EAM Market Overview

EAM packages that are focused on the needs of energy and utilities companies primarily have material and maintenance management functionalities (or at least the vendor packages and sells them in that format) that are scalable to multiple sites and cater to advanced maintenance management functions. (An older, more limited term that is sometimes used is "computerized maintenance management system [CMMS] packages," which include material and maintenance functionalities, but are simpler in scope and are focused on single-site deployments. Those may still be used by large enterprises if a site-by-site or departmental solution is required.)
For energy and utility companies with complex fixed-plant requirements, the functionality provided must be capable of managing hierarchical plant structures; condition and performance monitoring (driven by operational technology [OT] integration); preventive maintenance; outage/shutdown planning for refurbishments; increasingly, a "fleet" capability not just for vehicles but also for fleets of assets, such as an oilfield or a wind farm; and the tracking and managing of all OT devices and systems. This is reflected in the requirements listed here, which will be satisfied by the best software products in this category:

• Detailed asset registry, combined with internal and external parts and support descriptions
• Long-term maintenance, project and work schedules
• Support for complex inventory relationships for indirect maintenance, repair and operations (MRO) that are associated with forecasting planned and unplanned work on installed assets
• Supply chain capability for indirect goods, with demand planning linked to maintenance and repair schedules
• Probability-based, "just in case" MRO-focused inventory and procurement, rather than "just in time" or material-requirements-planning based
• Human capital management capabilities to match skills, training and availability with work requirements
• Statistical analyses of equipment performance and reliability
• Condition-based triggers for asset health and performance (OT integration)
• Serial number tracking and tracing for equipment and parts
• Financial support via detailed cost analysis
• Integration with whatever ERP (financial and HR) package is deployed
• Extensive warranty tracking to component levels and support for manufacturers' records requirements for equipment under warranty
• Shutdown project planning
• "Lock out/tag out" or "permit to work" functions
• Enablement of both connected and disconnected application usage for mobile workers

Source : Gartner