What is Asset Performance Management and Why It Matters

Asset performance management (APM) has become an indispensable approach for asset-intensive organizations across industries looking to optimize the performance of their physical assets. With the right APM strategy and tools in place, companies can reduce costs, minimize unplanned downtime, extend asset lifespan, and boost productivity.

But what exactly is asset performance management? At its core, APM is a holistic approach to managing and optimizing assets that play a critical role in daily business operations. This includes physical assets like machinery, equipment, facilities, fleet, and other infrastructure. APM entails monitoring these assets continually to identify issues early, predict failures before they occur, and schedule maintenance to avoid downtime.

The goal is to ensure assets deliver optimal performance and maximize their useful life cost-effectively. With APM, asset-centric organizations move from reactive maintenance to more proactive, predictive strategies.

Key Components of Asset Performance Management

An effective APM framework includes a combination of these key components

• Asset management software – This includes solutions like enterprise asset management (EAM), computerized maintenance management software (CMMS), asset condition monitoring, and more These tools provide a centralized way to track assets, monitor performance, automate maintenance scheduling, and analyze data

• Preventive maintenance – Regular maintenance activities aimed at preventing failures and extending asset life This involves maintenance schedules and routines based on equipment usage and best practices

• Predictive maintenance – Uses real-time asset condition data and analytics to forecastmaintenance needs. This helps minimize disruptions and lets organizations fix issues before failure.

• Reliability engineering – Focuses on asset design, processes, and procedures to increase reliability and availability. Reliability engineering enhances preventive and predictive programs.

• Asset performance data – Requires real-time data collection via sensors and internet of things connectivity to enable condition monitoring and diagnostics. Data fuels predictive capabilities.

• Mobile access – Allows maintenance teams access asset data and manage work orders from the field using mobile devices instead of paper. This improves efficiency.

• Reporting and analytics – Tools to derive insights from asset data to inform optimal maintenance strategies. Analytics enhances maintenance and planning decisions.

The Benefits of Asset Performance Management

There are many reasons organizations invest in APM. The most significant benefits include:

• Reduced downtime – With APM, unplanned downtime is minimized through scheduled repairs before failure. This prevents costly production interruptions.

• Lower maintenance costs – Preventive and predictive approaches enabled by APM ensure only maintenance that’s truly needed is performed. This eliminates unnecessary costs.

• Improved asset availability – More uptime means better asset availability and capacity to meet demand. APM boosts the productivity of assets.

• Extended asset life – Proper maintenance facilitated by APM allows assets to remain in service longer, extending useful life at optimal levels. This saves on capital costs.

• Enhanced agility – With full asset visibility and advanced analytics, APM enables more agile maintenance planning with less downtime risk.

• Risk mitigation – The data-driven insights of APM programs allow better asset performance risk identification and mitigation.

• Operational excellence – Overall equipment effectiveness and efficiency is improved with APM through greater asset visibility.

• Sustainability – Optimized asset usage lowers waste. APM helps assets operate more efficiently and supports sustainability goals.

Building an Effective APM Strategy

Developing an effective asset performance management strategy involves focus in these key areas:

Identify critical assets – Prioritize APM efforts first on the assets most critical for daily operations. This allows more focus on assets delivering real business impact.

Select APM software – A modern EAM or CMMS solution provides core functionalities like maintenance scheduling, inventory management, work order tracking, asset monitoring, analytics, and mobile capabilities.

Enable connectivity – Connect critical assets to the internet of things to allow remote monitoring and data collection needed for predictive maintenance. Use sensors and modern communication protocols.

Perform preventive maintenance – Establish maintenance routines, schedules, and procedures to keep assets in better condition based on usage and recommended practices.

Implement predictive maintenance – Apply analytics and machine learning to asset performance data to identify issues early and predict failures. This minimizes unplanned downtime.

Leverage mobility – Provide maintenance teams with mobile apps linked to the APM platform so they can access data and manage work orders from anywhere.

Drive continuous improvement – Apply asset analytics and metrics not just to optimize maintenance but also to find ways to enhance reliability. Continually refine APM program.

Ensure support – Get executive and stakeholder buy-in to ensure adequate budget and resources to sustain APM efforts. Also provide proper training.

Measuring APM Program Effectiveness

It’s essential to define and track the right key performance indicators (KPIs) to gauge the effectiveness of your asset performance management strategies. Common APM metrics include:

• Mean time between failures (MTBF) – Indicates how often assets fail requiring repairs. Higher MTBF signifies greater reliability.

• Overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) – Measures availability, performance, and quality of assets. Higher OEE means better productivity.

• Percentage of completed work orders – Tracks maintenance workload completed on time. Higher percentages indicate APM program efficiency.

• Emergency maintenance frequency – How often unplanned failures occur. Effective APM reduces unexpected breakdowns requiring emergency repairs.

• Asset lifespan – Evaluates how long assets remain in service at optimal levels due to APM programs keeping them in better health.

• Total maintenance costs – APM aims to decrease overall costs of maintaining assets by eliminating unnecessary repairs and downtime.

Why APM Matters Now More Than Ever

Many factors are making APM an essential component of asset management today:

• Older assets – Much critical infrastructure and equipment in industry is aging and more prone to failure without proactive maintenance.

• More data – Sensors and connectivity provides more asset performance data to enable better predictive maintenance.

• Increasing demands – Assets supporting key operations face greater utilization and workload. APM sustains reliable assets.

• New technologies – Emerging tech like AI, machine learning, digital twins, and blockchain support more advanced APM.

• Complex assets – Equipment across industries has become more complex, making APM programs vital to sustainability.

• Evolving workforce – APM provides institutional knowledge with fewer experienced staff doing hands-on maintenance.

• Climate change – More extreme weather necessitates resilience plans that APM programs directly support.

• Competitive pressures – APM provides optimization needed for lean operations required in the face of market competition.

Final Thoughts

In today’s landscape, organizations cannot afford unreliable assets or unexpected downtime disrupting key operations. APM provides the strategies and tools to keep your most critical assets- those that deliver core value- performing optimally throughout their lifespan.

With software solutions that connect, monitor, maintain, and optimize assets, APM drives data-driven decisions on when and how to maintain. This minimizes costs and risks while maximizing productivity. APM enhances ROI of assets and enables companies to delay investing capital in new ones.

Overall, a robust APM program is fundamental for asset-intensive organizations to future-proof reliability, drive efficiency, and maintain a competitive edge.