It is important to plan your EAM implementation around the concept of full asset lifecycle support, from cradle to grave, even if PAS 55 compliance isn’t on the corporate agenda at the current time. 

ERP Software

Leverage corporate assets with EAM for ERP (Part 5)

This is considered an EAM best practice, but not all software from all EAM software vendors fully supports comprehensive lifecycle management. The right software will help you make quantifiable, pragmatic sense of managing the lifecycle of capital assets. And you never know when PAS-55 compliance will appear on your organization’s agenda, perhaps at the bequest of customers, investors and other stakeholders or as a result of regulations in some part of the world in which you do business.

Collaboration can be a big part of EAM software. So it is important to look for a system that provides portals or other electronic methods of communication—even Facebook and Twitter—so that outside vendors such as  engineering firms and maintenance contractors have access to the system so that everyone touching that asset data is interacting with a single database in real time.

PAS-55 compliance is not the only reason to open your EAM application to suppliers like engineering firms and maintenance contractors. There are two more reasons that this is a good idea. First of all, as you plan maintenance work for the weeks ahead, if your contractors have visibility into your plans through your EAM system, they can be informed of the upcoming work, schedule their people and ensure that they have the right tools and materials available. If they are seeing that rolling schedule, they can be more responsive to your needs. This also reduces the amount of time necessary to manage those outside contractors by phone and email.

Additionally, if the contractor can report their work activities directly into your system, you are getting real-time updates of work completed. That eliminates the delay that results when the contractor enters the data in their own system, and the data flows through reporting mechanisms within that contractor environment and back to the manufacturing maintenance team, which then has to enter that record of work back into the EAM, enterprises resources planning (ERP) or computerized maintenance management (CMMS) software. That repeated entry is wasteful and increases the likelihood of mistakes. Real-time data can also allow for tighter coordination between the contractor and internal maintenance staff or with other contractors working on that asset. Moreover, that real time data could allow for more efficient use of the asset, as in the resumption of a production schedule immediately after a contractor finishes work.

Anyone engaged in an EAM selection process ought to ask hard questions about how the software can be extended to suppliers involved in the various stages of the asset lifecycle. Ascertain all different ways this can be achieved that work for the various outside parties that should be able to access your EAM system

Concluded in Part 6

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