Let’s begin at the beginning. EAM stands for enterprise asset management. If you work in big industries - asset-intensive organizations - then you have likely heard of asset management. Combine this with enterprise, and it leaves you with a question.
What is Enterprise Asset Management?
If you’re a maintenance manager, you monitor KPIs and generate reports, carry out maintenance analysis, control work orders, collect and manage data, and manage spare parts procurement.
Plus, a whole lot more.
These everyday tasks are essential for ensuring your maintenance department runs efficiently, production uptime is maximized, and assets are utilized to achieve organizational objectives.
This is the essence of enterprise asset management: actively managing your assets across the enterprise and balancing the associated costs, performance, and risks.
If you know little about EAM, let’s first define it.
Enterprise Asset Management: A Basic Definition
EAM is an integrated business software package used to control and maintain operational assets (both property and equipment) across an organization’s facilities, departments, and geographical locations. Although primarily a software package, it also blends with organizational systems and services.
Enterprise asset management software helps businesses get a holistic overview of their asset base and infrastructure. From design, procurement, and commissioning, through to operation and maintenance, then disposal or replacement: the EAM captures it all.
To get a sense of EAM system reach, the global market is predicted to grow by 17% between 2020 and 2030 from $5.6 billion to more than $21 billion.
Sometimes EAM software is compared to a computerized maintenance management system (CMMS). There are similarities, but we’ll look at that later.
Market Analysis: How much does CMMS/EAM software cost?
Why Is EAM Important?
If you’re focused on return on investment (ROI) and want to ensure your assets are tracked, analyzed, managed, and optimized, an EAM system can facilitate that.
Maintenance managers benefit from EAM in many industries:
- Food and Beverage
- Construction
- Technology
- Utilities
- Pharmaceutical
- Oil and Energy
- Mining
- Plus, many others
But, as a maintenance manager, how can an EAM make your life that little bit easier?
Centralize Information
Multiple disconnected, disparate spreadsheets, files, and software will slow you down.
An EAM system is one centralized software.
Automate your asset management workflows, and make them easy to access and audit. Then monitor asset energy consumption, purchase orders, audit trails, and asset lifecycle costs.
No more Excel, filing cabinets, Word, whiteboards, or separate server-based software: Everything’s in one place in the EAM system.
Track Your Assets
The EAM system shows users what assets they have, how they fail, what spares and maintenance they need, running costs, who should work on them, and when.
AI (artificial intelligence) is used to analyze and inform you about your assets' state.
You'll receive alerts that empower you to make decisions on maintaining your assets.
This automation ensures you make the right maintenance calls.
Resolve Your Issues
EAM software helps ensure you’re compliant with any warranties you may have; no need to rely on sticky notes, Outlook reminders, or intuition anymore.
It can also help you to preempt any disruptive production problems.
Manage Your Mature Assets and Infrastructure
All equipment eventually wears due to the cyclic nature of forces and stresses, and operating context. Even with basic, rudimentary maintenance, parts will fatigue, and clearances will open up in the long term.
To counteract this and extend assets’ useful life, a robust EAM system facilitates effective maintenance strategies.
Extend the asset lifecycle and deliver more value - whether it’s planned component replacements, running inspections, or online condition monitoring.
Get a better return on your asset investment: deploy modern maintenance strategies from your EAM system.
Understand Your Assets Health and Performance
The EAM system collects real-time and historical data from IoT tools used in your business such as autonomous equipment, sensors, and smart factory devices.
Understand current asset health and performance associated with availability, reliability, and utilization by utilizing the data.
Track Your Asset Downtime
Your EAM will automatically track asset downtime while enabling operators and maintainers to log stoppages. This will help your maintenance team focus on reducing downtime.
So, that’s how an EAM system can make your life easier. But what are the specific features if you decide to buy one?
Enterprise Asset Management: The Features
Help your maintenance management team, processes, and systems today – get a modern EAM system.
A Work Management System
A high-quality EAM facilitates easy management of planned and unplanned work. You’re your operators see an issue, you can: raise work requests, convert them to work orders, perform the work, and close the work order.
Plan the work, schedule the work, and manage the work.
A Lifecycle Management System
Keep track of all asset data in one place: documentation, running hours, parts produced, failures, purchases, part replacements, and a whole lot more.
Manage the asset lifecycle from procurement to operations and maintenance, and, ultimately, disposal.
A Purchasing Management and Accounting System
Actively manage your inventory system: inventory tracking & monitoring new parts costs, and perform barcode scanning.
Keep track of all asset purchases and part replacements. The best EAMs come with an accounting system to help you run monthly, quarterly, and yearly financial reports.
Financial Management Tools
Manage your budget and accurately report asset maintenance costs.
Connect your EAM to your financial software. Let it sync with your finance department and make auditing less of a headache.
Performance, Labor, and Multi-Site Management Tools
Actively address any training and certification needed by employees and contractors.
How? By utilizing performance and labor tools. These enable you to manage planned and unplanned work more effectively.
Keep on top of asset maintenance schedules by using multi-site management tools. These are critical for improving performance across multiple work sites.
A Contracts and Contractor Management System
At every phase of a contract, take close control of expenditure and compliance. Use the EAM to manage and create contracts and service agreements with customers, suppliers, partners, and employees.
Health and Safety Tools
Document health and safety concerns, reduce risks through incident analysis and share best practices with your colleagues and contractors.
Analytics and Reporting Tools
Get a quick and full overview of your organization’s maintenance and operations.
Pull out those real-time insights: maintenance activities, asset health and performance management, and key performance indicators.
Monitor, analyze, and report on asset management costs.
- How are we utilizing the assets?
- How are the assets performing?
- How many spares are we purchasing?
- How much is downtime costing us?
How is an EAM system different from a CMMS?
EAM systems are comprehensive.
They manage maintenance – like a CMMS - but also track asset lifecycles, from procurement to disposal. They focus on optimizing performance, increasing asset useful life, and return on investment. The EAM system usually offers financial and supply chain management.
A CMMS prioritizes maintenance management.
What type of software do you require?
Like most things, that depends.
The options include online (cloud-based), or server-based at your premises.
You need to assess your current situation. Are you looking for your first EAM? Transitioning and migrating to a new one? Upgrading? Downgrading?
Consult all stakeholders to decide on which option suits your organization best.
Are You Ready to Use an EAM System?
Now that we’ve explained what enterprise asset management is and how it can help your organization, maybe you’d like to know more?
If so, contact us today for an informal no-obligation chat.
We are here to help you.
Whether you are using pen & paper, Excel spreadsheets, or an EAM for managing your maintenance today, you can try Dynaway EAM for FREE. Our vision behind the product was to create a FREE version of an EAM system that is fully functional, built-in Business Central, and easy to use.
You can start using Dynaway EAM today; no credit card is required! Get it directly from Microsoft AppSource.
