Key Terms, Used in This Lesson:
- SAP Asset Performance Management: A strategic approach to optimizing the performance, reliability, and availability of physical assets throughout their life cycle. It involves using data and advanced analytics to monitor assets and make proactive and predictive maintenance decisions.
- Computerized Maintenance Management System: A system used traditionally for managing maintenance activities and costs associated with physical assets. It represents the older approach that APM has evolved from.
- Plant Maintenance (PM) / Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) in SAP: SAP's version of a CMMS, focusing on the maintenance of physical assets within an organization.
- Cloud Computing: The delivery of computing services over the internet ("the cloud"), including servers, storage, databases, networking, software, analytics, and intelligence to offer faster innovation, flexible resources, and economies of scale.
- Predictive Maintenance: A maintenance strategy that involves analyzing data to predict and prevent equipment failures before they happen, as opposed to routine or time-based maintenance.
- Operational Efficiency: The ability to deliver products or services in the most cost-effective manner possible while ensuring the desired quality and performance.
- Digital Transformation: The process of using digital technologies to create new - or modify existing - business processes, culture, and customer experiences to meet changing business and market requirements.
- Industry 4.0: A name given to the current trend of automation and data exchange in manufacturing technologies, including cyber-physical systems, IoT, cloud computing, and cognitive computing.
Lesson Overview: Understanding Asset Performance Management
Long time SAP customers in asset intensive industries are likely very familiar with the concept of a computerized maintenance management system, or CMMS. In SAP, this is called Plant Maintenance or Enterprise Asset Management. In the past, CMMS focused on managing the maintenance activities and costs associated with physical assets, such as machines, equipment, vehicles, or facilities. However, with the advent of new technologies, such as sensors, Internet of Things (IoT), cloud computing, and artificial intelligence (AI), asset management has evolved to a more holistic and strategic approach, known as asset performance management (APM).
Asset Performance Management is the process of optimizing the performance, reliability, and availability of physical assets throughout their life cycle. APM not only helps to reduce maintenance costs and downtime, but also to improve asset utilization, quality, safety, and environmental impact. APM leverages data from various sources, such as sensors, historical records, weather forecasts, or business systems, to monitor the condition and performance of assets in real time, and to apply advanced analytics and AI to generate insights and recommendations for proactive and predictive actions.
By adopting APM practices, asset intensive organizations can benefit from:
- Increased asset availability and uptime, by avoiding unplanned failures and minimizing maintenance interruptions.
- Reduced maintenance costs and risks, by optimizing maintenance schedules and strategies based on actual asset condition and performance, rather than predefined intervals or rules.
- Improved operational efficiency and productivity, by maximizing asset output and quality, and reducing waste and rework.
- Enhanced safety and compliance, by preventing accidents and incidents caused by asset failures, and ensuring adherence to regulatory standards and best practices.
- Extended asset lifespan and value, by preserving the optimal condition and functionality of assets, and postponing or avoiding asset replacement or retirement.
APM is a key enabler for digital transformation and Industry 4.0, as it allows asset intensive organizations to leverage the power of data and AI to optimize their asset operations and achieve better business outcomes. APM is not a one-time project, but a continuous journey that requires a clear vision, a robust platform, and a collaborative culture.
In the next lessons, you will learn about how SAP Asset Performance Management can help customers along their APM journey.