The term “Enterprise Asset Management” tends to be poorly understood.
While Enterprise Asset Management was once conceptualized as little more than the routine or corrective maintenance of operating equipment, a new perspective has emerged that imagines it from a broader, more holistic perspective.
Today’s philosophy requires that Enterprise Asset Management also include the development of comprehensive plans and strategies for the introduction, ongoing operation and renewal of plant and equipment.
And while moving from a more narrow focus on “Asset Maintenance” to a broader conceptualization that includes the entire “Asset Lifecycle” may seem like a subtle difference at first, this recasting of perspectives has an important impact on the evolution of the software tools and the methodologies we use to help manage operations.
To understand Enterprise Asset Management changes as relates to organizational structures, we can reflect on changes in the 1990s in the Computerized Maintenance Management Systems (CMMS) space, where we saw an evolution that created connections with functions as diverse as Human Resources, Finance and Supply Chain.
Enterprise Asset Management and the progress of Asset Management EAM Software, have driven similar changes to the organizational structure of modern asset intensive companies. This can be easily evidenced by the addition of positions such as “Corporate Head of Reliability” and regularly tracked metrics like “Asset Health.”
This expansion of the people and processes involved in Enterprise Asset Management has far reaching impacts.