In this whitepaper, we will discuss how project-based software solutions are essential
for asset-intensive industries, and explore the specific ways that project, maintenance
and financial functionality must be integrated in an enterprise software tool in
order to control the many variables executives at these industries need to manage.
You want to be able to manage the future—not only the past. We will address how
this information can be leveraged in the company on a macro level for strategic
decision-making in the board room as well as on a micro level to facilitate technical
activities in the maintenance department.
The enlightened manager of an asset-intensive industry knows that his or her
role, at its core, consists of maximizing the amount of value gleaned from a capital
asset. Whether that asset is a nuclear power plant, hydroelectric dam, distributed
network, pulp and paper plant, chemical process manufacturing plant, coal-fired
power plant or some other type of heavy industrial complex, it is the responsibility
of management to ensure that between plant start-up and retirement that maximum
value is realized and that cost is minimized.
So on a macro level, management of this capital asset can be seen as one large
project, and the technology used to operate and administer such an industry must
allow for full asset lifecycle management (ALM). However, during that lifecycle,
there are numerous other projects that feed into this master schema. From a complex
task like a seasonal shut down for maintenance and refit to a small task like the
rebuild of a single pump, everything that happens to this asset must be managed
and accounted for in an enterprise asset management (EAM) tool, and that EAM
tool must tie into the general ledger of the enterprise and with the overarching
ALM technology used to administer the asset.