Asset management is an ever-evolving discipline. With each passing day, new monitoring and data collection tools come to market, each promising more data and better insights into machine health. Even familiar software packages are become more intelligent, agile, and efficient, with many companies offering cloud-based solutions and integration with emerging tools like machine learning and artificial intelligence. With so much innovation happening so quickly, it’s no wonder that many plant professionals are feeling overwhelmed. Luckily, you’re not alone.
Plant Services contributing editor David Berger is our resident asset management expert, and as author of the popular “Asset Manager” column, has the experience and advice you need. Whether you’re in the selection process, implementation period, or maintenance phase, David can help keep your CMMS/EAM initiatives on track. Below are seven recent columns that will help you navigate the co plex world of asset management.
14 keys to securing your CMMS data
Top of mind for many senior executives and business owners is the security of information systems, including data managed by your CMMS. Whether due to mechanical or electrical breakdown, human error, or malicious acts such as hacking or attacks via computer viruses, the risk of a security breach is rising year over year. Although there is no such thing as a guaranteed fail-safe solution, you can minimize your losses through proper preparedness. Here, we’ll look at 14 ways in which to protect against security breaches.
Don’t focus just on asset reliability
Asset reliability is indeed all the rage these days, as highlighted by reliability-centered maintenance (RCM) training, new industry standards, advanced CMMS features and software add-ons, reliability-focused software and services, and so on. But does asset reliability deserve the huge attention it is getting? The answer is a resounding “yes,” but only if this does not come at the expense of being mindful of many other measures that are equally or potentially more impactful relative to reliability in achieving asset optimization.
How to better manage performance with your CMMS
Try to envision what it would be like to provide a single version of the truth to all of your stakeholders. Sophisticated performance management is a major benefit to be derived from some of the more advanced CMMS packages available today. The three key components of a system effective in performance management are (1) planning, (2) enabling transaction processing systems to facilitate performance management, and (3) analysis and feedback loops.
What’s so smart about your CMMS?
Every management group is looking for an easy-to-use smart management tool that will support the group’s operations. We’re very familiar with the “management tool” part, which is why every CMMS has more-than-adequate functionality for data entry and reporting. It’s the “smart” part that really differentiates not only the features and functions of CMMS package software but also – and of more importance – how management uses the CMMS.
How to keep up with smart asset costing
As our physical assets become more complex and expensive, traditional means of allocating overhead costs when determining product profit margin become less and less helpful. Most companies collect costs in buckets that describe the type of expense, such as salary, supplies, depreciation, and maintenance. The trend to smarter assets and greater automation means that the direct labor component is shrinking as a percentage of total product cost, to as low as 5 percent or less for some asset-intensive manufacturers. Marketing, therefore, requires a more accurate means of apportioning the growing overhead component when determining product profit margin.
Asset management audit checklist: What condition is your CMMS in?
Ever wonder why some problems seem to persist despite multiple versions and vendors of CMMS software over the years? In many cases, the problems have little to do with your selection of CMMS and more to do with its implementation, and/or the processes and management issues around the system. One approach to addressing your problems is to baseline your asset management operations, find and prioritize the issues, determine root causes, and cost-justify a plan for improvement.
Getting the most out of reliability management data
The amount of asset-related data that can be collected in modern operations is staggering. Therein lies the problem. Where do you begin when there are endless paths to take? This article discusses some easy wins before leaping with both feet into the world of Industry 4.0, also known as the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), or Smart Manufacturing for production operations.
Just released
Special Report: Cloud-based asset management software is in demand
Major industrial software providers are fully invested in cloud-based platforms, and their customers are embracing the strategy. Deploying solutions such as enterprise asset management (EAM), asset performance management (APM), and enterprise resource planning (ERP) in the cloud comes with many technical, functional, and business benefits. From globalization to standardization, there are a multitude of factors that are driving industry adoption of cloud-based asset management software. Read this report for a closer look. Download the report to learn more