by Enterprise asset management (EAM) refers to the systems and processes used by organizations to manage their physical assets and infrastructure. With EAM, companies are able to maximize the value of their assets while minimizing risks and costs over their entire lifecycle. As technology and systems become more complex, EAM is becoming increasingly crucial for businesses of all sizes.
What is Enterprise Asset Management?
Enterprise asset management involves managing all of an organization’s physical assets and infrastructure in a unified manner. This includes assets such as buildings, vehicles, equipment, hardware, tools and other physical resources. With EAM software, organizations can track asset performance and condition, schedule maintenance and repairs, monitor budgets, manage asset lifecycles and ensure regulatory compliance.
Some key aspects of a robust EAM system include:
– Asset registry: A centralized database listing all physical assets, their specifications, location, value and other important details.
– Maintenance management: Automated work order generation, scheduling and tracking of maintenance, inspections and repairs.
– Procurement: Integration with procurement and inventory systems to manage acquisitions, replacements and disposals.
– Lifecycle costing: Analyzing total cost of ownership including acquisition, operations and maintenance costs over an asset’s entire useful life.
– Regulatory compliance: Ensuring compliance with industry and safety regulations through inspection scheduling, compliance tracking and auditing.
– Analytics and reporting: Dashboards, reports and analytics to improve decision making around asset performance, condition, budgets and more.
Why is EAM Important?
Here are some of the key reasons why EAM has become increasingly important for organizations:
Improved Asset Utilization
With visibility into the complete asset portfolio, organizations can optimize asset allocation and utilization. Underutilized or redundant assets can be redeployed or replaced to reduce expenses. EAM helps maximize uptime and output of existing assets.
Risk Mitigation
EAM provides insights into asset condition, reliability and risks of failure. Planned maintenance helps avoid unexpected downtime and safety issues. This reduces operation risks, ensures regulatory compliance and protects brand reputation.
Cost Savings
EAM optimized maintenance reduces repair costs from unexpected failures. Lifecycle cost analysis supports better long-term investment decisions. Integration with procurement provides leveraged spend visibility and management. Overall, EAM lowers total cost of ownership of physical assets.
data-Driven Decision Making
EAM systems collect large sets of operational and performance data. Advanced analytics on this asset data provides predictive insights. This helps prioritize maintenance spend, predict replacements needs, and make smarter long-term capital expenditure plans based on facts rather than assumptions.
Increased Asset Life
With automated alerts, planned maintenance and condition monitoring, assets last longer before replacements are needed. Regular maintenance and repairs extend the useful lifetime of physical infrastructure and capital equipment.
Improved Sustainability
By maximizing asset value through better utilization and life extension, companies reduce their environmental footprint. EAM supported sustainability initiatives lower energy use and waste from unnecessary replacements.
Key Benefits of EAM
When implemented effectively, EAM solutions deliver significant tangible benefits to organizations across various aspects:
Operational Excellence
Organizations achieve consistent and compliant operations through improved asset uptime, performance optimization and planned maintenance execution.
Cost Reduction
EAM trims down expenses through optimized maintenance spend, efficient spares inventory, lean procurement and elimination of redundant assets. Studies show savings of 10-15% of maintenance budgets on average.
Risk Mitigation
Planned repairs and inspections ensure regulatory compliance and safety. Predictive maintenance prevents unplanned failures and their associated costs. This significantly reduces operational risks.
Lifecycle Insights
Comprehensive asset data and analytics provide a clear picture of asset performance over time. This visibility supports evidence-based capital expenditure planning, replacement forecasting and procurement decisions.
Sustainability
By maximizing asset value through improved utilization and life extension, EAM systems help lower environmental footprint through reduced expenses, waste and need for replacements.
With EAM, companies have realized ROI ranging from 200-500% through immediate cost takeouts and long-term benefits. Modern cloud-based EAM solutions have made these returns achievable for even small and mid-sized businesses.
Implementing a Successful EAM Program
While EAM benefits are huge, implementation requires careful planning and change management. Here are some best practices:
Define Clear Goals
Begin by identifying key stakeholders and objectives like cost reductions, compliance etc. Benchmark current practices and build a business case.
Evaluate Options
Research EAM vendors and systems. Consider future scalability while ensuring needs for security, mobility and integration are met.
Change Management
User training and effective communication are critical for adoption. Address potential resistance to change from asset owners and maintainers.
Asset Audit and Data Quality
Invest time upfront to do physical verification of assets and make any required data corrections. Build a clean foundation for future.
Integration and Customization
Ensure EAM seamlessly integrates existing systems like ERP, CMMS, procurement etc. Customize views, workflows to optimize user experience.
Continuous Improvement
Monitor KPIs, capture new requirements and continuously refine processes. EAM excellence demands long-term commitment and support from top leaders.
With discipline and perseverance, organizations can harness a mature EAM program to maximize asset value while minimizing risks and costs significantly in their digital transformation. EAM is increasingly becoming a competitive imperative across industries globally.
*Note:
1. Source: Coherent Market Insights, Public sources, Desk research
2. We have leveraged AI tools to mine information and compile it
