Cover your assets: Taking full advantage of Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management Asset Management module

If you’re in the supply chain management space, chances are not a day goes by your mind isn’t on your assets, from fixed assets like buildings and machinery, to moving assets, such as shipping vehicles and containers.

Why? Because these assets are, in many ways, a big part of the circulatory system of your enterprise. Any blockage, stoppage, or failure of any asset like these in the supply chain slows productivity and can even shut it down entirely.

Yes, it’s the beating heart of a supply chain manager’s job to know what’s going on with each and every asset, no matter where it may be. But for a business with more than a couple of trucks and warehouses — let alone a global enterprise with hundreds or thousands of each — it’s overwhelming, every day.

Fortunately, “there’s an app for that.” Rather, a module from Microsoft that extends Dynamics 365 Finance & Supply Chain Management, Asset Management.
Want to know how to get started quickly using Asset Management? Watch Arbela’s webinar.

Using Asset Management to move from “break/fix” to “cognitive” maintenance

Wouldn’t it be great if we could move from reactive maintenance of assets to proactive maintenance? You can, and rather easily: simply keep all assets on a maintenance schedule and don’t miss a date. Frankly, you don’t need the Asset Management module’s robust functionality to enjoy the benefits of proactive maintenance: you can probably handle it with reminders in Outlook.

The strength in the Asset Management module is an “exponential leapfrog” over proactive maintenance. Here, we can skip over (or power through) predictive and prescriptive maintenance (which use IoT features such as reporting on “remaining useful life” for various assets) and get straight into cognitive maintenance.

In cognitive maintenance (enabled by the Asset Management module), actions may be taken autonomously to ensure maximum use and health of any given asset. This doesn’t necessarily mean an asset can repair itself (we’re not quite at that stage of robotics yet), but it does mean that an asset can, in essence, set its own maintenance schedule.

And when you’re dealing with a field service operation that has countless assets distributed in distant locales, this feature is not just a time-saver, it can be a literal lifesaver. (Imagine a fuel line in the wilderness that detects a hairline crack and sets up a maintenance call for itself…)

If you’re a D365 user looking to optimize your supply chain through further automation, it’s time to take a deep dive into the myriad features and functions built-in to the Asset Manager module. And Arbela can help. Watch our Asset Manager webinar.