Are you relying on old practices and methods? Discover your untapped potential!
Losing money over your assets rather than generating revenue? Inefficient asset management can not only put your business at a disadvantage, compared to the competitive market, but also make you underperform at your KPIs. Optimizing this “life blood” of your company is crucial to avoid excessive risk, overspending and reduced productivity. In general, businesses lose up to 30% of their annual revenue due to inefficient asset management. This problem can be even more exacerbated by relying on outdated methods of managing your assets.
In this article we will cover 5 of the most common outdated asset management methods that can lead to revenue lost and missed opportunities. Do you recognize your business in one of the following processes? If yes, then you might need an upgrade!
1. Being a paper-chaser doesn’t mean relying on paper-based documentation!
Relying on manual, paper-based documentation systems to track assets is an inefficient form of asset management – it’s time consuming, prone to human error, and difficult to maintain accuracy. Paper-based models involve manually recording and updating information for each asset, which can take a significant amount of time, especially in large organizations with a high number of assets such as Amazon or DHL. From here you can see how a single human error can lead to a devastating effect down the supply or command chain. Incorrect data entry can bring a storm of unwanted consequences. If the data is not kept up-to-the-minute, it can quickly become outdated, leading to inaccurate information being used for decision-making. And wrong decisions lose revenue.
Paper-based systems are also limited in terms of accessibility. Only individuals who have physical access to the documentation can view the information, making it difficult for multiple individuals to access the data simultaneously. This can lead to unnecessary challenges with generating reports, wasting even more time.
Save yourself a ton of time and effort by digitizing your asset records with Asset Insider and enjoy accessible, searchable and shareable data. Access the information from anywhere and at any time. Digital data provides endless reporting and analysis opportunities, so you can make data-driven decisions.
2. Lacking standard in asset management processes
Without an enforced standard for all asset management processes, different departments or teams within your organization may have their own unique methods for managing assets. This can lead to inconsistencies in the collected and tracked data, which can make it difficult to get a clear picture of your assets. When it comes to wasted time – double effort is the name of the game! If different departments or teams are using their own methods for managing assets, inconsistencies are bound to happen. For example, multiple teams may be recording the same information about an asset, leading to wasted time and resources. This brings increased costs, as the organization may be spending unnecessary resources on tasks that could be streamlined or eliminated through standardization.
Without standard asset management processes, your organization may miss out on opportunities for growth and development. For example, if certain assets are not being tracked consistently across the organization, it may be difficult to identify areas where investments or improvements could be made.
Lack of systematized approach to processes always leads to inconsistency, incompatibility and lack of compliance. With Asset Insider you can embrace standardized processes and automations right out of the box. Every employee is guided through the steps of the process they are executing. This will prevent them from advancing further if a mandatory condition is not met, availability or anything else which may lead to errors is not present. When Asset Insider takes care of processes and automations duplications, double bookings and other conflicts will be left in the past!
3. Siloed data is silhouette data!
Using siloed data systems will prevent different departments from your organization from accessing and sharing asset data. This will lead to increased costs of operations. Ask yourself this: Are you spending resources on maintaining multiple systems and relying on manual processes to transfer data between them? Unfortunately, this is the case with many businesses. Again, if different departments are not sharing asset data, it may be difficult to identify areas where the organization could improve efficiency, reduce costs, or make strategic investments.
Lacking a centralized system for asset management is a sure way to Broke-town. Simply put your much more efficient competitors will put you out of business. Let’s take for example manufacturing. Inventory is a critical asset that needs to be tracked and managed efficiently to ensure that production processes run smoothly. However, the production department and the warehouse department may have their own separate inventory tracking systems. This can lead to discrepancies in inventory levels, making it difficult to take informed decisions about the production schedules.
Take control of your data with Asset Insider! Utilize its great sharing and security advantages model your data access policies in a single place. Define if the data should be shared between teams, give management insights on higher levels, keep all departments working with a consistent, single ‘source of truth’ while having tailored access policies for each role.
Asset Insider is a virtuoso when it comes to data integrations with other systems, cloud or on-premise. Take advantage of the flexible custom API integration capability of Asset Insider and the Power Platform or the already available 900+ connectors to other systems, making the integration of outside data sources a breeze!
4. Ignoring the full cost of your asset’s lifecycle
It’s like buying your dream Lamborghini and only then discovering how much it actually costs to keep it running. You spend money not only on acquiring your assets but also on supplying, commissioning, operating and disposing of them as well. Understanding the costs of the whole lifecycle of your assets will help you conjure accurate financial reports. For example, an enterprise may show a profit in the short term by not accounting for the ongoing maintenance and repair costs of its assets. However, over time, these costs can add up and result in lower profits or even losses.
Ignoring the full cost of an asset’s lifecycle can result in inefficient resource allocation. If your enterprise only considers the initial purchase price of an asset and ignores the ongoing maintenance cost, you may not allocate enough resources to properly maintain the asset. This can result in increased downtime, reduced productivity, and ultimately higher costs. Furthermore, if your business does not properly dispose of an asset at the end of its lifecycle, it may incur additional costs for environmental remediation or disposal fees.
With Asset Insider you will always have a full record of any asset’s lifecycle. Keeping track of any event and related costs produces a complete and comprehensive record at the end of the operational life of your assets. This provides an excellent overview of the total expenses for utilizing your assets.
Armed with such detailed information you can truly make data-driven decisions about the purchasing, exploitation, maintenance and disposal of any asset or group. This will increase margins, reduce maintenance costs and generally help achieve smoother operations.
5. Being reactive is not as active as you might think!
At this point, with this many solutions and newer understanding of business processes, relying on reactive maintenance is just tempting fate. Reactive maintenance is fixing assets after they have already failed or broken down. This contrasts with proactive maintenance, which involves scheduled and preventative maintenance activities to avoid unexpected downtime and breakdowns.
Relying on reactive maintenance leads to increased downtime and reduced productivity. When assets fail unexpectedly, they take longer to repair, causing delays in production or service delivery. It also increases your costs. When assets are allowed to fail before they are repaired, the damage can be more extensive, requiring more time and resources to fix. That is one of the reasons why our cars go through an annual technical inspection. Mentioning cars, safety quickly comes to mind. If a piece of equipment fails unexpectedly, it could lead to accidents or injuries.
Reactive maintenance lowers the performance of assets and reduces the span of their overall lifecycle. When assets are not properly maintained, they can wear out more quickly, resulting in more frequent breakdowns and the need for more frequent repairs or replacements. This in term will lead to reduced efficiency, increased energy consumption, and reduced output.
Why wait and always be caught unprepared by failures? Asset Insider will help you take control of your maintenance and greatly reduce failures, extend the assets’ lifecycle, minimize downtime, plan seamless operations and smooth processes. Using the preventive maintenance capabilities, you will stay ahead of events and guarantee timely servicing and maintenance for your asset portfolio.
Of course, standard scheduled maintenance is another skill which Asset Insider masters! Having operations scheduled helps your managers visualize and easily plan workforce efforts, schedule for high- or low-demand seasons, plan maintenance windows in periods with less workload or at times when your assets are not in use.
This level of organization and insight guarantees reduced costs of operations and maintenance, energy savings, personnel safety and increased profits of a better running business. Provided with enough data, Asset Insider can take you one level above that – up to Predictive Maintenance! That would even further boost efficiency, productivity and profit. With the Digital-Twin capabilities of Asset Insider you will have state-of-the art operations!
Because you truly care for the future of your business – you get a bonus!
6. Switching gears – why you shouldn’t rely on manual processes
Asset-heavy enterprises should not rely on manual processes for asset management because it can negatively impact their operations and profitability. Other than the previously mentioned increased errors and lack of visibility, manual processes are also limited in their scalability. As an enterprise grows and the number of assets increases, manual processes become more time-consuming and complex to manage, leading to a drain on resources.
Manually managing your assets requires significant time and effort, leading to inefficiencies and increased costs. These resources could be better utilized elsewhere within the enterprise. Furthermore, manual processes can result in inaccurate reporting, which could lead to regulatory penalties and damage to your enterprise’s reputation.
Time is the most valuable asset! This is why we have designed Asset Insider to handle every related process with the highest degree of automation possible, saving you and your teams valuable time. Forget manual order creation, forget about missing a task, forget about broken processes! Asset Insider enables you to simply configure requirements in your processes, approval policies, template tasks and work orders, send notifications on occurring events and let the system take care of manual work automatically so you can focus on more important work!
Our Low-Code software Asset Insider can help businesses escape the clutches of outdated asset management processes. It will not only improve but also bulletproof your asset management strategy, turning you into a shark in the competitive pool! Click here to learn more!
