Hardly an organization exists that is not reliant, to a degree or another, on its asset productivity in order to prosper. While some companies may have more assets than others, very many organizations have a vast array, spread across a number of disparate locations. The typical complicated business of today needs asset management products that are on the cutting edge. We need an amazing level of granular detail in order to form decisions based on productive business intelligence.

For years now, thousands of organizations have been relying on out of date asset management products, many based on the most basic spreadsheet tools. While management teams often fret about marketing approach, personnel management and other important considerations, they seem content to rely on an out-of-date approach to the management of key equipment.

It is impossible to manage unless you monitor carefully and comprehensively. Each and every asset must “earn its keep” and produce a near perfect return on investment. If this is not the case, the business will not be operating efficiently and in competitive danger, especially in these turbulent times. It’s important for the management team to make critical decisions, at pertinent times and this can be a very difficult proposition unless they are using up-to-date asset management products.

Asset management products based on a “software as a service” platform can provide unparalleled insight into the true operating statistics of the business. Remember that the spreadsheet only records at one moment in time and is far from dynamic. By the time the information has been entered into the sheet, it is likely out of date. Custom-made, software-based asset management products, however, enable real-time insight.

Asset replacement requires capital planning and can be a worrying proposition in recessionary times. It is vitally important to make the right decision at the right time and to do this, management must be in possession of granular detail. They need to know how a particular piece of equipment has performed, its maintenance log and its warrantied history in order to formulate a decision.

Traditionally, asset performance is measured against its pure productivity in relation to its stated purpose. As an example, we gauge its efficiency according to how many “widgets” it is able to produce within a specified period of time. We have not been used to measuring asset performance against the amount of energy that it uses, but this is becoming a very critical consideration. How many organizations have no idea how energy efficient each asset is?

Modern asset management products start with a clean sheet of paper (pun intended). Each and every piece of equipment will be tagged and recorded and its vital statistics entered into the system. This begins the process of benchmarking. Once the total inventory is registered, its ongoing performance can be monitored in real-time. This provides the vital intelligence necessary for informed decision-making.

We simply cannot rely on traditional asset management products to give us the best business intelligence. Spreadsheets and other outdated solutions are far from ideal if we need to guarantee a competitive position going forward.

Daniel Stouffer has much more information about asset management products and how a visit to www.verisae.com will aid you.

Who really wants to be an executive these days, as there is so much to try and take into consideration, to keep the company buoyant? Every opportunity for consolidation needs to be considered and efficiency is the absolute byword of business. As the recession continued, every management metric within their reach needed to be considered and reconsidered as opportunities for improvement became critical. Now we’re beginning to see how all those old measurement methods are fully inadequate, even though they may have been considered to be “essential” for many a year.

The business can only hope to be wholly efficient if each and every one of the pieces of equipment, or assets, in its possession is also efficient. Every piece of equipment must do its part and contribute to the whole. We used to be quite content to measure an asset’s efficiency in relation to its designed purpose. However, this is an insufficient metric today. We need to be able to use online asset management software solutions to get comprehensive data in as close to real-time as possible.

Unless we are able to determine how each piece of equipment operates, we cannot hope to contain our burgeoning energy costs. For far too long, companies have relied on basic forms, such as spreadsheets, to record asset existence, maintenance issues and performance. Spreadsheets are very static tools and hardly suitable if we are to analyze pure efficiency.

In the 1980s, spreadsheets were seen as a revolution within industry. While they have improved since that time, they are nevertheless far from the best solutions if we are to monitor asset performance in real-time. Only through the use of online asset management software solutions can we hope to have a greater visibility into equipment efficiency.

By using online asset management software we can look at each piece of equipment and set benchmarks to give us warnings, alerts or alarms. Software solutions can be set up to deliver automatic messages to service providers and technicians, when any major issues are detected. We need to be sure that we avoid excessive downtime wherever possible.

Many organizations in truth do not have a very effective way of recording asset inventories. There may be several different systems, which do not mesh together. How can a company be efficient if it is not truly aware of the inventory in its possession? Online asset management systems begin with a thorough tagging and identification process.

Energy can represent more than one third of monthly expenditure for the typical business and its cost is rising dramatically. The call for sustainability requires us to control our energy usage, at the same time as we cut back on our associated carbon emissions. In order for us to achieve this, we need to control the performance at the asset level.

Excel-based spreadsheet options must be replaced by online asset management software which is much more dynamic. We can eliminate many layers of confusion and have a much broader visibility across the enterprise.

Daniel Stouffer has a lot of information about online asset management software and how a visit to www.verisae.com will aid you.

Companies need to look at their traditional ways of assessing individual asset efficiency. It is no longer good enough to look at the ordinary determinants, without integrating energy performance. An innovative approach to asset management has emerged which is known as “global asset sustainability.” We are now able to get a much clearer definition of efficiency if we adopt this system, driving improved financial metrics throughout the organization.

Driving a new approach toward global asset sustainability is the ever-growing price of energy and its associated security issues. Energy prices are on a relentless rise and availability is far from assured. Companies realize that this position is significantly affecting their profit margins and unless action is taken, will threaten their very business viability. Along with energy worries is a dual concern — the environmental impact of consuming energy and producing greenhouse gas emissions.

Every element of operation within the business must be leveraged and inefficiencies uncovered. Asset management may no longer be viewed from a point of conventional efficiency alone. The traditional approach would classify and justify asset performance just based on its productivity against specification. This did not take into account the amount of energy that the asset was using and this invisibility was causing a significant draw and reallocation of budgets from elsewhere.

Global asset sustainability takes a clear look at energy consumption, alongside the traditional metrics of availability, condition and performance. It’s not surprising, as the Department of Energy can tell us that the typical commercial or industrial company in the country now allocates over 80% of a non-labor operating and maintenance budget toward energy, alongside maintenance.

A new look at managing assets incorporates a four pronged approach. Global asset sustainability was not all-encompassing in this regard, before. As an example, we would determine asset availability as being acceptable if the equipment returned maximum uptime and generated revenues acceptably. We would also look at performance by considering the equipment specification and determining whether we were getting a good return on investment.

Performance is a base metric, of course and asset output quality is the indicator that determines how thin margins turn out. Quality control can often make the difference between dominance in the marketplace or playing catchup.

Traditionally, organizations did not counter in the most important factor in global asset sustainability — energy consumption. When a baseline position is established for each asset, running under prime conditions, each asset can subsequently be evaluated on an ongoing and almost instantaneous basis to reveal ultimate efficiency. Even a slight variation in efficiency can account for a huge operating loss across the distributed enterprise.

Equipment effectiveness readings have to be modified to incorporate energy into the mix. This new look at global asset sustainability understands that it is “all about” energy and companies must be able to monitor and micromanage this resource.

Daniel Stouffer has a lot of data about global asset sustainability and how a visit to www.verisae.com can aid you.