Access to information provides ongoing benchmarks from which to lead your business, but disorganized data can cause confusion and unstructured decision-making. Facility maintenance managers must have comprehensive information in a format that is clear and easy to analyze. Conducting a thorough enterprise asset management software comparison helps maximize your assets’ performance, availability and longevity. Enterprise asset management (EAM) tools can help increase your asset output while minimizing expensive downtime.
With the global enterprise asset management software market expected to grow to $19.6 billion by 2031, it is important to understand this growing facility management software tool to choose the best option to maximize your facilities’ performance and profitability.
It’s important to conduct a computerized maintenance management systems (CMMS) and enterprise asset management software comparison to help you determine the most effective and appropriate software system to manage your facilities. While both tools can help you track and extend the life of assets, they each offer different features that can provide value in terms of asset maintenance.
What is Enterprise Asset Management (EAM)?
Think of enterprise asset management as the head coach for your facilities, overseeing and coordinating various specialty teams, all with their own important roles, and keeping them working smoothly. Rather than organizing offensive, defensive and specialty lines, the EAM coordinates asset lifecycle management, work order management, planning and scheduling, supply chain and inventory management, safety and inspection needs, and data and reporting. This helps keep assets optimized and productive for an entire lifecycle.
What is the Difference Between an EAM and a CMMS?
The biggest difference between the two solutions used for complete asset management is the level of information you are gathering. A CMMS focuses on individual maintenance processes, while an EAM is a more comprehensive look at your entire operations working together and what it produces.
A CMMS provides information on specific aspects of your facility’s ecosystem, such as work order and task management, whereas an EAM looks at the global picture. Another difference is at what point in an asset’s lifecycle you want to begin gathering information. A CMMS begins tracking and reporting on an asset after its acquisition and installation, while an EAM tracks an asset from purchase or design to installation, all the way through to an asset’s retirement.
Why Use a CMMS?
A CMMS is the perfect assistant coach to keep the head coach (e.g., the facilities manager) abreast of how each line and player is performing and when the coach should check back in or make lineup changes. In other words, a CMMS tells you where an asset is, what it needs, who should work on it and when that individual should work on it. The job of a CMMS is to automate workflows and communication. It is gathering information that the EAM then puts together to paint a bigger picture.
A CMMS is, in part, a database that houses your facility information, including:
-
Asset serial numbers, warranty information and maintenance logs
-
Labor and time tracking per asset in terms of hours
-
Asset location, age and scheduled preventative maintenance
-
Work order management with description, type and priority
-
Inventory levels and location
Why Use an EAM?
An EAM takes the static information managed by a CMMS and adds life to it, automating the processes to use the CMMS information to trigger other actions. For example, while a CMMS inventory management system tracks the level, age and location of different types of inventory, an EAM like Maintenance Care’s inventory management system can trigger reordering and other actions automatically in the system. These automated actions create information streams between departments, which helps managers develop cohesive and fluid processes.
An EAM uses strong systems like asset tracking software to trigger tasks such as safety inspections or lifecycle evaluations. Compliance documentation becomes easily shared and accessible while creating cross-department triggers for automatic workflows.
Imagine how much easier life would be if you had a system where a sensor notices when an asset is damaged, that sensor sends an automatic work order for maintenance, the cost for both maintenance and new parts is attached to the asset and you can see data on down time, cost per fix, how the asset lifecycle is affected and other pertinent information in one interactive solution. This is the future of maintenance technology and enterprise asset management tools.
Creating a coordinated asset strategy combines the flow of preventive maintenance plans, repairs and replacement of an asset. Automatic updates in real-time notify operators when repairs are completed so they can re-engage assets immediately. Automatic preventive maintenance schedules give technicians and managers the ability to save time by planning what assets are available and when and being proactive rather than reactive. Also knowing the extent of an asset's lifecycle lets you plan a timeline for replacement so you aren’t left with a hole in your production when an asset is no longer viable.
In the short term, an EAM will offer immediate clarity and cohesion. The long-term benefit of an EAM as a maintenance management solution is a mindset of continuous improvement, making adjustments as needed to improve business health and finances and gain stronger results.
See the full picture of your assets and make smarter purchasing decisions with software that helps you seamlessly manage your assets. Schedule a customized demo of the Maintenance Care’s asset tracking, preventive maintenance and facility management solutions today.
.svg){kind=small}