Wednesday, August 18, 2010

EAM Versus CMMS: What's Right for Your Company? Part One

Enterprise asset management (EAM) software and computerized maintenance management systems (CMMS) continue to grab headlines as a realistic way to reduce expenses and increase revenues. For one, maintaining an adequate level of repair and service parts inventory based on forecasted equipment usage can prevent already limited funds from being over-allocated just to achieve a false sense of security. Also, an effective preventive maintenance program can improve equipment utilization and availability, enabling production schedules to be achieved especially when an exorbitantly expensive equipment replacement is a no-option during depressed economic times. Extending into the customer base, this applies as much to standards of service as it does to product quality.

What attracts companies to this class of software is that the savings are tangible and real—you know, the kind that you can take to the bank. Consequently, the advantage that EAM/CMMS has over other types of enterprise applications is that its return on investment (ROI) is often reasonably quickly achieved and easily quantified. Namely, it is a relatively straightforward exercise to demonstrate the bottom line value provided by optimized utilization that results from optimally maintained production equipment and the facility where it is housed.

This article looks at where CMMS ends and EAM takes over, with particular emphasis on features and functionality of EAM software. If you are unsure of the capabilities of CMMS and need a quick refresher course, read the TEC article entitled, CMMS: A Tutorial.

Offerings from software vendors, IFS AB (XSSE: IFS) and Intentia (XSSE: INT B), two fellow Swedish providers of enterprise business applications for midsize and large enterprises, will be used to help illustrate some of the advanced features of EAM.

The remainder of this article compares CMMS and EAM software and explores, in more detail, two key differentiators: integration concerns and reliability-centered maintenance (RCM). The article ends with a background on Intentia and IFS, and with a general discussion about enterprise resource planning (ERP) vendors' foray into the EAM/CMMS arena.

This is Part One of a four-part note.

Part Two will address integration concerns.

Parts Three and Four will present an analysis of two major vendors.

Comparing CMMS and EAM

Many regard EAM as CMMS on steroids, which is an oversimplification and does not paint the true picture. Typically, CMMS deals strictly within the confines of the work order and preventive maintenance activity. Specific functions include





source
http://www.technologyevaluation.com/research/articles/eam-versus-cmms-what-s-right-for-your-company-part-one-17211/

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