Working in numerous industries throughout my career, I have witnessed the entire spectrum of business visibility. From organisations with complete business insight and transparency to those that literally run with what equates to a shoebox full of receipts and a storeroom door that you dare not open in fear of what you may or may not find.
All businesses purchase assets with a view to directly or indirectly generate revenue. It, therefore, makes sense to protect and monitor your asset revenue stream as aggressively as possible. It is all too often the case that small to medium business owners have little to no available resources to undertake this fundamental initiative. Consequently, this void presents a missed opportunity to unlock potential productivity increases and downtime decreases.
Review the following issues, does your business fit any of the criteria? It may be a current problem or one you may be facing in the near future.
- Over maintenance of assets
- Under maintenance of assets
- Surplus of consumables/spare parts
- Consumable/spare part deficit
- Location of assets unknown
- Unknown usage of an asset
- Dust collectors
- Unrealistic/Inaccurate balance sheet/asset register
- Uncertain life expectancy status
- Ghost Assets (Stolen, lost or inaccurately reported assets)
- Theft
- Ineffective maintenance timing
- Lack of insight into an asset's cost to business
- Overcapitalisation on assets that could be replaced
- Ineffective use of asset
When the health, overhead, and life of an asset are accurately reported, costs are reduced. Easily accessible key statistics of breakdowns, maintenance, usage, and operational costs are essential when making business decisions. It is a means of maximising profitability and return on investment.
It is not a new concept to maintain an accurate asset register or review the trends and patterns of your business. What is new is businesses gaining insight from technology and utilising this vision to combat local and offshore competitors through continuous improvement.
The Internet of Things (IoT) has highlighted the importance of data mining through asset management. Irrespective of size, your business will benefit from utilisation of these key insights:
- Asset optimisation
- Asset and cost tracking
- Predictive maintenance
- Asset security
Ti4 is currently brainstorming features and industry needs for an asset management solution tailored to the manufacturing industry. We want your feedback! What do you want to see? What would be game-changing for you?
Contact Ti4 with your thoughts, we would love to hear from you!