10 Best Practices for Enterprise Asset Management
Oded Ran, CEO and Co-Founder of Clue since 2019, expertly integrates AI and data tools to revolutionize construction equipment management and maintenance, positioning Clue as a premier software choice in the construction industry.
Overseeing and handling assets in the modern-day business environment is like handling and balancing balls at the same time.
You have a business to run and need to control costs, maintain your equipment’s lifespan, and avoid a shutdown—all while meeting regulations and meeting sustainability targets.
Sound familiar?
If you are having problems with skyrocketing maintenance costs, lacking coherent data, or thinking about how to expand your asset management as your business evolves, you’re not the only one.
That is where this guide comes in handy. Having enterprise asset management software shouldn’t be the end goal. It’s how you implement one that makes all the difference.
Clue streamlines enterprise asset management by staying organized, minimizing downtime, and keeping operations smooth.
With real-time visibility and tools to simplify daily tasks, it empowers businesses to improve efficiency, reduce downtime, and stay in control of their operations.
To maximize the benefits of such advanced capabilities, it’s essential to follow best practices for EAM.
Let’s get right to it!
10 Best Practices for Enterprise Asset Management
1. Document Asset Information
The era of loose-leaf working is slowly fading away. Stacks of paper in dusty old filing cabinets are pretty vintage nowadays.
High-quality, credible, and current documentation of asset information is recognized as a critical input to the development of sound enterprise asset management policies.
When implementing EAM software, any information that an organization feeds into the system must be correct and current.
For an enterprise, that could involve creating a data strategy or designing the set of actions that will be taken to implement this strategy.
ERP, EAM, and CMMS software are on the rise because all the information an organization needs can be accessed in one single location or system.
This also eradicates data silos (where only one select group has access to particular data).
Asset Classification and Hierarchy
This is where it all begins.
Your organization will have a strong basis for asset criticality, categories, conditions, and locations with your asset hierarchy or directory.
You can gain valuable insights into the cost, performance, and risk of assets, as well as lines, areas, and plants by organizing them in a tree structure.
This allows you to account for costs at all levels. You have the option to tailor your maintenance programs to certain levels.
The most effective EAMs have a spreadsheet import feature that lets you bring in your current asset hierarchy and important data.
To help maintenance workers swiftly find assets on the site, you may attach images and papers and even assign GPS coordinates.
Asset Tags and Labels
The National Equipment Register Report estimates that heavy construction equipment theft costs the industry over $300 million to $1 billion per year.
The absence of on-site security and the usage of asset tags to monitor their whereabouts are the main causes of this problem.
With so many enterprise assets to monitor, teams must adopt and employ consistent organizational practices. For EAM systems, this means asset tagging and labeling.
For better tracking, you can take advantage of the many GPS integrations to pinpoint the exact location of your assets.
This means your assets aren’t just tagged, they’re being actively monitored in real time.
With this level of visibility, you can prevent theft, respond quickly to issues, and make smarter decisions about where and how to deploy your equipment.
Choose long-lasting, tamper-evident labels for your EAM. Select radio frequency identification (RFID) labels, which continuously communicate an infinite amount of data about every tagged item, if you require tracking in real-time.
Consider using near-field communication (NFC) tags to track an asset’s utilization and status across various devices, including mobile devices.
These tags help teams identify assets and quickly find and update related statuses like maintenance history, current location, and efficiency data.
2. Adopt a Consistent Maintenance Schedule
Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) is concerned with maintaining buildings at peak performance and availability; it includes tasks such as managing repairs and renovations.
Scheduled maintenance activities, inspections, and corrective movements are all part of the mission and responsibility of duties, which in turn lead to effective painting control.
Using a dependent work control device, organizations may effectively manage resources, prioritize duties, and create tracks against key performance indicators.
Maintenance is a preventative approach to keeping asset condition and capability.
This can include preemptive remodeling techniques, regular inspections, and immediate maintenance as problems are identified.
In addition to extending the life of their assets, companies may save a ton of money by reducing downtime and making better use of their resources when they implement a solid work management and protection strategy.
This comprehensive method guarantees that assets support company objectives and add to normal operational efficiency.
Develop and adhere to a preventive maintenance plan to extend asset lifespan and reduce downtime.
Clue offers preventative maintenance that automates schedules and work orders, ensuring timely upkeep and minimizing operational disruptions.
Asset Lifecycle Management
Efficient enterprise asset management (EAM) relies on asset lifecycle management. From initial planning and acquisitions to final disposal or renewal, it comprises a holistic approach to managing an asset's lifecycle.
In the first step of this process, known as "distinct planning," businesses assess their needs and goals to establish acquisition goals that will guide their property investments.
After the property is acquired, it moves into the operational section, where regular renovations and performance tracking are key.
This is all made possible by preserving asset efficiency, reducing the likelihood of unanticipated mistakes, and optimizing longevity.
Companies can maintain efficiency and value-effectiveness as property techniques reach the end of their useful lifespan through deliberate choices about decommissioning or rehabilitation.
Organizations can strengthen their long-term success and ability to withstand competitive environments by making asset lifecycle control a top priority at every stage.
3. Facilitate Collaboration and Accessibility
An important EAM best practice is to ensure the continuation of smooth internal communication across different departments.
Departments must keep track of and communicate usage, maintenance, and risk as it happens because most assets will be used by different teams before they reach the archival stage.
A company-wide increase in information sharing and cooperation might be another benefit of improved communication across departments.
Organizations can foster efficient communication across departments by implementing several strategic procedures.
First, regular departmental meetings can be a great way to share updates, talk about tough problems, and come up with solutions.
Second, by taking advantage of modern tools like collaboration software and communication devices, we can all stay in the loop and share data easily.
Members of different departments can work together more effectively by forming pass-purposed groups for certain activities, which can boost knowledge and unity and encourage researchers to share their findings.
Finally, to make sure that physical interactions are in line with the company's goals, it's a good idea to create clear goals and expectations for verbal exchange.
Groups can build a strong communication framework that boosts collaboration and pushes collective success by adopting these approaches.
4. Use Data Analytics and Reports
Who wouldn't want or require reports?
If you want to make the most informed business decisions and improvements, you need to access all the data stored in the EAM, including asset information, failure history, spare costs, and labor utilization.
Data collecting, analysis, and reporting are made easier using automated frameworks in enterprise asset management operations.
Manually collecting and reporting on asset use, maintenance, and efficiency is not feasible with the constant flow of real-time data.
Team members can reliably compare key performance indicators (KPIs), objective progress, and asset performance thanks to automated reporting, which provides nearly real-time asset data.
You can expect a variety of management reports on various types of data from a decent EAM, and they'll be available in several formats, including spreadsheets, CSV files, and PDFs.
5. KPI Monitoring
Key performance indicators (KPIs) for individual assets should always have measurable goals and objectives attached to them.
Your company needs an EAM system that can track key performance indicators if this describes it.
Get a data-based EAM system that can collect metrics and provide benchmark options for key performance indicators (KPIs) like these if your team is trying to achieve asset-driven goals like reducing downtime, and repair costs, and improving preventative maintenance schedules:
- Overall equipment effectiveness
- Incident resolution and response time
- Mean time to repair
- Failure frequency
- Average occupancy rate
Automate data collection and reporting for KPIs, asset, and environmental performance.
With detailed analytics and customizable reports, Clue allows organizations to make data-driven decisions.
6. Standardize Processes
Establishing and consistently applying standards is critical for businesses utilizing enterprise asset management systems.
Maintenance, use updates, compliance standards, and other standard operating procedures are crucial to a company's systems as they grow in capacity and resources.
While EAM systems can benefit from standard rules for organization, it's important to remember to leave room for flexibility and promote team adaptability in the face of changing conditions.
7. Data Capture and Integration
EAM systems can capture data on assets instantly. Your teams will be able to make smarter decisions with more data from your platform, including maintenance methods, risks, compliance standards, and current usage.
Make use of the sensors built into your system, the monitoring tools your team has, and live feeds to promote constant data collection and updates.
While comprehensive data gathering is ideal, there are a few key metrics that should be tracked by any corporate asset management system:
- Timeframes associated with the acquisition and setup of assets
- Product name, code, and whereabouts of specific assets
- Events that occurred on or around the dates that assets were used
- Maintaining documentation for all repairs
- The performance indicators for each asset
8. Risk Management
Effective enterprise asset management systems place a premium on managing risks associated with assets and projects.
Asset management software should be proactive rather than reactive; it should seek out, anticipate, and lessen the impact of possible risks.
Common risks include physical damage, theft, cyber threats, and obsolescence.
You should optimize your maintenance, repair, and operations (MRO) procedures and put money into risk management training for your workers in addition to investing in prepared systems.
Regular protection, improved protection practices, and adequate insurance are all proactive steps that can reduce the impact of these hazards.
Asset safety isn't complete without also training the workforce to identify and respond to any dangers to their abilities.
In addition, having a well-defined backup plan helps make sure that things can be fixed or replaced fast, which reduces economic loss and downtime.
In order to protect their possessions and maintain continuous, productive activities, groups can systematically identify and handle threats.
9. Mobile Access and Optimization
Not only does mobile access boost transparency, but it also gives your staff the freedom to record asset use, maintenance, and requests from nearly any location.
Make mobile access necessary for all team members instead of just a select few. An EAM system that is optimized for mobile use is ideal, particularly one that provides instantaneous mobile access and automated data refreshes.
You should begin by purchasing user-friendly cell programs that are tailored to EAM tasks. Make sure the interface is simple and easy to understand for smooth navigation.
A further benefit of investing in staff education is the boost to confidence and competence that comes from knowing how to use mobile technology to its full potential.
Ensuring strong security measures is crucial as it safeguards sensitive data and gives customers peace of mind that their data is protected.
In addition, users can access up-to-date information from any location with the use of real-time cloud-based records control solutions and mobile apps.
Finding areas for improvement and keeping mobile replies aligned with business goals can be achieved with the use of continuous tracking and feedback methods.
10. Regular Audits
Tagging assets is an important part of asset management, but audits are necessary for it to work.
For an error-free asset management system, a business needs to execute the following two audits:
Scheduled Audits
To keep an accurate inventory, periodic audits are essential. In order to consistently evaluate and update asset information, set up an audit calendar.
This preventative measure keeps asset records up-to-date, which lessens the possibility of mistakes and boosts operational efficiency generally.
Random Spot Checks
Random spot inspections and regular audits work together to provide an additional degree of inspection.
In order to find inconsistencies that might be missed in regular audits, it is a good idea to randomly choose assets for inspections every so often.
A more complete and adaptable asset management process is guaranteed by this approach, which also encourages responsibility.
Final Thoughts
By ensuring that certain best practices are followed – or at least regularly reviewed – you can avoid falling behind: updating asset data, establishing a sound classification structure, adequately labeling and organizing assets, and maintaining a strict schedule regarding maintenance.
What it really means is to position your business for the least amount of problems but the most possible gains.
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