Exploring the Different Facets of EAM

Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) – An Overview

As the name implies, enterprise asset management (EAM) refers to the practice of managing the equipment and physical assets lifecycle so as to increase its lifetime, minimize costs, enhance the efficiency, quality, and health of assets, and environmental security. It is a strong and complicated system, as it takes care of the asset lifecycle as a whole. In fact, the purpose of instigating an EAM system is to plan, implement, augment, and monitor the maintenance activities with the related accompaniments such as skills, inventory, labor, tools, materials, and information. 

The enterprise asset management software applications often come with features like maintenance and planning schedules, preventive maintenance, and a wireless mobile solution that would be integrated into the system to manage the projects. Further, the data available within the enterprise asset management system is crucial with regard to regulatory compliance as well.

What is the Importance of Using EAM?

In general, EAM presents your goals in a larger canvas and the ways through which you can achieve it by taking into consideration factors like the labor skills, asset details, budget, and so on. By the name ‘Enterprise’, it means the reach of the assets across different departments, facilities, and locations of a particular organization, and also the various business functionalities which support the same like inventory, HR, procurement, etc. Normally, though the assets included in EAM are fixed such as plants, buildings, equipment, etc., it can necessarily include vehicles used for conveyance of machinery like ships, trucks, and so on. Usually, the physical assets are tackled in either of the two ways – by way of a specific EAM application or as a module incorporated in the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software.

There are a number of reasons for using an enterprise asset management system (eams) of which some are listed below:

• It helps to increase the Return On Assets (ROA)
• It enables to make well-informed decisions regarding assets
• It helps to minimize the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)
• It aids in maximizing the uptime and improving predictability
• It helps to minimize the costs as well as risks.

Why it is Important to Include EAM as a Part of Your ERP?

Basically speaking, ERP is an enterprise application that has been designed specifically for bigger organizations to handle their business processes smoothly and efficiently. Further, ERP can contribute to making a smarter and efficient enterprise by automating tasks concerned with HR, technology, services, products, and many more. Generally speaking, an ERP software comprises of different modules which are in a synchronized manner and is intended to integrate the entire operations of the company into a single database.

Many debates are on between the IT, finance, and operations departments regarding whether it is better to have enterprise asset management as part of the ERP system or to have a different EAM application.

Listed below are some advantages of integrating an EAM software to your ERP system:

• Eliminate Duplicate Tasks

The asset management process could be optimized in a better manner by including EAM to your ERP system. On the other hand, if you prefer to use a separate EAM software, you may not be able to focus well on the impact which the asset management can create on your organization as a whole. Further, when you are feeding data to two different systems, there is a chance of duplication of tasks or mismanagement of information

• Get Valuable Insights into the Financial Aspects

The EAM software helps you to gain valuable insights into your asset lifecycle, which helps to enhance predictability and evade costly breakdowns. In other words, when you integrate your EAM into your ERP system, you can obtain more information on the impact of asset management on your financial side. Further, the EAM module can aid you in planning, scheduling, and executing operations, while the budget, capitalization, and depreciation are taken care by the ERP system

• Enhance the Efficiency of Your Processes

Incorporating an EAM module to your ERP system enables you to automate the key tasks which helps to prolong your asset lifecycle. Further, you can automate the quality checking process to track the efficiency of your equipment, bring in necessary restrictions on your inventory and parts, and plan and schedule new tasks efficiently

• Maximize Uptime 

In the absence of an EAM application, it is very difficult to keep track of the assets, particularly if you are handling multiple facilities in different geographical locations. In fact, EAM gives you valuable insights into your inventory which helps you to handle the service calls as well as repairs, and keep your equipment up and running. Further, EAM helps you to avoid unanticipated breakdowns which may prove to be very costly.

In short, implementing an EAM system will bring in many benefits in the long run.