How Does IoT Enable Critical Asset Management?

Every manufacturing facility wants to ensure effective asset management. Unfortunately, some industries face challenges in managing critical assets.

The poor asset performance, inefficient building systems, and unexpected breakdown of critical assets create operational discrepancies that often lead to high maintenance costs and low production output. To prevent these anomalies, ensuring critical asset management is crucial. It enables building owners to cut costs, save money, improve productivity, and elevate the facility’s overall performance.

What is asset management?

The tracking and maintaining of an organization’s physical assets and equipment are known as asset management. HVACs, industrial machinery, energy incomers, critical equipment, UPS, battery backups, DGs, Solar systems etc., are examples of assets. Organizations can use an asset management system to track and monitor them across various locations.

Asset management takes the responsibility for optimizing the whole lifecycle of the equipment. As a result, facility managers not only ensure the best working conditions of the complex assets but also reduce operational costs, increase asset productivity, and prolong lifespan. What is the result? Industries can improve the bottom line of their business and ensure remote asset management.

Challenges faced by building owners while ensuring critical asset management

Managing critical assets of the building also comes with a set of challenges. The problem lies in limited data collection and poor data quality. Apart from it, there are other challenges as well. Let’s get the insights:

1. Relying on manual operations

Manual operations across floors, server rooms, and UPS rooms create challenges for facility managers to get updated data from time to time. Also, manual work is prone to errors, the major reason why asset management fails.

2. Outdated documentation techniques

Manually noting down the temperature and humidity readings in an excel file demands extra time, effort, and work. At the same time, facility managers cannot ensure accurate results in this practice. It hampers the asset management of a building up to an extent.

3. Inefficient HVAC monitoring and controls

HVAC systems are accountable for at least 40% of the entire building energy consumption. Most facility managers face challenges in monitoring and controlling these complex systems.

4. Poor power factor

Assets also consume a significant power consumption. If not controlled properly, it can affect the operational efficiency of crucial assets. Poor power factor leads to inefficient energy consumption and penalties in the energy bill that hampers the overall asset management.

5. Unnecessary equipment operation

A huge amount of energy gets wasted when assets are operated when they are not even required. In the end, it’s the building owner who has to pay the high electricity bill of an unusual asset operation.

6.Poor asset maintenance

Prolonged use of assets without ensuring predictive maintenance can lead to operational discrepancies and high energy consumption.

IoT – the ultimate solution to ensure critical asset management

The internet of things (IoT) is one massive and advanced technology that gives every device the power to interact and function wirelessly with internet technology. From batch processing, industrial management, supply chain management, home appliances management, to even remote asset management, IoT empowers and drives every sector!

In commercial buildings, IoT comes to great use. In fact, it provides crucial data related to asset performance, energy utilization, fault detection, preventive maintenance, etc. As a result, it helps facility managers to make informed decision making and ensure centralized asset management through:

1. Building management system (BMS)
2. Effective HVAC monitoring & controls
3. 24*7 monitoring of building asset health
4. Centralized visibility into energy monitoring
5. Better occupant comfort
6. Monitoring of DG, UPS, LT Incomers, Solar

How will IoT enhance critical asset management of a facility?

The powerful IoT technology has the capacity to gather a range of data with the installation of an array of sensors in the building assets. Facility managers can get insights into the condition, age, vibration, flow rates, pressure, temperature, and other performance data of crucial assets. All of this becomes possible with IoT!

With IoT-enabled critical asset management, facility managers can ensure:

1. Electrical & Compliances Monitoring

Asset tracking is crucial to increasing the productivity and operational performance of critical equipment. IoT helps in gathering real-time data of assets, thereby assuring the security and safety of every equipment. From a single dashboard, facility managers can quickly monitor, analyze, and make decisions to ensure better asset performance. Also, it helps to monitor:

• Energy consumption
• Power factor
• Current & Voltage imbalances
• Solar & DG monitoring
• Temperature, RH, AQI levels

2. Asset Monitoring & Automation

It’s almost next to impossible to identify the discrepancies if assets are not continuously monitored and tracked. With IoT, they can get real-time information on the condition, inventory level, and performance of assets. At the same time, they can also ensure:

• Time-based automation/ scheduling of assets
• Action-based controlling of multiple assets

3. Improved Occupant Comfort

IoT allows for optimal asset management that helps facilities to improve the building occupant comfort. In the end, managers can ensure:

• Improvement in guest comfort
• Better temperature & humidity compliances

4. Predictive Maintenance

Instead of relying on reactive maintenance, facility managers can ensure predictive asset maintenance. IoT allows for predicting the exact time of asset maintenance. It ultimately helps facilities to save on the unplanned equipment downtime and make the most of the operational process. With this powerful technology, facilities can:

• Identify anomalies using AI/ML on the collected data
• Create& close tickets for the identified anomalies

Ensure optimal asset management with Zenatix’s powerful IoT solutions!

It’s time that industries should realize the benefits of IoT applications in ensuring optimal asset performance. Zenatix advanced IoT solutions bring visibility into building assets at a holistic level. Connect with us to transform your building into a smart one!