EAM is the acronym for Enterprise Asset Management. Basically, it’s a system designed to manage the lifespan of an asset to expand its operational life; this is done from the stage of procurement to the closing point of decommissioning. As such, EAM minimizes asset costs and assists in enhancing their reliability and availability. The software provides the tools and solutions to all asset-related queries in a centralized platform.
It assists with attaining increased flexibility as it relates to operating and preserving assets, while controlling expenses at the lowest and ensuring complete and effective use of assets. It tracks assets from the time they are commissioned until they are no longer operational.
Several asset-intensive industries are there in which EAM software is especially useful. Some of them are outlined below.
Industries in Which EAM Can Be Most Beneficial
Manufacturing Industry
In manufacturing departments, pieces of equipment are consistently operating over extended periods. Depending on the length of time and frequency each equipment is operated, the company can set a particular time to check up on the equipment, that’s what we call preventive maintenance or scheduled maintenance. For example, 2 months, 1 month or 14 days. This ensures assets are inspected without fail.
Therefore, the company is always aware whether its pieces of equipment are functional. In addition to providing the facility with a regular maintenance schedule (preventive maintenance), the EAM is designed to detect potential problems because it also uses predictive maintenance. This means that the software monitors an equipment’s condition and can send you and your maintenance personnel alerts when urgent maintenance inspections or repairs are needed. To prevent asset failure and avoid operational pitfalls, then an EAM solution should be implemented.
Manufacturing units can own several pieces of idle equipment, which can turn out to be excessive cost to the organization. EAM can be used to detect these items and re-purpose them for increased productivity and operational effectiveness.
Healthcare Industry
With the assistance of the EAM software, a medical establishment or hospital can keep updated and precise stock records. This is particularly crucial for surgical equipment and pharmaceuticals stores. Maintaining the correct level of inventories is among the most important tasks for any healthcare company.
In a hospital, pharmaceuticals and surgical items are the most used items and as such, the institution needs to keep up a reasonable stock of medicine. Above and beyond that, the institution should have adequate vaccines and degradable products used during surgeries like gloves, masks, and syringes.
Surgical materials and medicines are costly; therefore, it becomes crucial for the healthcare industry to keep up to date with these supplies. The massive investment of supplying healthcare is ample reason to keep up with all inventories and assets utilizing an enterprise asset management solution.
Additionally, the intricate surgical tools and equipment need to be sanitized and cleaned for the next procedure. If maintenance is needed for any machine, the EAM software will then issue alerts to the accountable personnel.
This software is intended to identify possible issues as it’s meant to execute preventive maintenance. As well, it provides the capacity to schedule maintenance and assign work orders to concerned personnel. Manually tracking each equipment for maintenance is unnecessary as the software does it and informs the responsible teams or individuals concerning any maintenance issues.
Construction Industry
As most people know, assets used within the construction industry are frequently moved around from one work site to the next. Therefore, asset tracking is a powerful and essential feature for construction companies. With the enterprise asset management software, you’ll be able to track and know the movement of assets.
The software allows you to know the specifics of the assets in real time. In addition, it helps with the scheduling of asset maintenance. Routine maintenance plays a pivotal role in boosting the lifecycle of an asset.
The operational units within the organization are apprised of asset-related information that’s up to date. For instance, what are the existing assets the enterprise owns? Where are they currently located? By which employees is the asset being used? How many pieces of equipment are being used? When will they be free?
With this level of comprehensive coverage, no asset will get left out or become lost. They’re all monitored, and this real-time information assists in improving routine operations and managing daily tasks. As such, the planning and scheduling of operational tasks are improved with this software feature.
Through the tracking feature of the asset, no equipment can escape the organization’s radar. Furthermore, the valuable information prevents the organization from unnecessarily buying assets and provides complete asset information at the organization’s fingertips.
Energy Industry
Modern organizations in the energy and utility industry face many challenges on a daily basis, from costly service interruptions and aging infrastructures to compliance and safety concerns. Utility providers must also be able to meet growing customers’ demands for unprecedented levels of transparency and responsiveness.
Key benefits of an EAM system for the energy sector include significant long-term cost savings resulting from better financial tracking and integration with supply chain processes, as well as increased asset life and reliability. Improved health, safety and environmental management and practices are also expected and, in the case of utilities, EAM can improve regulatory compliance and thus make your company eligible for government funding.
Equipment downtime is especially costly for utilities, as an interruption in service can result in downtime for multiple costumers. Better response times to meet service requirements is therefore crucial, and so servicing and mobile capabilities found in EAM are essential. It allows your customers to request and track maintenance work order and helps manager improve overall responsiveness by dispatching qualified personnel and the parts and tools needed to complete the job.
An important challenge for energy generators and distributors is the planning and execution of the asset maintenance that are part of a production line. It’s therefore imperative that you quickly identify the impact on all related equipment. The linear asset management feature in EAM allows maintenance teams to quickly assess and determine effects that maintenance will have on the entire production line. This feature also allows for automated cascade shutdowns and scheduled preventive maintenance by production line.
The Future of EAM Is Now
Following the initial launch of the EAM software, it was typically used to help organizations in initiating asset replacement requests. However, it evolved with time and has incorporated many new features. The tool is now used for asset management as well as a means of evaluating overall asset performance whilst leveraging asset data and predicting trends.
It has been forecasted that the global Enterprise Asset Management market size will reach 5.5 billion USD by 2026 from 3.3 billion USD in 2020. This is a CAGR or Compound Annual Growth Rate of 8.7 percent during the period of forecast. The growing need for cloud-based EAM solutions and the necessity of gaining a 360-degree view of assets are among the most significant factors anticipated to drive market growth. EAM evolved with time and has incorporated many new features and technologies. The software is now used to collect and analyze asset data to predict asset failures, but also to optimize overall asset performance to decrease global operational costs.
This shows how an increasing number of companies are moving in the direction of this technology. Within the next few years, most of asset-intensive organizations are set to use EAM software for their asset management. Are you among those companies? Call us and we’ll be happy help.