What Is Manufacturing Asset Management and Why Does It Matter?

Managing the entire lifecycle of assets – from planning and acquisition to maintenance management and divestment – requires much more than just visual inspections and paper-based processes. An effective manufacturing asset management system becomes an essential tool when organizations must oversee multiple assets, such as heavy equipment, components, tools, and facilities. 

In this article, we’ll discuss asset management in manufacturing, including what it is, its key benefits, best practices, applications, and why it matters to manufacturing organizations. We will also highlight some of the benefits of LLumin’s Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS+) solution that can support your management efforts and make them more effective. 

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What Is Asset Management in Manufacturing?

In addition to the numerous daily tasks taking place in manufacturing facilities, several support activities must also be optimized to ensure operational efficiency. Most manufacturing organizations simply could not do business without taking consistent measures to reduce risk, costs, and ensure that equipment and facilities operate at optimal levels.

Manufacturing asset management comprises multiple processes intended to control costs, improve operational efficiency, extend the lifespan of assets, and improve spending decisions. This includes tracking, inspections, and maintaining assets throughout their lifecycles. Assets may include machinery, equipment, tools, facilities, and even digital resources that contribute to daily operations. 

When performed effectively, asset management in manufacturing can provide many attractive benefits, such as improving equipment performance, reducing unplanned downtime, cutting costs, and even boosting overall productivity levels. It’s also an important part of ensuring compliance with regulatory requirements. 

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Why Asset Management Matters

Manufacturing asset management is important for several reasons, such as ensuring adherence to safety and regulatory standards, reducing waste, and keeping assets reliable – which effectively ensures that core operations keep functioning. Ultimately, successful asset management enables organizations to reduce costs, improve efficiency, and support uninterrupted daily operations. 

Why Does Manufacturing Asset Management Matter?
Tracking and Monitoring	Keeping manufacturing facilities up and running requires continual asset tracking and monitoring. Knowing their locations, when they’re needed, and identifying signs of mechanical failure enables decision-makers to act decisively.
Reliability and Lifespan	Monitoring equipment enables organizations to deploy more proactive strategies, such as preventive and predictive maintenance. Timely inspections and maintenance can increase equipment reliability and overall lifespan.
Cost Control	Overinvesting in equipment that has become obsolete, ineffective, inefficient, or should otherwise be disposed of can lead to high costs and unmanaged maintenance budgets.
Investment/Divestment Planning	Manufacturing asset management focuses on the entire lifespan of equipment and assets. With support from accurate data and a high-level overview of daily operations, decision-makers can ensure proper investment and divestment decisions.
Regulations	Staying compliant with all applicable regulations requires continual efforts. Using asset management software, such as a CMMS, can streamline your efforts.

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Key Benefits

Asset management in manufacturing produces measurable benefits in terms of decreased equipment downtime, cost savings, and improved equipment lifespan and reliability. However, this approach can also yield more significant benefits by enabling organizations to make better-informed decisions and to make better and more varied asset improvements over time. 

 The key benefits of asset management in manufacturing include:

• Decreased Equipment Downtime: Effective asset management improves an organization’s ability to consistently support proactive maintenance strategies that address equipment and asset issues before they degrade into full failure, reducing unexpected downtime. 
• Cost Savings: Better management in terms of tracking, monitoring, and maintenance of equipment and assets can result in significant cost savings. This is due in part to more responsible investment decisions as well as more effective and efficient maintenance practices. 
• Increased Equipment Lifespan & Reliability: Effective asset management ensures equipment is properly maintained, increasing performance, reliability, and lifespan. 
• Safety and Quality: Properly maintained equipment and assets can have a significantly positive impact on your company’s safety levels. They can also improve your facility’s productivity, generating more consistent supply. Well-maintained equipment can also result in higher-quality final products. 
• Continual Improvement: Improved data collection, consistent monitoring, and setting new benchmarks to encourage improvements in less efficient areas can support the development of an overall company culture that values improvement.

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Best Practices for Deployment

Asset management in manufacturing will vary depending on the organization, equipment type, assets, and resources that need tracking and monitoring. However, some essential best practices can help streamline and maximize your efforts.

Risk Assessment & Inventory Audit

Start by identifying your most critical assets and assessing potential risks to operational continuity if they fail. Conduct a thorough inventory audit to catalog all equipment, tools, and materials. Understanding the condition, age, and maintenance history of your assets will allow you to prioritize resources effectively and develop a more accurate asset management plan.

Asset Management Software

Use asset management software to consolidate and centralize your data, automate workflows, and gain visibility into daily operations. An advanced CMMS, like LLumin’s CMMS+ or EAM (Enterprise Asset Management) solution, can provide the tools and features you need to track assets throughout their lifecycles, regularly schedule maintenance, generate reports, and collect real-time data on equipment and asset conditions. 

Keep in mind that it’s essential to choose a solution that can scale with your organization over time and integrate with your existing software and systems. It’s also crucial that you work with a software provider that provides extensive customer service and training options. 

IoT Technology

Invest in IoT (Internet of Things) devices and incorporate them into your larger asset management strategy. IoT sensors can gather and provide real-time data on asset performance, environmental conditions, and imminent failure patterns. This will enable your teams to quickly mitigate mechanical failures and better plan for proactive maintenance tasks. 

Condition-Based Monitoring

With compatible software and machine-level sensors, you can deploy condition-based monitoring (CBM) to monitor and measure asset performance and health. This process relies on metrics such as vibration, temperature, and energy consumption to spot the signs of impending mechanical failures. CBM enables organizations to use more advanced maintenance management strategies that align with actual asset conditions, helping reduce unnecessary maintenance, costs, and risks. 

Preventive Maintenance

Implementing a new preventive maintenance program, or improving your existing strategies, goes a long way to improving equipment reliability and mitigating unexpected failures. You can approach this in several ways, either by using historical and real-time data to guide your efforts or relying on manufacturing recommendations and time and usage-based metrics to create schedules. Ultimately, your equipment will operate at higher performance levels for longer when they are better maintained on a regular basis. 

Training

Keeping your staff well-trained in the latest technologies and asset management tools will help ensure that your new strategy is successful over the long run. Training should cover topics like system operations, CBM, predictive maintenance, safety, risk management, and the importance of proactive maintenance and proper documentation. Hands-on training offered by your software provider ensures that your employees can easily navigate your asset management solution and start improving daily operations from Day One. 

KPIs & Improvement

Determine which key performance indicators (KPIs) you need to monitor and track to determine effectiveness and identify improvement areas. You can track KPIs such as downtime, maintenance costs, asset utilization, and the mean time between failures (MTBF). Use the insights from this process to fine-tune your approach for measurable improvements and a better ROI on your investments and efforts. 

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Using Tracking-Based Asset Management in Manufacturing

Tracking-based asset management is a foundational part of asset management in the modern manufacturing industry. This technology enables company stakeholders and decision-makers to ensure they’re operating efficiently, have accurate data, and a high-level overview of daily operations. By tagging and tracking assets such as parts, components, consumables, equipment, vehicles, and even entire facilities, organizations can dramatically improve their ability to manage resources. 

This process employs several different tagging methods, such as barcodes, QR codes, and RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) tags. RFID is increasingly used because it can store more data than traditional barcodes while enabling wireless scanning – without requiring a direct line of sight. Combining tagging with advanced Bluetooth scanners that have location capabilities makes tracking assets faster and more precise. 

Automated Tracking with RFID

One of the most important advantages of tracking-based asset management centers on automation capabilities. WiFi hubs and Bluetooth beacons can work with RFID tags and scanners to create an interconnected network of tracked assets. This enables organizations to obtain instant, real-time data, reduce human error, and ensure accurate asset inventory and records. Instead of guessing or relying on paper-based processes, organizations can locate a missing asset or equipment within seconds.

At a more basic level, companies can implement a tracking system by combining simple barcodes or QR codes with smartphone technology. Employees can use their smartphones to scan tagged assets, instantly updating their status in your CMMS or central management system. However, upgrading to RFID tags, GPS-enabled technology, and IoT sensors offers organizations a more comprehensive and advanced process. 

Integration with Other Systems

Tracking-based asset management solutions can integrate with other operational systems. However, it’s essential to determine your existing capabilities upfront before investing in an array of technologies. In general, it’s possible to integrate asset management solutions with software systems like Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) or Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES). Integration helps ensure that the data you collect from tracking feeds directly into a centralized database, which can be accessed by multiple teams and incorporated into different automated workflows. 

Efficiency and ROI

Asset tracking and support technologies in the manufacturing industry can become powerful tools for improving operational efficiency and reducing costs. Automating the asset tracking process eliminates rote, labor-intensive processes while reducing human error. Over time, decision-makers can use insights from tracking to improve budgetary decisions, optimize facility layouts, and make replacement vs. maintenance decisions. 

Asset Management Applications

Asset management has several applications in the manufacturing industry, many of which we’ve mentioned previously, from cost and quality control to facility and maintenance management, and even production lines. These applications include:

Manufacturing Asset Management Applications
Cost and Quality Control	Enhances equipment performance to improve product quality.Minimizes downtime, reducing operational and maintenance costs.Supports predictive maintenance to avoid costly failures.
Facility and Maintenance Management	Maintains infrastructure and assets like HVAC systems and electrical grids.Ensures timely maintenance to prevent unexpected shutdowns.Improves workplace safety and extends the lifespan of critical assets.
Inventory Management	Tracks raw materials, components, and finished goods in real time.Prevents overstocking or shortages by maintaining optimal inventory levels.Streamlines production schedules by synchronizing with material availability.
Production Lines	Monitors machines and tools to ensure reliable daily operations.Detects anomalies like vibration or temperature changes with IoT sensors.Minimizes downtime by addressing issues proactively.
Cross-Operational Integration	Connects data from facilities, inventory, and production lines into one system.Improves decision-making with a centralized asset management platform.Enhances resource allocation and communication across departments.

Partner With LLumin

LLumin provides cutting-edge solutions for manufacturing asset management. Our CMMS+ platform empowers manufacturers and their teams to streamline facility and maintenance management efforts, track assets across multiple locations, and automate and optimize workflows from creation to completion. 

Whether you’re struggling to manage multiple large facilities or smaller locations, we can provide the tools and support you need. Forget about inefficient and error-prone, paper-based processes and step forward into advanced solutions and technologies that can help you succeed, stay competitive, and improve ROI.