Asset Management Basics for Savings and Efficiency

Effective asset management starts with having a smart and flexible Facilities Management software solution in place and building a phased plan to take advantage of advanced features and achieve greater savings over time.

Full-blown digital transformation of your facilities management approach to asset management may seem a bit daunting. However, have no fear!  You can get started with the basics and achieve real savings immediately with the right software solution.

There is a great deal of potential for identifying savings and improving performance if you have the optimal facilities management software tools in place. Successful facilities teams are increasingly bringing value to the business by taking advantage of intelligent automation, rich data analytics, and new technology advances to effectively manage the life-cycle and performance of the facilities’ asset portfolios. 

For many customers, the idea of digitally transforming their approach to asset management seems daunting and overwhelming. In the long term, the effort is worth it and can yield significant savings. However, even if you are not ready to “go big,” you can still capture significant wins with a phased approach.  

Getting started with some basics of Asset Management:

1. Take advantage of a comprehensive CMMS or facilities management solution that incorporates and integrates work order management and asset management requirements.

Point solutions that address asset management independent of work order management miss significant opportunities for optimization and savings. Seamless and comprehensive integration of intelligent automation, analytics, and decision support for reactive and preventative management with the work-order and provider management capabilities yield significant efficiencies and savings.  

One example of how this seamless integration provides value is optimizing specific provider dispatch & RFP requests for each class of assets in the work order solution. The particular attributes of the asset inform downstream work order processing and automation. Automated triggers can be customized for initiating vendor RFP requests or immediately dispatching a specific preferred vendor based on the business priorities of timeliness or costs.

2. Effectively eliminate unnecessary expenses associated with mishandling of warranty repairs.

Stop inadvertently expensing work orders that should have been handled as in-warranty repair or replacement activity.

Integrate the data associated with warranty dates on your higher value assets or even sub-components of those assets into an intelligent CMMS like Fexa.

You can enable smart automation that directs any reactive repair associated with an asset while it is still under warranty to the specific provider or supplier whom you have contracted to handle warranty work.

Never inadvertently incur warranty-related expenses again!

3. Create asset classes and apply the appropriate oversight and execution steps for related work to each asset class.

Not all assets are the same. By taking advantage of the flexibility of Fexa, you can create unique asset classes and then customize the workflow, approvals, preventative maintenance, and compliance checks for each class through asset templates.

Additionally, custom fields that add value on an asset class by asset class basis can be utilized. Complex, mission-critical assets may have 20 or more custom fields for optimizing reporting or automation. Other asset classes may require only a few fields to maintain those assets optimally.

Facilities teams can tap into custom fields by asset class to create ad hoc reporting and decision support.  

One of many typical use cases might be tracking the maintenance costs associated with Brand A vs. Brand B of a high dollar value asset. This data can be insightful when comparing the total costs of ownership and negotiating future supplier or provider contracts.

4. Take advantage of program-level automation for scheduling, executing, and tracking preventative asset maintenance activity.

Don’t waste time using spreadsheets or emails and notes to schedule, manage, and track preventative maintenance activities. Establish automated Preventative Maintenance Programs to eliminate costly and error-prone manual intervention.

Not all assets are the same. When using an intelligent CMMS like Fexa, you can classify assets by type, supplier, geography, criticality, or any other custom attribute that makes sense for your business.  

Once you have created a class of assets, facilities teams can take advantage of ‘set and forget’ preventative maintenance programs as prescribed by the manufacturer or company engineering policies. 

The programs are even smart enough to incorporate alerts based on business rules if a reactive work order is raised within a specific time interval of scheduled maintenance, giving you the opportunity to bundle the reactive and preventative work in a single visit.

Ad hoc reporting enables the FM team to provide accurate and comprehensive reporting on programmatic asset maintenance activities and costs to engineering, finance, or other departments as required.