FEATURE: ENTERPRISE RESOURCE PLANNING
Mohamed Cassoojee, MD
and Country Manager, IFS
South Africa, says a single,
integrated EAM and ERP
solution can power an
asset-intensive business
into the future.
M
ost Enterprise Resource
Planning (ERP) software
originated in the
manufacturing sector as
Materials Resource Planning (MRP) solutions
for organisations that needed to manage
a lot of inventory. From there, they were
rapidly developed into solutions for every
industry imaginable.
But these roots mean that most standalone
ERP software isn’t quite enough on its own
to address the needs of organisations in
asset-intensive industries such as metal
foundries, mining, oil and gas, pulp and
paper, energy and utilities, and construction
and engineering.
Companies in these sectors are not
managing inventory as much as they are
managing the capacity of a fixed asset
over its lifecycle as well as handling large-
scale infrastructure projects with long
planning cycles. This is where Enterprise
Asset Management (EAM) comes into play,
offering capabilities that are not found in
typical ERP systems.
EAM systems are built to help organisations
manage assets such as plants, heavy
machinery, pipelines and industrial-
class vehicles. These solutions enable
organisations to track the location and
status of assets and asset objects in real
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time, schedule work orders to maintain and
fix the assets, and manage the storage of
spare parts required to service them.
As Africa’s governments, state-owned
enterprises and private sector step up
infrastructure investment, EAM has a vital role
to play in ensuring that organisations drive
the highest possible value from their new
assets, whether these are telecoms networks,
railway systems, ports or power plants.
According to the World Bank, Africa needs
to spend around US$93 billion a year over
the next decade to address its infrastructure
backlogs – about one-third of that cost is for
maintenance. In 2008, World Bank found that
about 30% of the infrastructure assets of a
typical African country needed rehabilitation.
These numbers point to the urgent need
for organisations across the continent to
take a more proactive and preventative
outlook towards maintenance of their key
infrastructure and assets. Implementation
of EAM can enable organisations to better
track, manage and maintain assets to
prolong their lifespan and enhance return
on investment.
From asset planning to construction and
from operation to decommissioning and
replacement, EAM allows organisations
to maintain, manage and optimise assets
over the entire asset lifecycle. By helping
companies to increase asset productivity
and availability – while reducing total cost of
ownership – EAM can have a direct impact
on profitability and financial sustainability.
Good EAM solutions can also be paired
with corporate performance management
and analytics tools to let organisations
analyse operation disruptions and
determine and address the causes, such as
maintenance issues, inadequate training,
or design faults.
Integrated solution
can power businesses
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