Stuart Booth, Asset Strategy Manager, and Jessica Rauf-Thomas, Head of Operational Asset Management at EMCOR UK explain the drivers that led to development of the company’s own asset management tool.
For decades now, companies have used CAFM systems to manage maintenance activities and collect information to support facilities services functions. These off the shelf systems vary significantly in complexity, functionality and cost.
EMCOR UK increasingly found that none of the available products completely met its clients’ requirements, especially where ease of application and modification of maintenance standards, asset performance and capital expenditure forecasting were concerned. This led the company to develop an asset management tool (AMT) that would integrate and complement CAFM systems at an enterprise level to address these issues.
Any modern asset data management or CAFM system must be able to collect data and manipulate it to create performance reports and predictions that support sustainability goals and net zero aspirations. A key issue with some CAFM systems is that it can be challenging to embed updates on standards – SFG20, HTM and other best practice maintenance approaches – which can be resource heavy and costly. If standards are not updated regularly, there is risk of non-compliance or commercial exposure.
It was important to develop an enterprise tool that systematically updated standards regularly and enabled new standards to be compared to earlier versions. A system was developed where it was possible to understand how maintenance was being delivered against an asset portfolio; to assess how new standards would affect this process and what changes would need to be made which would help to highlight the potential impact on resource, cost and adherence to statutory requirements.
Another crucial driver of the development of the AMT was the need to reliably analyse the lifecycle costs of all physical assets so that these could be more accurately predicted for CAPEX planning and data led decision making. The AMT enabled the assessment of not just the lifecycle costs of high value assets but took a systemised approach to calculate the costs of all assets.
Probably the most critical aspect of the AMT is that it is enterprise enabled and interfaces with other systems. For example, through communication with CAFM and the company’s maintenance management app (EMMA), the AMT can collect asset and work order performance data which can help to forecast reactive maintenance interventions where necessary. Effective integration between systems empowers the company to deliver asset maintenance and management through data insights, assurance and risk management; it helps to create an enterprise asset management culture and to deliver added value to service delivery through maximising the value of customers’ assets.
The communication between systems enables an effective asset management work cycle for planned and reactive maintenance works. The AMT generates the planned works schedule which is shared with CAFM – where the reactive works are raised – and then all activity is communicated to the engineers via EMMA, the company’s work order scheduling and mobile work order management system. The works are completed and the relevant information is inputted into EMMA which is fed back into CAFM and the AMT. This sharing of information saves time and resource and ensures adherence to up-to-date standards.
An AMT also helps to address two other industry issues – management of asset related data for asset registers and the need for effective asset classification. The AMT helps to drive the data quality of the asset register as it has the data insight capability to create metrices on the quality of the asset register data and then takes actionable decisions to make improvements. The AMT also led to the creation of an asset classification system, based on the RICS New Rules of Measure, which enables the company to identify asset attribute requirements and compliance by asset class. This leads to more tailored asset management as the AMT systematically knows what assets are being managed and applies an asset classification code to all physically managed assets.
The adoption of a range of sophisticated and connected asset management tools is key for effective asset management and ultimately enables more informed decisions to be made about asset portfolios.