Enterprise Asset Performance Management (EAM) comprises data capture, integration, visualisation and analysis activities with the aim of improving the reliability and availability of physical assets, minimising risks and operational costs, in order to achieve the maximum economic return from the activity. APM also includes concepts of condition monitoring, predictive maintenance and reliability centred maintenance (RCM).

Gartner defines APM as a set of technological solutions designed to improve the reliability and availability of the physical assets essential to the operation of a company.

The concept of APM is traditionally related to industry and Industry 4.0, but it can easily be extrapolated to service companies as well, especially in sectors where the availability and performance of assets can directly affect the provision of services and the results of the activity, such as the distribution (hypermarkets), catering or energy sectors (such as service stations).

APM Principles

Asset performance management involves the exchange of information and application integration between operations and maintenance to provide a complete picture of production, asset performance and product quality. APM improves the integration between operations and asset management, ensuring production or service delivery capability. APM solutions affect business processes, technology and the organisation of companies.

Asset performance management synchronises production and maintenance with information sharing and application integration between enterprise asset management, operations management systems, asset management, inspections and other solutions to provide a complete picture of production and asset performance. This integration increases visibility, collaboration and communication across functions to improve productivity, reliability, safety, quality and asset performance.

APM means reaching the highest level of maturity in the organisation’s maintenance operations, covering all areas from traditional reactive and preventive maintenance to predictive maintenance and finally managing risk-based maintenance.

 

Optimisation through APM covers different functional areas such as operations, maintenance and quality management. This APM approach becomes a means to systematically improve key metrics such as uptime, mean time to repair (MTTR), asset life, cost, quality/performance and safety. This improvement has a direct impact on the company’s results, from revenue to profits, not to mention customer satisfaction rates.

APM components

APM performance management is primarily driven by powerful analytical tools that are fed with information from integrated business processes. It contextualises data to create actionable information by searching through various sources to find patterns and opportunities for improvement. APM uses data management, pattern recognition, predictive analytics, artificial intelligence and machine learning to make asset-centric organisations more productive, improving asset reliability while reducing operational costs and risks.

However, as with other tools such as strategic asset management (EAM), the strategy is as important or more important in APM than technology. A unified strategy helps people, processes and systems work together to achieve sustained operational excellence. The creation of simplified, automated and structured processes is the foundation of effective asset management and performance management.

Building on this strategy, some key components in APM are

  • Complete view of the state of the assets, combining IT information (information systems) with OT (operational systems, such as sensors).
  • Advanced analytics, including Big Data and digital twin techniques.
  • Legal and compliance risk management, using tools that monitor the main parameters that affect the risk associated with the state of the assets.
  • Use of strategic enterprise asset management (Strategic EAM), such as Retain, which help integrate all procedures and operations related to the company’s assets to create an overall efficiency strategy in operations.

 

If you want to know more about performance management and how Retain can help your company get the most out of your assets, contact us and a specialist will answer all your questions without any obligation