Enterprise asset management systems (EAMs) are immensely beneficial for streamlining asset management in large organizations. However, once managers implement an EAM system, they often assume that the company’s asset management efficiency couldn’t get any better than its current system-guided successes.
Fortunately, there is always room for improvement through innovation! Deploying a mobile solution that helps an organization’s disparate groups adopt the EAM system as a regular part of their day-to-day operations is a perfect example of how businesses can further increase productivity and cost savings.
Let’s examine several of the added conveniences companies can incorporate into their business practices with the right mobile solution.
A user-friendly mobile solution significantly reduces the need for outdated clipboards and paper forms. Utilizing a mobile system ensures that every document needed is readily available for conducting inspections and work orders.
For example, airports are required to perform CFR Part 139 inspections of their runways each and every day, so a mobile solution that allows an airport to automate their previously paper-laden and cumbersome CFR Part 139 airside inspections can be tremendously beneficial. The best mobile solution would allow the said airport to perform and record both their airside and landside inspections, eliminating the need to train staff to use different systems to perform inspections in these different areas.
The right mobile work order management system seamlessly integrates with your EAM system to provide real-time, actionable information.
On top of reducing paper waste, a mobile solution prevents the misplacement of and damage to important documents. The system allows technicians to record, access, and organize all of the critical asset documentation stored in a company’s EAM, including:
The best mobile solutions are designed to be user-friendly and easy to navigate. Storing pertinent asset data affords each team member the resources they need to complete tasks the first time they’re dispatched. Team members can review task checklists, step-by-step protocols, parts information, maintenance schedules, and company regulations at the touch of a button to ensure that unexpected roadblocks don’t occur.
Making every piece of information a technician or manager needs easy to locate and accessible both online and offline reduces labor hours, costs, and the potential for technical errors.
Location-Based, Geolocated Tasks, and Mapping
One of the easiest ways to improve labor efficiency in any maintenance organization is to deploy a mobile solution that utilizes task locations. Integrating your EAM system with your Geospatial Information System (GIS) and/or geolocating your individual assets enables your technicians to locate priority issues quickly and easily and efficiently plan their day. Utilizing maps and location data dramatically speeds up engagement with individual tasks, enabling technicians to access and complete the work more quickly.
Additionally, providing location data to technicians helps bridge the knowledge gap newer employees may have that requires a more senior member of the team to “escort” them to the location of the problem. By utilizing a mobile solution that integrates with maps and geolocation, critical institutional knowledge is captured and passed on to the next generation of technicians.
An EAM system simplifies task automation, allowing managers and technicians to focus their efforts on tasks that require human involvement. For example, the right mobile solution pre-populates all the necessary information a technician needs to complete their assigned work order, inspection, or other maintenance tasks, eliminating the need for extensive data entry and allowing the technician to focus on the task at hand.
Along with automation of specific tasks, the mobile solution will track and monitor task progress and trigger notifications when a task gets initiated, completed, or needs further attention. With these automation capabilities, AI handles low-impact tasks and organizes information to make it easy for managers to review, reschedule, or eliminate items as they see fit.
Automation changes are recorded in real-time and are available for staff members to review as needed, which reduces misunderstandings and person-to-person communication issues.
Mobile solutions enable management team members to access real-time asset information no matter where they are located. With mobile capabilities, technicians in the field are just as well-informed as maintenance managers in the office.
Mobile technology also enables technicians to inspect equipment from a distance without disrupting production or even traveling to the asset’s location in some cases. Examining technical data and checking technician availability on the EAM dashboard can simplify the process of determining when preventive maintenance needs to be performed.
Additionally, field technicians no longer have to travel back and forth between company offices and site locations to record the data collected. Information can be added to the EAM system from anywhere, anytime. Real-time updates allow managers to review the data as soon as it’s added, regardless of their location.
The right mobile solution can help an organization enhance the vital organizational, analytic, and performance power that their enterprise asset management system provides them. By making tools and real-time information available to each team member, regardless of time or location, organizations can reduce error risks, extend the life cycle of critical assets, save time, decrease labor costs, and foster a thriving, efficient company.
© 2023 EDI
