In most industries, especially manufacturing, asset management solutions are common. They’re almost mandatory for effectively maintaining different assets. Even so, a comprehensive maintenance approach also requires parts inventory management software that works alongside asset management to ensure operations run smoothly. But the two differ vastly. Here’s how.

How are Assets Different from Parts Inventory?

Assets help businesses run their daily operations and create value, including both physical assets (such as vehicle fleets and raw materials) and non-physical assets (such as intellectual property).

Parts inventory, also called “spare parts inventory,” refers to the stock businesses must maintain to repair their assets promptly. Top enterprises always stock sufficient spare parts to keep their most vital assets running efficiently and ensure a robust bottom line. In most cases, companies store four types of inventory:

  • Raw materials
  • Finished goods
  • Work-in-progress supplies
  • Maintenance, repair, and operations (MRO) parts.

How Parts Inventory Management Differs from Regular Asset Management

Both are equally important because they deal with the assets a business owns. However, asset management concerns only the supplies it needs to operate, while parts inventory management handles items the company needs to successfully maintain its assets.

What Asset Management Software Does

Assets can be anything from commercial trucks to manufacturing plants. Managing them essentially involves monitoring their locations and conditions to ensure the assets continue to support business operations throughout their lifecycle. That is also why most businesses use enterprise asset management (EAM) software to enhance monitoring, transparency, and issue resolution. Here’s how asset management helps:

  • Centralized Asset Data: An impactful asset management platform, such as a CMMS (computerized maintenance management system), tells every worker where an asset is and what its condition is. Hence, all asset information stays in one place and is easily accessible, especially by those who perform asset-related tasks every day.
  • Operational Enhancement: A quality EAM provides stakeholders with a single touchpoint for managing virtually any asset. It allows them to standardize processes across functions organization-wide, bolstering efficiency and enabling higher profits.
  • Proactive Resolution: When accurate and real-time data is available, resolving issues becomes much easier. EAMs use sensors to capture all kinds of data, from a valve’s temperature to pipeline performance over hundreds of miles. With all that data readily accessible, decision-making is smarter, which often serves as the bedrock for implementing preventive maintenance.
  • Real-Time Asset Data: A critical benefit of effective asset management is having real-time information on every asset. That means knowing where it is, when its shipment will arrive, and which assets are already available. These aspects also help maintenance teams avoid duplicate purchases and reduce the frequency of asset audits.

What Parts Inventory Software Does

In the broader picture, inventory management means taking stock of inventory and monitoring how and where businesses use it. That’s why utilization tracking, storage, and procurement are common to this particular workflow. However, the most essential component is “spare parts,” which are the components critical to operational maintenance and continuity.

Inventory management software for spare parts helps businesses know everything about these components: condition, quantity, upcoming purchases, and parts criticality. Here’s how it helps:

  • Keeping Sufficient Stock: Leading platforms provide real-time notifications on stock levels running low. Assigned users or floor managers receive advance alerts and can promptly submit purchase orders to restock and avoid shutdowns. Some inventory management platforms also automate the generation of purchase orders.
  • Better Accuracy and Cost Savings: Reliable software helps maintenance teams know what they have in stock and order only the parts required to meet demand. This level of accuracy also enables greater cost savings by optimizing inventory-related expenses. Typically, these include costs for transportation, storage, handling, insurance, and even losses from natural causes.
  • Better Terms with Suppliers and Vendors: Using this software, maintenance teams also gain detailed insights into which parts are critical to assets and how much they need. This aspect, in turn, allows them to negotiate better terms with vendors and suppliers, further enhancing the bottom line.
  • Seamless Purchase Management: Purchase fragmentation is one of the biggest problems maintenance teams face. A reliable inventory management platform brings all the related workflows together, from managing inventory levels to vendor terms and purchase orders. As such, reordering and restocking of spare parts become effortless, and operations run like a well-oiled machine.

The Bottom Line

While both asset and parts inventory management deal with the equipment a business owns, they are distinctly different. That is why smart enterprises choose to invest in both. Ultimately, the two software systems share some vital goals: maintaining sufficient stock, avoiding human error, reducing asset spoilage or misplacement, and lowering costs.