- 31 heinäkuun 2023
- Category: Uutiset
Enterprise Asset Management Software
Today’s post will be answering some of the key questions surrounding EAM (Enterprise Asset Management) software, and we’ll be dissecting portions of a recent study on this subject and why manufacturing and production companies should be using this software as a time and cost-saving tool in their business.
We’ll dive into some statistics to back up the reasoning behind why you should consider implementing an EAM software tool.
This type of software is used by manufacturing companies across the globe.
For companies that rely on manufacturing goods, it can be very important to make sure that there is minimal downtime on manufacturing equipment within the plant.
So much so, that this can save an enormous amount of money otherwise wasted by a production plant being unable to produce goods promptly.
As these industries go through massive change we want to share some key highlights from a recent study undertaken by one of our business partners IFS.
The full report is 26 pages, but we have condensed it down to the most critical points, making it easy for you to get an overview of where we are heading when it comes to enterprise asset management.
What industries are focusing on this subject right now?
The study interacted with companies from various industry verticals and it was clear that the main type of companies utilizing enterprise asset management software were manufacturing companies, which made up 41% of the survey, followed by the healthcare sector with 24.9% of respondents saying they are using EAM software.
Of course, this makes total sense for a sector that is always in a mission-critical mode.
You can check the chart below for the full results of the types of industry verticals studied.
Are companies investing in human capital to help with maintaining assets?
Over 200 companies took part in this study, and it is clear from the numbers that the maintenance of assets is becoming more and more of a priority. All of the companies who gave feedback had some sort of internal asset management maintenance team with just 39% having between 1-10 employees managing this part of their business.
This means a larger portion had ten or more dedicated staff covering this area, with the trend in retaining these staff staying steady over the period.
The chart below shows a breakdown of how many staff various companies use to maintain mission critical equipment.
What are the key priorities for Asset Managers in 2023?
When this study took place, a frightening statistic arose, and that of the companies surveyed, 68.6% said they had suffered from unplanned downtime of critical assets.
Of course, that surely equates to a massive amount of cost in terms of fixing and replacing assets but even more key is the lost production time and additional costs of wasted raw materials and idle labor costs.
Aiming to achieve zero downtime is a pipedream really but steps can be taken to alleviate it by putting in place tools and processes that eliminate as much of this downtime as possible.
This is where an Enterprise Asset Management Software can potentially be „worth its weight in gold”
What was the main KPI (key performance indicator) that asset and manufacturing managers tracked internally?
Of course, there is no surprise that Uptime was the key measurement, with 40% of participants surveyed claiming this was the main goal.
However, you might also be interested to know that Cost Control came in 3rd with 17.7% as a key KPI measurement.
It is therefore interesting that even though this is a key metric at the management level, still only a relatively small amount of companies understand how to track the data around this to help them make informed decisions. Below you can see a chart focusing on the top KPIs.
As you can see from the above chart, it has been a concern that Asset Longevity came way down on the list with just 6.9% of respondents saying this was the most important KPI. For us, this was a shocking statistic. Surely if you have a piece of equipment that is likely valued in the millions of dollars, you would want to make it have as long a lifespan as possible.
Tracking this metric is easy when using an EAM software as it can provide preventative maintenance data, thus expanding the lifespan of that machinery, and alleviating the need for any unexpected major financial investments.
Factors that disrupt an organization
We touched on some of the KPIs related to Uptime above, but what about factors that have, and continue to cause headaches for businesses with mission-critical assets?
Strangely, the biggest concern was with the hiring of qualified staff at a whopping 53% which points to an actual problem or a lack of understanding of how EAM software could reduce the need to hire so many staff. This then leaves the HR team to focus on finding a smaller select group of skilled employees.
At the other end of the scale, we see that only 4.2% seemed to believe a lack of investment was a problem while aging assets were a worry with 17.7% claiming this was a cause of disruption.
Those numbers seem to tell us that companies are investing in technology. However, are these investments strategic when it comes to managing assets like plant, machinery, and equipment that is mission critical for the business to function? We’d ask you to ask yourself that question.
How will companies futureproof their business in the next decade?
When asked how their company could futureproof their business in the future, once again the point around staffing came to the fore, with over 39% of respondents stating that investment in the workforce and replacing an aging workforce was critical.
At the same time, the study showed an interesting trend in that many felt that communication (more than 25%) was severely lacking in organizations.
In this day and age when nearly everybody has a mobile device, it seems counterintuitive that communication should be a real issue. Is it, or is it that companies are just not aware of the power or how mobile communications can be used to improve communication right across the company?
That could be one employee talking to another or just the sharing of critical business data promptly between one person or department with another.
As more large manufacturing and production companies embrace enterprise asset management software, the more likely we are to see the response to those two points reduce over time.
How can organizations cut costs and improve stainability by using EAM software?
The pandemic created many issues for companies and their employees but in the aftermath of that, has come the realization that a central „single source of truth” as the reports state can be achieved by implementing a single point of data regarding a company’s assets.
With staff working remotely during that time, a lot of communication became fragmented and that caused major headaches for manufacturing facilities that needed to run 24/7.
Without timely data, forecasting of production, let alone the health of production assets slipped down the pecking order. This has now led to a demand for sustainability to be a key driver in the future.
Companies are now asking the right questions about how they can sustain these valuable assets and produce a longer lifetime. EAM answers this by providing timely data that helps in making the right decision at the right time.
Regular reviews of asset performance data
Although the overall trend is an increase in sustainability, nearly half of the respondents answer „No” to the following question:
Do you regularly review asset performance data to identify ways to improve sustainability and efficiency?
This throws up a major concern as to how much data is being used to manage assets overall.
It is not surprising to have some conflicting data in surveys like this. However, some of the results of the survey show some glaring black holes where companies could be taking action to cost-proof against aging assets and the processes for maintaining those assets.