Unlock the hidden potential of asset management
In an increasingly competitive economy, plant managers need to invest in the future by reassessing their plant’s asset management strategy – utilising four tactical points to achieve better return on assets (ROA). These points are: people, process control, plant equipment and predictive/preventive plant maintenance.
People-oriented strategies can involve training and compensation, while process control strategies can be related to manufacturing and quality systems or advanced/expert automation systems. Then there are the other ‘Ps’ – plant equipment and predictive/preventive maintenance. Plant and maintenance managers must define strategies around these in order to maximise ROA.
Improving ROA requires manufacturers to generate more revenues from the same, or smaller, asset base and at a low.
The traditional model of equipment acquisition involves evaluating the capital costs and the depreciation benefits, without fully factoring the effects of operational costs, spares, service support and upgradeability. This practice tends to skew the assessment of operational risks as being something that had to be handled at the plant floor. An enterprise-wide view of operational risks can help develop better tactical plans.
For this reason, the report says: “Maintenance managers must build a case for ‘life cycle cost assessment’ as a criterion for equipment acquisition strategies.” Developing an asset life cycle plan forces an enterprise to create an equipment deployment and migration strategy, considering all the benefits of the current manufacturing equipment, while planning for upgrades to more advanced technologies.
IT tools have permanently changed modern manufacturing strategies, as they give management the ability to look into the supply chain of the organisation and provide availability-to-promise data, optimise labour and control inventory like never before. At plant-floor level, maintenance managers now have machines telling them how much longer they can extend a scheduled run before the equipment needs an overhaul. Seamlessly integrating this condition monitoring equipment into enterprise resource planning (ERP) are computerised maintenance management systems (CMMS).CMMS are specialised systems that understand the language of maintenance managers and the unique needs of maintenance management, such as generating work orders, granting authorisations and permit-to-work clearances and checking inventory. Increasingly, CMMS is offering electronic document management system interfaces and electronic linkages, paving the way for reduced costs of documentation management.
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