table, or any of its descendent tables, you can only add assets whose asset CI has a CI relationship to a service instance, the cmdb_ci_service_auto table, referenced by the ancestor asset group. ​
    • Asset should only be in the In use or In maintenance state.​​

    Considerations for asset groups in flows and in the Enterprise Asset Workspace

    Asset groups won't be available in the following flows and scenarios:
    • Asset resale flow.
    • Transfer order lines.
    • Repair order lines.
    • Disposal orders.
    • While creating shipment assets.
    • Contracts.
    • Move orders.
    • Any flow where the asset requires a model.

    Additionally, the asset hierarchy contextual side panel doesn't appear for asset groups and all assets and enterprise assets lists don't show asset groups.

    Plugin dependencies for asset groups

    Install the sn_isa_model plugin for using asset groups.