Maximizing ROI from assets, equipment and machinery is the foremost priority for all organizations. Otherwise, the asset could become a liability and a source of financial loss. Enterprise asset management software (EAM) is what asset-heavy organizations need to utilize their assets. We will learn about some enterprise asset management best practices organizations can implement to reap maximum benefit.

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What This Article Covers:

• What Is EAM?
• EAM Best Practices
• Final Thoughts

What Is EAM?

EAM is responsible for managing an asset’s entire life cycle, from procurement to disposal. It is a collection of processes, tools and systems used to manage assets and ensure they meet service levels.

According to a Markets and Markets study, the EAM market is predicted to reach $5.5 billion by 2026 from its current valuation of $3.3 billion.

However, purchasing and implementing an EAM solution is easier said than done. Since each asset is unique in terms of utilization and life expectancy, asset managers must schedule preventive maintenance regularly to ensure everything is always performing at peak levels.

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EAM Best Practices

While EAM solutions can provide a bevy of benefits for your business on their own, adhering to best practices helps you maximize your use of these platforms.

Here are 7 EAM best practices to improve your facility’s operations and asset management.

1. Cross-departmental Communication

Assets pass through several processes before being finally disposed of. Managers and technicians must coordinate to handle each asset appropriately since every asset has multiple functions for different roles.

Ensuring smooth and seamless communications is a top enterprise asset management best practice.

Pro Tips

• Reduce Downtime: Minimize downtime and reporting delays by ensuring two-way communication across roles.
• Access Data-driven Finance Management: Accurate data is critical for making informed financial decisions. CMMS solutions store and share data on the cloud, making it accessible to all users and keeping everyone updated.

2. Complete Visibility and Transparency

Asset management solutions offer a single source of truth for all EAM-related functions such as asset performance, inventory, work orders and more. Every process is visible, and you can track different locations simultaneously. What’s important is to use a modern system that offers more transparency instead of relying on legacy applications.

Track asset metrics and life cycles with Infor EAM’s reporting functionality.

Pro Tips

• Increase Accountability and Transparency: Transparency increases accountability in and of itself. Training people and managing resources to be available when needed, it becomes easier to solve problems since they can be seen.
• Reduce procrastination: Transparency and accountability reduce unnecessary distractions, save time and allow workers to focus on their jobs. Wasting less time on insignificant activities decreases the level of procrastination and theoretically increases productivity and efficiency.

3. Mobile Accessibility

Access to real-time information is another EAM best practice that you should include.

Empowering employees with mobile EAM offers deeper insights into assets, performance and maintenance. You get a detailed account of asset histories, repair cycles, BOM and spare parts. This fetches accurate data on the viability of preventive maintenance schedules.

Pro Tips

• Make Mobile Access Mandatory: Provide mobile access to all employees so they have accurate information while working.
• Avoid Quick Fixes: With real-time data at your disposal, you and your workers can take all the vital information into account while solving a problem. It is best to leverage critical data at your fingertips.

4. Quick and Easy Deployment

Conventional EAM may have had many benefits, but it was and still is challenging to implement.

Cloud-based EAM systems offer quick deployment and implementation, and you can always tailor them to your factory’s requirements. Since no extensive customization is required, you can deploy and begin seeing ROI in weeks rather than months or years.

Pro Tips

• Partner With Cloud Consultants: With cloud-based EAM, you won’t need external support to set up your EAM system. However, ensure you have technical support extended to your IT and OT teams, allowing you to deploy solutions faster.
• Set Priorities: Maintenance priorities can change with time. Someday you might be looking to improve asset reliability, while the next month could be about minimizing downtime. Whatever your priorities, cloud deployment offers a stress-free setup to help you enjoy the system’s benefits sooner.

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5. Standardized Guidelines

As an organization grows, the number of rules and guidelines also grows. The more people join your company, the more critical it is to standardize and document everything.

These guidelines may appear trivial or tedious at times, but they help establish a structure that keeps things from falling apart. However, one thing to keep in mind is to leave some room for flexibility so that the structure does not become too rigid.

Many different things can be standardized when it comes to EAM, such as:

• Creating standard operating procedures for regularly performed tasks.
• Creating health and safety policies (like LOTO procedures).
• Making checklists for preventive maintenance.
• Tracking MRO inventory and setting management rules.
• Writing negotiation guidelines for third-party vendors.
• Managing hiring and onboarding procedures for new members of the maintenance department.
• Establishing a distinct organizational structure (who is responsible for what and who reports to whom).

Pro Tips

• Setting Guidelines: Making sure your team abides by these new rules is an entirely different challenge. Standardizing training is one way to ensure that everyone follows the established rules. Create a procedure to ensure that each employee receives the appropriate training and education.
• Go Digital: Digitizing relevant business processes can aid workflow automation and generate automated reports. Most importantly, digital techniques leave a “paper trail” that can improve accountability across the organization. Use the automation features your system provides to aid in standardization as well.

6. Quality Risk Management

Risk management practices are a part of EAM programs. It is important to identify risks, whether internal or external, to mitigate their impact on the facility’s operations.

Some ways to manage risks in the facility include properly training your employees, preparing for risk-based maintenance activities, and optimizing your maintenance, repair and operations (MRO) practices.

Pro Tips

• Align Organizational Goals and Objectives: Make it clear that the EAM investment aligns with the company’s objectives and goals.
• Monitor KPIs for Essential Projects: Perform KPI assessments on projects from interactive dashboards.

7. Mixed Maintenance Strategies

Your maintenance strategy influences preventive maintenance schedules, availability of spare parts, and a balance between unplanned and scheduled downtime.

Maintenance does not have a one-size-fits-all approach. The best way is to adopt a mix of maintenance strategies that can prove helpful in different scenarios. For example, conduct condition monitoring on critical assets and only preventive maintenance on all other essential assets.

Manage maintenance activities with Oracle EAM.

Pro Tips

• Ensure Resource Availability: Implementing strategies requires the availability of the right resources at the right time.
• Schedule Preventive Maintenance: You should prioritize preventative maintenance because the alternative is risky in more ways than one.

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Final Thoughts

These elements should be interconnected for the best outcomes, resulting in a set of standardized practices that will drive operations and maintenance improvement over time. These enterprise asset management best practices are the foundation for high ROI, improved communication, accurate data management and analysis, simplified workflows, and outstanding asset management.

Of course, these best practices and benefits are meaningless unless you have access to modern EAM software to help you get there.

These best practices are only a few out of the myriad possibilities. What others can you think of? Let us know in the comments!