What Is Asset Maintenance and Its Importance for Your Business

Asset maintenance helps your company thrive in a competitive market. Read this guide to learn about asset maintenance and the reasons behind its effectiveness. 

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Ideas are the bedrock of any business, but assets make it possible to turn them into reality. Your company's life is directly dependent on assets such as machinery, equipment, and the like. Unfortunately, assets can malfunction or completely break down if you don't look after them. 

You can avoid that unfortunate situation by regularly maintaining your equipment. Many businesses perform reactive maintenance, meaning they maintain their equipment only after it malfunctions. However, proactive maintenance is the right approach, which means tracking your equipment and maintaining it before it breaks down. 

Let's understand the concept of asset maintenance and why it is crucial for your business. 

What is Asset Care and Maintenance? 

Many people confuse asset maintenance with repair, but there is a significant difference between them. One can say reactive maintenance is a part of maintenance, but truth be told, it's just repairing equipment that has malfunctioned. 

The concept of maintenance is all about preventing the need of repair. It means having an elaborate plan to ensure that everything runs optimally. For instance, the computers in your office have both hardware and software that need maintenance. If you don't clean your computer regularly or don't update antivirus programs, you'll soon have to deal with malfunctioning equipment. 

Figure Showing Percentage of Unplanned Downtime 

Poor asset maintenance management results in productivity losses for companies, which affect their finances. Evidence suggests that every $1 not spent on required maintenance results in spending $4 on capital renewal. That's quadruple the amount, meaning a significant burden on a company's finances. 

While traditional methods of maintenance were quite popular, the scales have tipped in favor of asset maintenance software in recent years. These dedicated programs keep all the previous records of each item and help you craft maintenance schedules for them. Whenever maintenance is required for an item, the program notifies you, helping you keep your equipment in pristine condition. 

Importance of Asset Maintenance for Your Business 

The following are some of the major reasons asset maintenance is a critical part of your business strategy. 

1. Extends Equipment Lifespan 

In a competitive business environment, your goal should be to spend each penny wisely. One aspect of this is making the most of your equipment through preventive maintenance. Regular maintenance can not only keep your equipment in pristine condition but also help extend its lifespan.

For instance, the printer in your office is something that you use regularly. Intense usage can lead to a lot of wear and tear over the months. A malfunctioning printer results in poor print quality, slow printing speeds, strange noises, and more. Ultimately, it leads to the machine breaking down completely, sometimes beyond repair.

However, you can avoid this problem by using asset maintenance software. These programs usually have a built-in notification system that tells you when to maintain equipment to keep it running smoothly. 

2. Minimizes Disruptions Through a Detailed Log 

No matter which industry you are in, operational downtime can seriously hurt productivity and workflow. Unplanned breakdowns of office equipment can prevent your staff from completing their essential tasks and meeting deadlines. With effective asset management software that keeps you updated about maintenance, you can minimize disruptions to your workflow.

Since it has a detailed record of how and when you have used specific equipment, it can predict a maintenance timeline. Following that timeline ensures that your equipment doesn't suddenly break down when you need it most. 

You can clear a lot of maintenance logs by using a CMMS, which can otherwise seriously hamper your operational capabilities. To understand how quickly maintenance logs can add up, consider the fact that national parks in the US have a maintenance backlog amounting to $12 billion. 

3. Regular Condition Tracking 

A comprehensive asset maintenance management system also ensures that you regularly track your assets and understand their condition. It is a proactive approach in which you monitor some key performance indicators that tell you how well your assets are performing. For instance, if a printer now prints 15 pages in a minute, which previously printed 30, it means something might be wrong. 

Understanding early warning signs can be crucial in tackling issues that could later become costly breakdowns. A CMMS can be of significant help in this regard, as it shows you the current condition of your equipment, the time for which your staff has used it, and more. As a result, you know the state of your assets at any point in time, removing the need for guesswork. 

4. Enhances Efficiency 

Asset maintenance enhances your organization’s efficiency. Regular maintenance ensures your assets operate at their peak capacity and offer the best possible performance. The minimum Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) should be 77%, but the most successful firms have it between 85-99%. Keeping a strict maintenance schedule can help you hit peak OEE levels and increase the productivity of your workflows. 

Modern CMMS software features live statistics and updates, so you're always informed about your assets on a dashboard. It also shows the overall depreciation your equipment has endured from its original cost and the future depreciation trajectory. 

Conclusion 

Asset maintenance is a critical component of any successful organization. It allows you to get the best possible value for your money and ensures optimal productivity and efficiency levels. Thankfully, asset maintenance has been transformed due to capable software programs like the Asset Management System by Itefy. 

Our system has a detailed Maintenance Log that shows all of your maintenance costs, license renewals, and much more. You can create new maintenance schedules or events with specific timings, maintenance types, and the like. It tracks who is performing the maintenance, the locations where it is being performed, and the costs associated with it.

Moreover, our system tracks the condition of your equipment in real time and regularly updates you about it. It ensures that there are no unpleasant surprises that halt your crucial operations.  Try our capable system today, which is ready to change the way you perform asset and maintenance management. You can use it on any device, and anywhere you prefer. 

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