Did you know that, typically, an incredible 75% of the cost of business assets is not in their purchase but in maintaining and operating them? Much of this cost is avoidable and comes from the inefficient use of physical assets in general, plus emergency repair and maintenance.
And when you consider that physical assets are typically the largest cost on any business books, this asset management inefficiency could be costing your organization large sums of money and significantly reducing profits.
Luckily, the new decade brings with it better solutions for asset management practices than ever before. Read on to find out how the industry is currently working with businesses to optimize their asset management strategies, plus how it expects to make further improvements to its asset management products over the next decade.
The Benefits Of Asset Management Software
Clearly, streamlining the operation and management of your business assets could have a huge impact on its operational efficiency, and could lower costs and improve profitability. However, it is difficult to know how to begin to tackle this problem, especially in a large scale organization with many assets.
This is where asset management software like asset lifecycle management (ALM) or computerized maintenance management software (CMMS) can help, especially a cmms system. These help businesses streamline their core operations by fully automating asset management. ALM tracks the entire lifecycle of an asset, from acquisition to decommission, ensuring both the usability and lifespan of the asset is fully maximized.
Asset management software including a cmms system offers the following benefits:
● Reduces staff workload and man-hours, thus cutting costs
● Lowers the chance of costly human error in asset management, such as missed routine maintenance and consequential breakdown of equipment
● Minimizes the downtime of key equipment and machinery, thus streamlining operations
● Ensures compliance with safety protocols
● Centrally manages assets across multiple sites for improved efficiency
● Reduces costs related to unplanned outages through better predictive maintenance
● Maximizes the lifespan of assets through their proper maintenance
● Ensures correct inventory levels; thus, reducing downtime
● Offers the ability to generate real-time reports which can help businesses improve efficiency and financial planning
What’s New In Asset Management?
Whether your organization is considering getting an asset management software for the first time or you are looking to upgrade, you have come to it at an exciting time. The new decade brings exciting new developments within the asset management industry that will allow businesses from multiple industries to operate with greater agility and lower asset-related costs than ever before.
Here are four trends that are currently driving developments in asset management:
1. Focusing On Operating Proactively, Not Reactively
This guiding principle dominates the development of new asset management software today.
Breakdowns and unplanned outages can have devastating consequences for businesses. They can negatively affect production levels, operational efficiency, staff costs and working hours, customer satisfaction and industry relations. It is, therefore, vital that assets are well- maintained, and are replaced and updated as quickly as possible to avoid unnecessary interruptions to business.
A proactive approach to asset management must prevail over a passive stance. Emergency repairs can be incredibly costly, much more so than the routine maintenance that would have prevented them. They can also present significant cash flow issues. There are also potential employee safety issues connected with the sub-optimal maintenance of equipment.
New asset management software thus focuses on the use of data for sophisticated analytics and statistical modeling that can make accurate predictions on the lifetime of an asset. Risks can be appropriately managed and predictive maintenance can be initiated before the probability of critical equipment failure becomes unnecessarily high. Smart predictive maintenance can vastly improve efficiency and asset management software enables this.
2. Embracing The Internet of Things (IoT)
The revolution we are experiencing is driving innovation in asset management just as in other industries. Industry 4.0 focuses heavily on interconnectivity, automation, machine learning, and real-time data. These can and are being fully utilized by the asset management industry and they bring exciting times to this area. The opportunities that IoT brings to asset management are unprecedented.
Expect further developments in equipment-specific algorithms and machine learning combined with automatic, remote data collection and predictive analytics. This allows for faster, more efficient diagnostics and improved predictive maintenance procedures. This will further reduce the risk of reactive maintenance and costly downtime of critical assets.
3. Utilization Of Mobile Apps
Asset management software can now be enhanced through the use of smart apps. This can further help businesses streamline their asset management processes while staying mobile in time-critical situations. The time necessary for these tasks is further reduced, reducing working hours and associated costs.
Further to this, access to real-time data from any location allows accurate assessments and informed decision making at any time or place. Tasks such as implementing work orders and purchasing orders, checking repair histories and viewing audit trails can all be done on-the-go.
4. Preparation For 5G
The introduction of 5G networks will bring with it enhanced connectivity. It has the capability to connect everyone and everything. Any business using asset management software will derive significant value from 5G networks as it further enhances the capabilities of machine learning and data-driven decision making.
5G technology brings the necessary network capacity to support both existing and new developments, meaning that it will bring opportunities for exciting innovations in asset management software in the future, too, as well as those currently in the pipeline. The introduction of 5G will be a pivotal moment in accelerating innovation in asset management strategies.
Who Will Benefit From Innovations In Asset Management Software?
Businesses from almost any industry can gain significant benefits from innovations in asset management software. If your organization possesses any of the following, you should seriously consider reducing your costs and improving your profitability through these products:
● Multiple high-value assets or a spectrum of equipment, such as in manufacturing
● Equipment that must be rapidly deployed, for example in healthcare or military settings
● Equipment that must experience as little downtime as possible, such as in construction, or the hospitality industry
● A need for improved visibility in asset tracking, for example in vertical industries like the automotive industry.
If at least one of these applies to you, then a move towards ALM or CMMS designed for multiple functions and tasks is highly recommended for increased productivity and improved profitability.
