Unfortunately, asset management is often perceived as a necessary evil, making it difficult to notice that taking care of resources, or even making them more productive, is an excellent way to reduce one’s own costs.
To show the essence of modern asset management, let us analyze one example that may seem trivial. However, please consider the scale effect and the variety of such situations within an enterprise.
One Polish manufacturer of car parts was exposed to significant losses because it used equipment whose consumable parts wore out quickly, resulting in them being sent for regeneration or the purchase of new ones. Of course, the devices themselves were not the problem here, but the way the circulation of parts or the purchase of new ones was supervised. The lack of strict coordination of these activities meant that before the consumable parts returned from repair or regeneration, new ones were purchased in their place, exposing the company to thousands of completely unnecessary purchases.
After implementing an asset management system, it was possible, first of all, to standardize purchasing procedures and draw conclusions regarding where losses were occurring. It turned out that some employees generated much more damage than others. Benefits were therefore achieved in two dimensions. First of all, purchasing decisions were supported by logical facts, which, with predictable service maintenance, ensured the continuity of work, and on the other hand, it was possible to demonstrate which employees were generating a significant amount of damage, which resulted in them being subjected to employee training. As you can see, asset management is not just inventory processes, but a set of certain activities aimed at the optimal use of that asset.
The article comes from the magazine “Logistyka” 6/2004.