Your Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) Software decision is directly linked with your balance sheet.
Most technical people do not appreciate that your Enterprise Asset Management Software decisions have a direct impact on your company’s balance sheet. Equally, most commercial people do not fully appreciate the technical depth required to select the right EAM software.
Yet, most EAM software decisions are either taken by commercial decision-makers or technical decision-makers. Whereas, EAM or even a CMMS (Computerised Maintenance Management System), should be a well-thought-out collaborative decision.
One of the core reasons to implement an EAM system is to reduce (ideally eliminate) reactive maintenance. The commercial driver to reduce reactive maintenance is that reactive maintenance costs twice, in some cases thrice, as much as planned maintenance.
However planned maintenance requires automatic data collection from Equipment/Plants, and this, in turn, requires knowing how software collects data, how equipment availability is handled within EAM software, a sequence of events before and after maintenance schedule, and how the software handles liaison between instrumentation and mechanical engineers.
As you may note, the technical steps are highly interdependent and linked with commercial success. Let us take a closer look at what an EAM software or CMMS software does and how its features directly influence your balance sheet.
EAM or CMMS Features | Relationship with your Balance Sheet and Business |
|---|---|
| 1. Asset Management and Asset Register – Create and control the company’s list of maintainable assets through an asset register. | Provides On-Demand information on total number of assets |
| 2. Asset Accounting – Manage accounting of assets, purchase price, depreciation rates, etc | Provides On-Demand information on total value of assets and improves capital asset management |
| 3. Preventive Maintenance Scheduling – Schedule planned and preventive maintenance routines | Increases asset value which in turn increases profitability and cash flow situation. In most cases this also addresses regulatory or compliance requirements. Preventative Maintenance can sometimes play a central role in lowering energy consumption. |
| 4. Preventive Maintenance Procedure Library Control | Creates a knowledge base so that new people can be quickly trained on maintenance procedures; this in turn reduces overall learning curve and influences training costs |
| 5. Unplanned Work Reporting | Helps to plan and budget for maintenance contingencies. Over time this helps to increase accuracy in forecasting contingency costs. |
| 6. Stores Requisitioning, Stock Control and Purchasing | Inventory Management and Value of Inventory |
| 7. Condition Monitoring | Plays a pivotal role in increasing asset life and hence profitability |
EAM software decision making is a combination of understanding how your assets work and the objectives/profitability projections of your business, hence it should be a collaborative decision.
Good luck with your enterprise software selection. You can review and compare UK-based EAM software options on our website.