subject: The High Risks Of Ignoringasset And Equipment Monitoring [print this page] In most situations, a company would find its own complexity to be its worst enemy. Business growth might be very welcome in any organization, but the unforeseen circumstances along with it can cause issues that need to be handled well. Within any given period of growth, there will be priorities that would have to be established according to the most glaring issues. Such could include fine tuning of customer relations, or keeping marketing at par with the competition. Not so visible systems more often get the least attention.
Asset and equipment management has often been a reactive activity rather than a proactive protection. There will be a lack of historical data which can be useful to those who will be the ones responsible in the maintenance of uptime. If a track record of maintenance has not been maintained, it will be difficult to quantify a machine's efficiency. As it nears theoretical termination, in the event that it has to be upgraded, replaced or needs to have a piece of equipment considered altogether?
Often, one of a company's worst enemies is its complexity. The business may have been subject to rapid growth, which is always welcome especially in this kind of climate, yet with growth comes a whole host of additional and often unforeseen issues. During any period of growth, priorities are established based on the most visible issues. Manpower must be trained to cope, customer relations must be fine-tuned, marketing must keep pace. However, less visible systems often fall by the wayside.
In a world that is fast becoming highly competitive, knowledge is always power. If needed, an organization needs to be able to administer micromanagement of its information. It's far better to have too much information, in a controlled environment, than to be left in the dark when it comes to efficiency and performance.
With capital budgets under so much pressure and with investors peering over the shoulder of management executives, asset and equipment longevity must be realized. Many organizations are coming under pressure to extend usable asset lifecycles rather than to replace. This can be a false economy in certain circumstances, but only if you have the right intelligence to base your decision. If information about excessive callouts and issues with a certain piece of equipment are hidden amongst a mountain of paperwork, it cannot be dialed into the decision-making process.
With asset and equipment management policy in place, for the first time an organization may learn the real cost of its equipment ownership and be able to establish trustable benchmarks. The smarter businessmen have always placed themselves in a better position when it comes to understanding the issue well, equipping themselves to be ready to make important decisions in a very timely manner.
While the depreciated cost of asset and equipment inventory is a sizable part of the company's annual expenditure, the energy associated with the performance of each asset is also of great importance. Combined, we can now see how vulnerable a business can be without access to actionable data.
For far too long, management has relied upon outdated spreadsheets to hold vital information about asset and equipment performance. Spreadsheets are by definition static and do not easily provide us with "what-if" scenarios for our projections. They are no match for digital systems that enable us to work from instant alarms or alerts.
An initial step in one's journey towards true business management would be the identification of assets and equipment. If the location, condition and usability of each asset is known on a real-time basis, security can be enhanced, productivity can be maintained or exceeded, liability can be reduced. As an organization's visibility becomes clearer, it gets to establish a better position in terms of boosting its reputation on sustainability.
