The Dawn of Smarter Asset Management: Pioneering Efficiency, Sustainability, and Safety

In the rich tapestry of industrial history, the evolution of asset management emerges as an eloquent testament to the relentless march of progress. This journey commenced with reactive breakdown responses and planned maintenance, evolving methodically through Preventive Maintenance (PM), Condition-Based Maintenance (CBM), and ultimately ascending to the pinnacle of Reliability-Centered Maintenance (RCM). Today, it stands as Enterprise Asset Management (EAM), a strategic pillar intricately woven into a company's income, profitability, sustainability, and, significantly, safety and operational risk management.

Throughout this transformation, a wealth of data has been generated, encircling asset management processes. Yet, to gain a deeper understanding of future asset performance and failure patterns, there arises a vital need to elevate our data processing and interpretation techniques.

Enter Smarter Asset Management (SAM): A Revolution in Insight and Action

Enter "Smarter Asset Management" (SAM), the pinnacle of excellence. SAM extracts actionable insights from structured and unstructured asset data, suggests interventions to avert failure, mitigates service disruptions, and orchestrates an optimized investment strategy for a company's assets.

SAM operates on two distinct layers. Firstly, "Proactive Reliability-Centered Maintenance (pro-RCM)" dissects data generated by asset management and associated systems, wielding predictive analysis to foretell future performance. Secondly, "Smart Intervention" takes the outputs of pro-RCM and subjects them to a Failure Mode Effect and Criticality Analysis (FMECA)-based algorithm. This ingenious process identifies the most optimal interventions to stave off performance decay and unforeseen service interruptions. Notably, it doesn't stop there; these analytics also model the potential consequences of possible failures as well as provide the potential mediations to prevent unexpected asset failures.

Navigating the Path to Excellence

The evaluation process, which spans 2 to 6 months, encompasses pivotal components: selecting trial locations and equipment types, scrutinizing existing maintenance planning processes and performance including a quantified measure of uptime achieved versus cost incurred, data acquisition (including historical maintenance information and engineering data), crafting the requisite technology for proof of concept, executing proof-of-concept trials, statistical outcome analysis, and assessing the extent of performance enhancement and cost reduction achievable if this approach were applied to real operations.

IoT-Enabled Smart Asset Management

The influence of IoT-enabled smart asset management systems now transcends industries, leaving an indelible mark. In manufacturing, IoT-based asset management systems proactively monitor equipment performance, pre-empting costly breakdowns. These systems also streamline goods transportation and inventory management, traditionally labor-intensive tasks.

In the medical and pharmaceutical sectors, efficient tracking mitigates risks associated with transporting valuable medical equipment and delicate drugs, ensuring their safe and timely delivery.

Industries such as chemicals, mining, oil, and gas prioritize safety, reliability, and compliance, and SAM systems provide cost-effective solutions that enhance safety conditions, optimize maintenance, and foster collaboration. The food and agriculture industry benefits from timely deliveries, improved handling, and reduced product wastage, thanks to SAM's precise tracking and monitoring.

Even in construction, asset management systems enable builders to optimize material usage and reduce operational costs, all while preventing theft through meticulous asset tracking.

These systems are ubiquitous, serving diverse purposes, including asset tracking, performance management, and predictive maintenance. As the business landscape continues to evolve, IoT and smart asset management systems will play an increasingly critical role in shaping the future of enterprise efficiency and sustainability.

The Future Beckons: Smart Asset Management Across Industries

Industries such as chemicals, mining, oil, and gas prioritize safety, reliability, and compliance, and SAM systems provide cost-effective solutions that enhance safety conditions, optimize maintenance, and foster collaboration.

The food and agriculture industry benefits from timely deliveries, improved handling, and reduced product wastage, thanks to SAM's precise tracking and monitoring. 

Even in construction, asset management systems enable builders to optimize material usage and reduce operational costs, all while preventing theft through meticulous asset tracking.

Asset management systems are ubiquitous, serving diverse purposes, including asset tracking, performance management, and predictive maintenance. As the business landscape continues to evolve, IoT and smart asset management systems will play an increasingly critical role in shaping the future of enterprise efficiency and sustainability.

Conclusion: Embracing the Future of Asset Management

In this ever-changing landscape of business and industry, the story of asset management has evolved from a humble beginning to an extraordinary journey of transformation. From simply reacting to breakdowns, we now have the power to predict and prevent them while providing meaningful insights along with possible interventions that are needed to prevent the failures. The emergence of Smarter Asset Management (SAM) signifies a profound shift in how we harness data and technology to unlock unprecedented insights and efficiencies.

SAM is not just a concept; it's a revolution in insight and action. With its dual layers of Proactive Reliability and Smart Interventions, SAM empowers organizations to not only foresee asset issues but also take optimized actions to mitigate them. It's a journey that involves meticulous evaluation, a process that separates the good from the exceptional.

As we move forward, the future beckons with endless possibilities. Asset management systems continue to evolve, serving a multitude of purposes, and finding new applications. They enable businesses to thrive in an era where efficiency, sustainability, and safety are paramount.

The journey of asset management is far from over; it's an ongoing quest for excellence and innovation. Organizations that embrace SAM and IoT-enabled systems are not just adopting technology; they're embracing the future itself. They are the pioneers of a new era, where data-driven decisions and smart interventions are the keys to unlocking efficiency, sustainability, and safety.

In this transformative landscape, the dawn of smarter asset management marks the beginning of a brighter, more efficient, and sustainable future. It's not just a revolution; it's a commitment to progress and a testament to the power of technology to shape our world for the better.

-By Naveen Sikka, Principal Industry Consultant- Energy & Utility, SAS India