Asset management vs. parts inventory management: What’s the difference?

Relating to managing property all through their lifecycle, enterprise leaders know they want a complete technique in place to succeed. However they aren’t at all times clear on the strategic alternatives round elements stock administration and the function it performs in upkeep technique.

Whereas asset administration options monitor buildings, tools, autos, IT property and different gadgets an organization makes use of to conduct its enterprise, elements stock administration tracks the spare elements upkeep restore operations (MRO) want with the intention to restore property shortly and successfully after they break down.  

Let’s begin with definitions of the 2 phrases.

What’s an asset?

Corporations use property to run their day-to-day enterprise operations and create worth. This contains each bodily property (reminiscent of uncooked supplies, tools and autos) and non-physical property (reminiscent of mental property and patents).

Firm property are divided into two classes, fastened and non-fixed. Fixed assets, or “property, plant and tools” (PP&E) are gadgets the corporate intends to make use of for greater than a yr. Examples embody land, buildings, autos, tools and computer systems.  

Non-fixed property are sometimes of lesser worth to an organization and the corporate not often holds onto them for greater than a yr. Examples of non-fixed property embody workplace provides, computer systems, audio-visual tools and workplace furnishings.

What’s elements stock?

Elements stock, often known as “provides stock,” refers back to the gadgets an organization should inventory to restore the property it owns shortly and successfully. Profitable enterprises rigorously preserve an inventory of spare elements they should preserve their most significant items of apparatus operating easily and enhance their backside line.

However which spare elements are vital and which elements are merely “good to have?” That is the query on the coronary heart of elements stock technique. So as to reply it, upkeep, restore and operations (MRO) managers depend on “spares criticality”—the method of figuring out which spare elements threaten enterprise operations if there are shortages vs. the spare elements that aren’t as vital.

Asset administration vs. elements stock administration: The way it works

Whereas each sorts of administration cope with issues companies personal, asset administration techniques deal completely with tools and provides the corporate must function. Elements stock administration, then again, offers with gadgets the corporate must efficiently restore an asset that’s damaged down.

Asset administration

Belongings are available many sizes and shapes, from vehicles and manufacturing vegetation to windmills and pipelines. Asset administration tracks the situation and situation of each bodily and non-physical property the corporate must carry out enterprise operations all through the asset lifecycle.

One of the crucial frequent asset administration use instances is asset upkeep, which is used to take care of an asset’s worth for so long as doable. To do that, many corporations depend on asset management software like an enterprise asset management (EAM) system to create transparency, improve monitoring capabilities and resolve points shortly. Listed below are a number of the advantages of efficient asset administration software program:

• Centralized asset data: Upkeep staff have to know the place an asset is and the way it’s performing always. So as to do that, many use a computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) as a part of their total EAM strategy. This retains upkeep data in a single place and simply accessible to staff who should use it to carry out common upkeep actions like forecasting and replenishment.
• Proactive challenge decision: Within the Internet of Things (IoT) period, every little thing from a single valve to a thousand-mile pipeline may be related to sensors that ship real-time knowledge on their situation and measure depreciation over time. By incorporating artificial intelligence (AI) and superior analytics into the software program system, upkeep groups within the discipline can entry vital data in seconds and make extra knowledgeable choices. These capabilities kind the bedrock of preventive upkeep, an strategy that anticipates and prevents failures earlier than they happen via a mixture of machine learning, operational knowledge analytics and predictive asset well being monitoring.
• Consolidated operational functions: Sturdy EAM software program establishes a single touchpoint for the administration of just about any asset or asset kind. Processes may be unified and standardized throughout a variety of capabilities that span your complete enterprise.
• Actual-time asset data: Profitable asset administration is determined by the provision of correct, real-time details about every little thing an organization owns. Think about having paid for a vital piece of apparatus you want delivered to your manufacturing facility however having no method of monitoring it in transit. Asset monitoring and asset monitoring software program play a key function within the success of asset administration techniques.

Read: What asset-intensive industries can gain using Enterprise Asset Management

The next are the 4 most generally used sorts of asset monitoring techniques obtainable as we speak:

• Radio frequency identifier tags (RFID): RFID tags are small tags affixed to an asset that broadcast quite a lot of data utilizing radio-frequency alerts and Bluetooth know-how. Along with an asset’s location, RFID tags can transmit the temperature and humidity of the setting the place its being saved.
• WiFi-enabled monitoring: WiFi-enabled monitoring techniques use a tag affixed to an asset to broadcast quite a lot of details about it over an area WiFi community. Like RFID, nevertheless, WiFi-enabled monitoring is barely efficient at monitoring gadgets so long as they’re indoors and inside vary of a WiFi community.
• QR codes: QR codes are a big improve on their predecessor, the common barcode. Like serial numbers and barcodes, a QR code can present an abundance of details about an asset shortly and simply. However not like the barcode, QR codes are two-dimensional and may be learn by a smartphone that’s being pointed on the code from any angle.
• International positioning satellites (GPS): Many companies use international positioning satellites to trace their property in transit. A tracker is positioned on the asset that then communicates details about it to a International Navigation Satellite tv for pc System (GNSS) community. By transmitting a sign to a satellite tv for pc, trackers allow managers to see the place an asset is, wherever on the globe, in real-time. GPS is essentially the most broadly used system for monitoring property and stock that reside open air and away from a Bluetooth or WiFi community. 

Elements stock administration

The place asset administration focuses on gadgets that assist corporations function, elements stock administration focuses on spare elements and supplies the corporate must preserve readily available to restore tools when it breaks. To perform this in a dependable and cost-effective method, upkeep restore operations (MRO) groups should strategically preserve elements stock ranges in order that they have what they want, however decrease the retention of extra or out of date inventory.

Listed below are three vital parts of elements stock management and a few questions you possibly can ask to make sure success with them:

• High quality of service: Does the MRO staff present quick, environment friendly restore service when known as upon that will get vital items of apparatus up and operating once more after a breakdown? What may very well be finished to enhance the service and the way would that impression elements stock ranges?
• Degree of stock: Does MRO preserve the gadgets it wants readily available whereas nonetheless reaching monetary, budgetary and warehouse concerns? What may very well be finished to cut back stock additional with out compromising service ranges?
• Price to group: Is the general price of MRO elements stock one thing the group can afford, or does it have to strategically eradicate some gadgets it at present retains readily available with the intention to cut back prices additional?

Advantages of efficient asset and elements stock administration

Each day, enterprise leaders make vital choices about find out how to lower prices, enhance effectivity and seize new market alternatives. However with out sturdy asset and elements stock administration techniques in place, these choices would seemingly be irrelevant. Nicely-executed asset and elements stock administration gives many vital advantages to a company, together with the next:

• Improved enterprise efficiencies and outcomes: When carried out appropriately, asset and elements stock ensures seamless operations, identifies redundancies in tools and spare elements and improves enterprise outcomes.
• Diminished prices: By conserving cautious monitor of asset  efficiency and sustaining a rigorous elements stock administration system, resolution makers can spot alternatives to enhance processes and optimize elements stock to cut back prices.
• Better security and safety: Sturdy asset and elements stock administration techniques enhance circumstances in locations like warehouses, industrial vegetation and meeting strains the place each theft and accidents are frequent. This could result in a safer office setting in addition to a discount in theft—and decrease insurance coverage charges—over time.

Asset administration options

At present’s top-performing asset administration options leverage cutting-edge know-how like real-time knowledge delivered through IoT, AI-enhanced analytics and monitoring and cloud-based capabilities. Enterprise asset administration with the IBM Maximo Application Suite helps corporations optimize asset efficiency and lengthen asset lifespans. It’s a completely built-in platform that makes use of superior analytics instruments and IoT knowledge to enhance operational availability and cut back downtime and prices.

Learn more about IBM Maximo Application Suite