Organizations in asset-heavy industries like manufacturing often need help tracking and managing their equipment. Relying on outdated tools or forgoing formal work histories and data-driven maintenance altogether leaves organizations vulnerable to risks including unexpected breakdowns and excesses.
What is asset management software?
Asset management software refers to a wide range of digital solutions designed to help businesses track, manage, and maintain their physical assets. Physical assets include items like your company’s production equipment and machinery, facilities and infrastructure, fleet and warehouse vehicles, and more.
Key asset management software tool
The best asset management software solutions will provide your business with the tools to manage these assets throughout their full lifecycle. Asset management technology is also used widely in areas like inventory management, compliance assurance, cost control, and more.
The right asset management platforms can help your business improve the efficiency of its maintenance operation, reduce the occurrence of unplanned downtime, and lengthen the expected useful lifespan of your equipment.
Today, asset management technology incorporates a variety of sophisticated tools to help your business track, protect, and preserve your critical assets. Key asset management platform tools include:
- User-friendly dashboard
- Centralized database
- Digital tracking system
- Cloud-based mobile apps
- Real-time and historical data monitoring
- Customized reporting
In short, top asset management software solutions typically incorporate a variety of tools to help your business streamline, integrate, and automate various aspects of its asset management strategy.
This is why asset management software is used extensively in manufacturing, healthcare, logistics, and a wide range of other industries.
Key asset management software features
Though asset management software can be adapted to the needs and objectives of a specific industry, the typical asset management system will include the following features.
- Asset tracking software makes it possible to monitor the location, usage, and condition of physical assets such as machinery, equipment, vehicles by using technologies like barcodes, RFID tags, or GPS.
- Maintenance management can improve the efficiency of your program by automating preventive maintenance (PM) scheduling, delegating maintenance technicians to corrective maintenance or emergency repair tasks, providing notifications for routine equipment inspections, and more.
- Inventory management makes it possible to integrate asset inventory management and maintenance operations, deploying automatic inventory updates, reorder alerts, and real-time visibility into stock levels. These strategies can reduce the occurrence of stockouts or overstocking.
- Work order management features can streamline, simplify, and speed up the approval, assignment, tracking, and completion of maintenance tasks through functions like automated work order creation, smart task delegation, and centralized access to work orders for all relevant personnel.
- Asset lifecycle management features track the entire lifecycle of each asset, from procurement and deployment to maintenance and eventual disposal. This strategy can maximize return on investment (ROI) in critical assets by optimizing their use throughout their lifespan, tracking the status of warranties, and making data-driven decisions about when to repair, replace, or retire assets.
- Predictive maintenance features can lower repair costs, improve asset reliability, reduce downtime, and extend the lifespan of your assets by using data analytics to forecast and intervene with potential equipment malfunctions, breakdowns, and failures before they occur.
- Financial management features make it possible to calculate asset depreciation, track associated costs, and integrate these real-time figures with accounting systems to ensure accurate financial reporting. This enhanced accuracy can result in clearer insights into asset value over time, as well as supporting budgeting decisions and helping to inform future asset purchasing decisions.
- Compliance checklists and other regulatory management features can help ensure that your asset usage and maintenance strategy comply with current industry regulations and safety standards. Improved compliance ultimately reduces the risks of injury, accident, fines, or legal liability by making it easier to schedule, track, and complete required inspections and audits.
Why is asset management software important?
Asset management software provides organizations with a variety of strategies for overcoming common challenges in areas like cost control, preventive maintenance planning, inventory tracking, and more. Asset management technology has become an increasingly important part of both asset maintenance and operational efficiency.
Asset management software benefits
- Real-time visibility into the location, status, and usage of assets across the organization makes it possible to track assets across different locations or departments, and subsequently reduce the occurrence of misplaced equipment, inventory shortages, or overstocking.
- Proactive maintenance functions like automated preventive maintenance scheduling and predictive maintenance analytics can reduce your organization’s reliance on reactive maintenance strategies and consequently reduce repair costs and unplanned downtime while lengthening the life of your assets.
- Optimized asset utilization, through strategies like real-time performing tracking, codification of standard operating procedures (SOPs), and scheduled repairs or replacement of aging parts can improve the fuel-efficiency, repair costs, and productive output of your equipment.
- Improved compliance with industry regulations, safety standards, and audit requirements through features such as compliance checklists, automatically scheduled internal inspections, and detailed audit trail documentation can reduce the occurrence of injuries or accidents and the risk of penalties.
- Data-driven decision-making can inform strategic and cost-conscious conclusions about when to repair, replace, or retire assets.
- Improved financial reporting, with indicators like asset depreciation, cost of ownership, and maintenance costs improving the accuracy and completeness of your financial outlook.
Who benefits from asset management software?
Asset management technology is versatile and highly customizable. This is why asset management software is used to the benefit of facilities managers, maintenance departments, financial analysts, and countless other professionals in a wide range of industries.
For example:
- Manufacturing professionals such as plant managers, maintenance teams, and production supervisors use asset management software to reduce breakdowns, improve production efficiency, and ensure timely maintenance of equipment like conveyor belts, robotics, and machinery.
- Healthcare professionals such as hospital administrators, medical equipment managers, and maintenance staff use asset management software to track and maintain expensive medical equipment like MRI machines, ventilators, and diagnostic devices by leveraging equipment tracking, compliance checklists, and preventive maintenance scheduling features.
- Information Technology (IT) professionals such as CIOs, system administrators, and IT support teams use IT asset management software to track the lifecycle of hardware (computers, servers, networking devices), ensure compliance with software licenses and agreements, heighten security protocols, and implement timely repair or replacement of computer equipment.
- Construction professionals such as project managers, field teams, and financial controllers use asset management software to monitor the use, performance, and maintenance of heavy equipment like bulldozers, cranes, and trucks, often deploying GPS tracking tools to monitor the movement, allocation and usage of equipment across job sites.
- Transportation and logistics professionals such as fleet managers, logistics coordinators, and warehouse managers rely on asset management software to track the location, condition, and performance of fleet vehicles (trucks, delivery vans, etc.) and warehouse equipment like forklifts with real-time updates.
Finding the right asset management software
As the section above suggests, asset management technology may be highly adaptable to a given industry, as well as to the scope, size, and structure of your organization. However, it’s still absolutely critical that you select an asset management software solution that is compatible with your needs and your company’s long-term goals.
In the sections below, we outline the key steps in matching with the right vendor and choosing the best asset management platform for your business.
Knowing when it’s time
The first step is to recognize your organization’s need to transition to a tech-enabled asset management strategy. Indicators that it’s time to take the leap may include:
- Frequent equipment breakdowns, process failures, and excessive downtime
- Inaccuracy, lag time, and limited access due to a reliance on spreadsheets and other manual maintenance tracking methods
- Over-reliance on reactive maintenance and emergency repairs, which can be costlier and more time-consuming than preventive and predictive maintenance methods
- Growing asset portfolios, especially those that include assets which are distributed across multiple facilities or locations, and which can therefore compound the complexity of your asset management needs
- Constantly evolving compliance responsibilities, which often include stringent requirements for asset maintenance, tracking, and documentation.
Setting goals
Once you’ve determined that the time to implement a new asset maintenance solution is now, you’ll want to identify your goals. What do you hope to achieve by implementing your asset maintenance software?
Common goals may include:
- Reduced downtime
- Lower repair costs
- Improved operational efficiency
- More accurate financial forecasting
- Scalability of your asset management program
- Transition to preventive maintenance strategies
Reviewing vendors
Once you’ve identified your goals, you’ll want to review prospective vendors. The objective of this step is to narrow down your list of potential asset management software providers based on factors like reputation, customer service, technological capability, pricing models, and compatibility with your existing systems.
Consider incorporating some of the key questions listed below in your vendor-vetting process.
Key questions to ask vendors:
- Can the software be customized to my unique asset types and workflows? Is it scalable to grow with my business?
- Does the new asset management system integrate seamlessly with my existing tools and systems (i.e. ERP systems, IoT devices, etc.)?
- Is your interface user-friendly for both technicians and managers? How long does it typically take for new users to learn?
- What kind of customer support is available? Are there training programs, online resources, and regular software updates?
- Does your software offer a mobile CMMS app so that my team can manage assets in the field and remotely?
- Can the system generate advanced real-time data, data analytics, and customized to support better decision-making?
Implementing solutions
Implementation requires a structured approach, one that takes into account your existing systems, protocols, and even your organizational culture. Your success here depends on earning buy-in and active participation from various stakeholders.
Build your implementation around the following key steps:
- Create a cross-functional task force consisting of key stakeholders (maintenance, IT, finance, etc.) to oversee the project and ensure that the system serves all departments.
- Secure executive buy-in and encourage leaders to champion the new software and advocate for it as a strategic and budgetary priority.
- Migrate existing asset data, work orders, and maintenance histories into the new system with a focus on avoiding data loss and minimizing inaccuracies.
- Provide comprehensive employee training for all users, including administrators, technicians, and management.
- Run a small-scale pilot to identify and resolve any potential wrinkles in the process before full-scale implementation.
Succeeding in the long term
Once your asset management software is live, its long-term success will depend on ongoing performance monitoring, regular assessments, and continuous improvements.
Proven strategies for achieving long-term success
- Monitoring Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) using valuable metrics such as mean time to repair (MTTR), mean time between failures (MTBF), and on-time work order completion
- Conducting routine audits and performing regular software updates
- Remaining informed on new features, product improvements, or updated best practices
- Soliciting feedback from end-users and adjusting workflows or system configurations accordingly
- Leveraging predictive analytics and machine learning features to move from reactive to predictive maintenance strategies
See our asset management software in action
In the section above, we provide some helpful tips for narrowing down your list of asset management software vendors based on features like technological capabilities, customer support, and pricing structure.
These are critical considerations, of course. But it is equally important to choose an asset management solution that provides every functionality your organization needs to move forward. Limble’s award-winning CMMS offers customers:
- User-friendly interface
- Cloud-based accessibility on mobile devices
- Automated preventive maintenance scheduling
- Automated work order management
- Enhanced access controls
- Compatibility with predictive maintenance technology
- Advanced data analytics
- Detailed, customizable reports
- Seamless integrations
- Broadly compatible API
- And much more
To find out what else we do, and how you can leverage these features to reduce your operational downtime, lengthen the life of your assets, and improve your organization’s bottom line, check out Limble’s industry-leading asset management solutions.
