Companies have the power to capture and store more data about their major assets than ever before. However, that data isn’t useful without the technology to analyze and capitalize on it. Digging into the data can offer a path to transformation for enterprise asset management (EAM) and help you get the best out of your assets.

SAP has long been a player in the EAM space. It began with Work Management. That focused more on the job of maintaining an asset based on industry best practices, rather than looking at individual asset performance. Over time, we realized the value of tracking assets themselves digitally with a central repository like Asset Central.

Now, SAP has evolved to offering products that can use that asset information with Intelligent Asset Management (IAM) portfolio.

Coordinated Activity at the Core

Asset Management is defined by coordinated activities across disciplines to realize the value of assets. Coordinated activity can include the approach, planning, policies, plans, and implementation of Asset Management. With digital enablement through IAM and the core ERP system, that coordinated activity can be captured with new insights triggering action to outcome.

IAM takes EAM from managing the work on an asset to building a strategy for optimizing the asset’s lifecycle. Sensor and condition-based maintenance (CBM) data can be consumed through SAP Cloud Platform where intelligent technologies like machine learning and predictive analytics can be used to provide new insights into how an asset is performing.

Data-Based Approach to Improve Revenue and Safety

Taking this data-based approach to EAM helps manage risk and cost associated with assets. It optimizes their return by improve maintenance activities that are more targeted to an individual asset’s needs and less general. This can increase revenue through increasing asset utilization, and also help build a better replacement and investment strategy. Overall, there is less excess and more efficiency in maintenance, repair, and operations (MRO).

Incorporating in reliability data helps improve decision making on assets, and creates a safer environment where assets are working properly at all times, and incidents can be predicted. That also has the benefit of helping companies adhere to statutory regulations.

These benefits are realized by building state-of-the-art business processes that leverage new technologies. Those processes and technologies help provide real-time insight into assets, and visibility into data on a strategic, tactical, and operational level

Connected assets help provide critical data for predicting, optimizing, and simulating asset maintenance. This information can then be shared through cloud-based software and user-friendly reporting.

This is all a more intelligent way of approaching EAM, that’s why it has been dubbed Intelligent Asset Management. Moving from managing work to managing assets should the goal of any business, and new technologies enable that shift.