Enterprise asset management refers to managing the maintenance of your physical assets.
In brief, enterprise asset management matters because it maximizes the lifespan of your equipment, reduces costs in the long term, improves safety, and increases efficiency.
Let us take a closer look at why enterprise asset management is so important.
The Difference Between Enterprise Asset Management Systems and Computerized Maintenance Management Systems
While the two systems are similar, there is a difference between enterprise asset management systems and computerized maintenance management systems.
EAM systems are best used by asset-intensive companies that have large portfolios of physical assets across numerous locations, although small and mid-sized businesses can use them too.
So, what is a CMMS? It is a software solution that helps to manage maintenance work. The objectives of CMMS include automating and streamlining tasks, eliminating unplanned downtime, and extending assets’ lifespans, to name just a few.
Enterprise asset management originated from the computerized maintenance management system. An EAM system’s primary goal is to optimize assets’ lifecycles, thereby decreasing the total cost of ownership and maximizing overall productivity and the return on investment of the assets.
Why Enterprise Asset Management Matters
As mentioned above, adopting enterprise asset management is important for increasing assets’ lifespans, improving health and safety practices, reducing long-term costs, and increasing efficiency. But there are many other benefits of utilizing enterprise asset management.
Here are some of the key advantages. Once you have read through them, you will be able to get a clearer idea of why EAM is so important for businesses with lots of equipment.
You Can Centralize Asset Information
With an EAM system, you can centralize information about all of your physical assets.
That means real-time information is always accurate and available. In turn, that increases efficiency and reliability.
You Can Be Better Prepared for Audits and Inspections
With the ability to maintain real-time information, EAMs can be used to fully prepare for audits and inspections.
You can therefore be sure that auditors or inspectors will not find any issues you are unaware of.
You Can Establish Workflows and Checklists
When you use an EAM system, it is simple to establish workflows and checklists to ensure all maintenance is carried out, and carried out at the right time.
You can also easily set up best practices for your company.
You Can Move Towards a Preventive Maintenance Strategy
You can much better work towards a preventive maintenance strategy when you use EAM software.
The system can prompt when equipment needs maintenance and repairs. Also, work orders, purchase orders, and more are automatically generated based on the schedules created, ensuring jobs are completed on time.
Benchmarking and Performance Management Becomes Better
Because EAM gives visibility into maintenance performance across all of your assets, you get better benchmarking, best practice sharing, and performance management.
Your Inventory Is Always Up to Date to Reduce Unexpected Downtime of Equipment
To ensure your equipment does not experience any unplanned downtime, you not only need to perform scheduled maintenance. You also need to ensure you have spare parts in stock.
With an EAM system, it is easy to manage your inventory of materials and parts. You then have full control over inventory procurement and management and can see the different levels of demand for materials and parts.
You Can Review Performance Indicators with Reporting and Analysis Tools
The reporting and analysis tools of EAM systems have numerous benefits.
You can create dashboards and run reports to analyze asset performance and identify issues before they escalate into major problems. You can also get a better understanding of all your maintenance operations by reviewing key performance indicators, thus enabling you to make better decisions.