One of the biggest challenges businesses face these days is limited asset visibility. According to a report, less than 40% of businesses have complete visibility into their assets, with 4% having no visibility at all. This is a serious technological gap that can be bridged with an efficient asset monitoring strategy, such as enterprise asset management (EAM).
EAM is a rising trend in the realm of cloud computing as it empowers businesses to manage assets strategically. By leveraging modern technology, EAM improves asset management techniques to reduce costs.Â
This article delves deeper into the concept of EAM and how it has revolutionized the asset management software industry globally.
What is Enterprise Asset Management (EAM)?
Enterprise asset management (EAM) is a strategy aimed at improving and optimizing the lifecycle of physical assets. This includes managing assets throughout their life stages – procurement, operation, maintenance, and disposal.
The end goal of EAM is to implement asset management practices that help streamline, enhance, and prolong the life of valuable assets. Smooth implementation of an enterprise asset management system lowers the chances of equipment downtime and improves the long-term success of your business.
Why is enterprise asset management important?
EAM is a useful management tool to ensure optimal utilization of business resources. It is widely used in industries that rely on heavy equipment, such as plants, vehicles, and machinery. This not only aids asset and inventory management but provides a strategic approach to increasing equipment uptime.
Allied Market Research highlights that the U.S. market for enterprise asset management is likely to expand to $4391.99 million by 2030 from $1604.68 million in 2020 – with a compound growth rate of 11.5%.
Now-a-days, several SaaS-based companies are offering solutions that facilitate EAM. This increase is a testimony to the growing trend toward adopting a consolidated system to handle complex management processes.
Here’s how EAM aids the efficient execution of successful operations:
1. Efficient asset tracking
EAM allows businesses to track assets better by keeping all asset information in one place. The information includes key asset details, such as asset name, identification number, asset count, and owner. These details make it easier for you to gather all information related to your assets.
2. Improved inventory management
Businesses usually own ample inventory items to support everyday operations depending on their nature and size.
An EAM system enables businesses to manage this inventory by maintaining their count and preventing overstocking and understocking. You can set inventory thresholds so the system automatically issues new requests if inventory falls below a certain number.
Certain inventory management software also comes equipped with EAM capabilities, empowering you to manage, track, and monitor inventory from one place.
3. Minimize risks
One of the biggest challenges for businesses is data loss owing to unsafe data handling practices.
An enterprise asset management system secures your asset data by providing access controls. This means only authorized users can access the account information using OTPs and/or passwords. Unauthorized access is restricted automatically – ensuring no external users can tamper with your asset data.
How does EAM work? Â
EAM performs a variety of functions – each function is dedicated to achieving a set of goals, such as an increase in ROI through enhanced asset tracking. Here’s how you can develop better asset control using EAM systems:
Asset lifecycle management
This involves having a holistic view of assets with real-time knowledge of asset count, condition, and location.
EAM systems help businesses generate insights about an asset’s performance at various stages of its life. This information can be used to make decisions regarding asset procurement, replacement, and refurbishment – and eventually improve your overall asset lifecycle management.
For instance, the system will record an asset’s depreciation and indicate if it’s nearing the end of its useful life, allowing you to decide whether to dispose of it or not.
Inventory management
Managing inventory includes ensuring your business maintains optimal stock levels to meet operational needs.
EAM enables businesses to decide and store an optimal count of spare parts and inventory to carry out maintenance operations – enhancing inventory tracking. Overall, this helps reduces carrying costs associated with inventory and timely fulfills the maintenance requirements.
Financial management
EAM systems help gather data on asset management and maintenance. The expenses incurred on these activities can be recorded to get a holistic view of the overall costs. Financial reports help assess the patterns of daily expenses and decide how costs can be optimized.
For instance, you can generate detailed financial reports on the expenses incurred on procuring new equipment.
Data reporting
An advanced EAM system allows users to set and measure a variety of performance metrics. Examples of metrics: Asset Utilization, Asset Depreciation, and Return on Investment. These metrics guide effective decision-making about how and where assets are required or need to be maintained.
You can measure these metrics from time to time to assess if you have been successful in achieving them or not. These metrics also guide you toward assessing the gaps in successful execution of asset management processes.
Top 5 best practices for efficient enterprise asset management
The benefit that you can derive from an EAM system depends on how you use it. You can optimize your business operations by fully leveraging its capabilities.
Here are some ways, you can improve the lifespan of your assets utilizing an enterprise asset management system:
1. Centralizing the data
Spreadsheets are an ineffective way for businesses to track and manage business assets. EAM systems automate the asset management process through an asset register. With an asset register, you can enter all asset information into a single platform in an easily understandable format.
An asset register helps businesses account for all its assets to avoid loss. By getting a holistic view of your assets, you can keep track of asset count and ensure that no asset is sitting idly. You can verify the status of an asset from the asset register.
For instance, you can check if a Macbook is available for checkout to a faculty member at your university.
2. Identifying the problem
By keeping your asset register up-to-date, you can stay aware of your asset status. This way, if your asset is experiencing a problem or is on the verge of a breakdown, you can identify the problems in advance and devise a viable solution. This also includes monitoring an asset throughout its lifecycle to look for any failures.
You can conduct timely inspections from time to time and cross-check the system’s data with the actual inspection performed. By cross-referencing the data with its physical condition, you can always ensure that the data is up-to-date. This helps solve an issue preemptively and identify potential errors before they turn into major ones.
Identifying the problem involves conducting thorough inspections and following a few important steps, including the following:
- Creating an inspection strategy
- Making a checklist
- Organizing an inspection team
- Conducting the inspection
- Reviewing the inspection data
3. Use asset data to guide a resolution
EAM helps aggregate data existing in silos to use it for data extraction and analysis. Predictive analytics, such as reports and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) can be used to identify patterns and causes of potential asset failures. This measure are helpful in analyzing the current condition of assets, and ensuring smooth performance.
A strategy can be formulated to keep the assets running in the best condition based on these numbers. Likewise, any compliance risks can be easily identifed so you can prioritize adherence to rules and regulations as soon as possible.
4. Implement regular maintenance routines
Implementing maintenance routines is one of the best ways to ensure that your asset is performing up to the mark. It involves following a systematic schedule to inspect and service an asset.
To do this, you can avail the capabilities of a calendar in an EAM solution and check when an asset is available. You can set dates to send an asset for regular maintenance checks beforehand.
Once the maintenance has been completed, you can track the maintenance activity. This includes details, such as where, by whom, and how has the asset been maintained to measure the effectiveness of maintenance.
5. Utilize related applications
This refers to the practice of syncing the data stored in EAM systems with other applications for issue resolution. EAM systems offer integrations with service ticketing applications, such as Zendesk and Jira. These applications enable you to receive and resolve asset management requests within the integrated platform. You can use the capabilities of both systems to enhance project coordination by knowing where assets are needed.
For instance, by integrating your EAM solution with Zendesk, you can automate the process of receiving queries about asset availability or service requests internally – bypassing complex communication channels. You can issue assets to the requestors directly from the system.
These integrations enhance overall operational efficiency and foster collaboration between customers and departments.
Differences between EAM and CMMS
Computerized maintenance management system is equipped with enhanced capabilities to manage maintenance related functions. The primary purpose is to increase the equipment uptime. Whereas, enterprise asset management focuses on managing the entire lifecycle of an asset with maintenance as one of the essential components. EAM has a broader scope covering all aspects of asset management. Here’s how EAM and CMMS differ from each other:
| EAM | CMMS | |
| Functionality | Manages all aspects of asset management throughout the asset’s life, such as asset tracking, depreciation, and resource planning. | Manages asset maintenance only including managing inventory, work orders, and service requests. |
| Objective | Aimed at optimizing asset performance, tracking and monitoring asset movements, and deciding on procurements. | Day-to-day maintenance activities targeted toward improving the asset lifecycle, reducing downtime, and response time to repair requests. |
| Primary features | Asset tracking, location management, and purchase order management. | Work order management, and asset servicing |
Examples of industries using EAM
EAM can be deployed in a myriad of industries depending on their type and need. Here’s a comprehensive list of industries that usually benefit from EAM:
Manufacturing
EAM helps manufacturing businesses maintain the count of inventory and perform maintenance to reduce heavy equipment downtime. It enables businesses to recognzie equipment failures in advance to prevent a halt in production.
Healthcare
EAM solutions help monitor the performance of critical medical equipment, track medical kits and expiration dates of emergency supplies. Asset history can be referred to ensure compliance with health and safety standards.
Construction
EAM systems track the usage and maintenance of construction equipment, manage inventory of materials, and ensure the equipment is safe to use. Job-sites are made securer using well-maintained equipment.
Government
Several government sectors, such as police, public funded NGOs and municipalities use EAM systems for asset management. The broader purpose being tracking public goods being used across a county or district and manage inter-departmental assets better, such as dumpster trucks. The use primarily depends on the type of government organization.
Education
K-12 school districts can implement an EAM system to track the location of educational equipment. They can optimize their asset use, extend their lifespans, and reduce unnecessary expenditures on repairs or replacements. Students and staff can request for resources directly through the system.
This is how organizations benefit from advanced solutions like enterprise asset management systems that simplify and consolidate asset tracking and inventory management.
Enterprise asset management for advanced business operations
Enterprise asset management is a useful technique for centralizing your data, implementing asset control, and using it to optimize operations. The future of EAM depends on technological advancements, such as an increase in customizations, and enhanced cybersecurity features.
These factors combined with EAM’s ability to handle a wide variety and quantity of assets define the future of asset management. Upgrade your business by adopting an EAM solution and increase productivity!
