Today, billions of assets need to be tracked in real-time. Processes require constant monitoring, maintenance, and optimization. Actually, the whole enterprise needs this!

Asset Management trends are changing rapidly and are ready to answer the call for digital transformation. Let’s take a deeper look at them and find out what lies ahead for the future of Enterprise Asset Management (EAM).

Demand for real-time data and analysis

The first trend is related to the availability of real-time data. The speed at which information is produced and absorbed within an organization has a huge impact on every process. People need to know:

  • Where are the assets
  • What is their condition
  • What is their availability
  • How they are used

All this information can open up opportunities that lead to cost savings by maximizing asset planning and reducing theft, loss, and storage of equipment.

Real-time data collection has a significant impact on the functioning of organizations.

Advances in positioning technologies

An indoor positioning system (IPS) is a network of devices used to locate people or objects where GPS and other satellite technologies do not have the accuracy or fail. A wide variety of techniques and devices are used to provide indoor positioning:

  • Smartphones
  • Antennas for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth
  • Digital cameras
  • Watches & wearables

The positioning system is made of installations with relays and beacons strategically located in a specific space. Each installation shall comply with:

  • The spatial dimensions
  • Construction materials
  • The need for accuracy
  • Budgetary constraints

IPS networks use lights, radio waves, magnetic fields, acoustic signals, and behavioral analysis.TheIPScanachieveapositionaccuracyof2cm.

Some of the IPS providers explored the biggest obstacles to implementing this system:

  1. Too time-consuming to adjust
  2. Maintenance obligations
  3. The inability of indoor positioning to work as a GPS

Technological advances have tackled each of these issues and even improved the accuracy and reliability of indoor positioning.

For example, wireless technology is built into LED bulbs and hotspots that are powered by the Internet. This reduced the burden associated with installation and maintenance.

Indoor positioning has opened up a new dimension to asset tracking and is now easier to access.

Address layers and objects of closed maps

What comes to your mind when you think about maps? One sheet with an image of the earth’s surface. Technology has facilitated the transition from this to multidimensional multilayer maps, where each element can be addressed and controlled.

By overlaying multiple layers of data on closed cards, businesses can support many use cases from a single centralized card database.

Depending on what you want to see, layers on the map can represent any number of objects. They can be turned on and off for a detailed view of the visual elements contained in each element.

The benefits of such thorough asset tracking, both for fixed assets and for moving assets, provide businesses with unprecedented control and visibility. Entire networks can be monitored through centralized access, offering 360-degree asset tracking.

It looks like EAM trending technologies are taking into account not only the regular requirements for efficient asset management but are also but also strive to provide an opportunity to accelerate the creation of smart enterprises!

Connected Devices

Today, assets and devices are being connected through incorporating built-in sensors that can transmit data continuously. Information is analyzed and managed without human intervention.

Connected devices offer advantages such as:

  • Better tracking support
  • Recording
  • Opportunity to see how long the assets are being utilized

The best part is the ability to perform real-time analysis. This information can be used for predictive and proactive support.

So what? Well, this improves efficiency, reduces downtime, and repair costs. GPS chips can also be integrated into devices for automatic scanning and asset tracking.

Companies can use data sent from devices to make continuous improvements. Artificial intelligence (AI) can improve and automate this process, enabling production machines to automatically receiving analysis and making adjustments. AI technology supports organizations in adopting a predictive maintenance approach.

Architectural design and interoperability

REST architectures allow universal integration with other systems and applications. Each element on the map receives an external identifier. This gives you the ability to address it with data through a third-party API. As a result, your business can gain real-time visibility into the location and condition of assets.

With REST architecture, asset utilization and status can be viewed from a centralized database. You can:

  • Set up alerts when an asset is entering and leaving a geographical line
  • Send support notifications
  • Send instructions

All this information provides visibility into operations through location data, leading to smarter, more feasible solutions and workflow efficiency through related technologies.

Asset Intelligence – Improve & Adapt

Intelligence is the ability of conscious individuals to draw conclusions based on available information.

This term can also be applied to the management of IT assets, devices, heavy machinery, light equipment, subscriptions and EaaS (everything as a service).

Asset Intelligence makes it easier to manage not only fixed assets in or outside an enterprise but the current assets as well, even those used on the “as-a-service” method. It goes hand in hand with another term –the Asset Intelligence catalog.

The catalog contains a database structured in tables. The tables are stored in the database of the site or in the asset management tool. All the related process and actions also have their own tables, grids, forms etc.

The tables contain information on the categorization and identification of various software titles and versions. Categorization data includes:

  1. Name of the product
  2. The supplier, the vendor
  3. Asset category
  4. Active warranty or insurance contracts
  5. The value in the balance sheet, the actual value
  6. % utilization
  7. So many more

Thus, organizations can answer questions such as:

  • How many iPhones we have?
  • What is the current firmware of our device?
  • How many production lines will be out of service next month, if we do not take action to repair the damage?

This allows them to make decisions about their assets more efficiently and in a much shorter time.

Asset Intelligence minimizes the need to navigate an avalanche of documents. Thanks to the detailed reports that can be generated from a single solution, the information collected will be more reliable and streamlined and it will maximize productivity not only of your assets but also of your employees who manage and maintain them!

Internet of Things – blurring the boundaries between reality and virtual reality

Active IoT devices reached $ 9.5 billion in 2019. McKinsey & Company estimates that by 2025, the total economic impact of IoT could reach $ 11.1 trillion.

The focus is not only on data acquired from assets. Data for the assets is just as important. The operational look for each component is crucial in what is a standalone IoT.

There is an intersection of Industrial IoT and EAM. It is a combination of asset management with connected equipment and the data we collect from assets.

Also, IoT plays a key role in building smart cities, factories, enterprises, and many other smart things. It really is the key to an interconnected and optimized future.

The smart city is an urban area that uses different types of Electronic Sensors of the Internet of Things (IoT). They collect data that is then analyzed to improve the management of assets, resources, and services. Data can be collected from:

  • Citizens
  • Devices
  • Assets

Frost & Sullivan estimates that by 2025, there will be more than 26 smart cities worldwide. To turn a city into a Smart City, it must adopt five of the eight smart principles:

  1. Smart Energy
  2. Smart Construction
  3. Smart Mobility
  4. Smart Healthcare
  5. Smart Infrastructure
  6. Smart Technologies
  7. Smart Management
  8. Smart Education (Smart Citizen)

Artificial Intelligence as a tool

The information must be standardized, processed, and uploaded to specific systems. The large amount of complex data that is generated makes us look for intelligent processing methods. AI is one of these solutions.

It can tell us when assets need maintenance. The maps show where these items are located in real-time, which helps identify the most efficient maintenance path and begin the work-flow.

AI is about to be extended to enterprise systems such as EAM to transform the collected data into more useful insights. With AI, employees and customers will be able to communicate with their EAM systems using natural languages.

We will get answers to direct questions like “How many work orders do we have on Route 25?”

The system will take care of data extraction so that managers can concentrate on other key activities.

It’s all about the usability of technology. The future of EAM is to look at how we use technology in the real world and make it easier for us to optimize the value of our assets, not just maintain them.

Drones

Drone asset management is the next level of management transformation for many sectors, including Utilities, Telco, Rail, Oil, Gas, and Aviation.

Drones are data collection machines. They can be located in places that are difficult for people to access and transmit the information they collect back to the EAM system.

Some of these places may be:

  • Oil refineries
  • Offshore platforms
  • Railway beds
  • Bridges
  • Planes
  • Cargo ships

Drones equipped with powerful zoom lenses can be used to check and evaluate equipment that would be dangerous or difficult to access physically.

Wise drones connected to the ground through the power and communications cables are preferred for this application over unbound drones that fly freely and have their communication systems onboard. That way they can stay in the air longer are less sensitive to interference and cannot fly away.

Drones reduce the risk of accidents as there are no people on board. There is no need to set up support structures to inspect or suspend production. This can save a lot of resources

It’s all about data collection

The future of EAM is related to data collection and processing. The impact technologies have on the overall asset management is enormous. More information will enter the system from more places and it will be accessible to more people in various ways.

The result? Those responsible for maintaining the equipment can respond more quickly and accurately.

People should not and will not be replaced by technology. The goal is to work together to achieve better results. And this exactly what Sappience stands for!