Efficient asset management is crucial for facility managers. The ability to detect, diagnose, and prevent potential issues in assets is vital to ensure optimal performance, minimize downtime, and reduce overall costs. Using the most recent advances in drone, automation and AI technology, these abilities have been simplified, making the whole process more efficient and much less costly for everyone involved.
Pillar One: Detection - Harnessing the Power of Drones
Drones have revolutionized the way facility managers conduct asset condition inspections. They provide a bird's-eye view of assets, enabling swift and accurate detection of potential problems.
- Aerial Inspections: Drones equipped with high-resolution cameras capture detailed images and videos of assets, allowing facility managers to examine them closely without physical access. Drones can quickly cover large areas and inaccessible locations, reducing the time and resources required for traditional manual inspections.
- Thermal Imaging: Thermal cameras mounted on drones detect temperature variations, helping identify potential issues like overheating or insulation problems. This technology allows facility managers to detect hidden defects that might go unnoticed in visual inspections, enabling proactive maintenance and preventing catastrophic failures.
- LiDAR: LiDAR, or Light Detection and Ranging, is a remote sensing technology that utilizes lasers to accurately capture 3D measurements. Airborne LiDAR scanning, used by Asseti, involves mounting LiDAR sensors on drones to capture high-res point cloud data of a selected area. This rapidly and accurately collects detailed 3D information, which can be used to conduct an in-depth analysis of the asset.
- Digital Twin Production: Using advanced photogrammetry techniques, highly accurate orthophotos, and 3D models, we create a detailed digital replica of your asset. These can then be used as evidence or baselines for reference, providing a visually rich way to anchor asset data and can be updated as needed over time. It means you can see into every nook and cranny of your asset without leaving the office!
Pillar Two: Diagnosis - AI-Powered Analytics for Asset Management
AI-powered analytics has significantly enhanced asset condition diagnosis, providing facility managers with valuable insights and actionable data.
- Componentization of Asset Features: This is the process of using AI to identify and categorize specific characteristics of assets. Information is extracted such as the type of feature (e.g. roof sheeting), its material (e.g. metal), and size (e.g. 4x3m). By automating this process, AI enables the efficient sorting and categorization of repairs or maintenance tasks based on logical groupings. This facilitates targeted and organized maintenance efforts—ultimately improving overall operational efficiency.
- Defect Detections: AI algorithms process vast amounts of data collected from sensors, drones, and other sources to identify patterns, anomalies, and trends over time. This allows facility managers to detect deviations from normal asset behavior, indicating potential faults or maintenance requirements—before having boots on the ground.
- Predictive Maintenance: Using automation and AI, facility managers can look for lead indicators to predict asset failures by analyzing patterns and historical data. This means it’s possible to plan maintenance activities proactively. Predictive maintenance minimizes downtime, optimizes asset performance, and reduces maintenance costs by preventing critical failures before they happen.
Pillar Three: Prevention - Proactive Strategies for Asset Management
Prevention is key to effective asset management. By implementing proactive strategies, facility managers can mitigate risks and extend the lifespan of assets.
- Protective Condition Monitoring: By scheduling regular asset condition inspections, you have the power to more accurately monitor what's changed and identify potential issues before they escalate. Using Asseti, you can give your on-the-ground trades access to relevant facility dashboards to investigate potential issues, allowing them to visually assess how critical the work is before they physically visit a site. They may be able to give rough cost estimates and pre-plan the amount of manpower and materials they need to resolve the issue before work is scheduled–saving everyone time and money.
- Maintenance Planning and Scheduling: Automation streamlines maintenance planning by optimizing work orders, scheduling tasks, and allocating resources efficiently. Facility managers can prioritize maintenance activities based on asset criticality and condition, reducing the chances of unexpected breakdowns.
- Capital Works Budgeting: Asseti helps you provide evidence and foresight to aid in budgeting for future capital works. Various factors are taken into account in forecasting, including condition and lifespan of existing assets, potential maintenance or replacement needs, and opportunities for capital improvements. Asseti technology simplifies capital works forecasting by allowing you to make increasingly informed decisions around allocating financial resources for capital projects. You can prioritize investments, plan for long-term asset management, and ensure the most beneficial and cost-effective improvements are made to maximize the value of assets.
- Integration with Enterprise Systems: Automation tools can integrate with enterprise asset management (EAM) systems, allowing for the seamless flow of information. This integration enables facility managers to access asset data, track maintenance histories, and generate reports, enhancing decision-making processes. Asseti is designed as an EAM system itself, meaning the process of detection, diagnosis, and prevention is even more streamlined from start to finish.
Embracing technological advancement simplifies asset management
There you have it - just a few ways that drones and AI-powered technology can revolutionize the way you detect, diagnose and prevent issues when managing your assets.
Embracing these advancements in asset management technology is the best way to drive efficiency and growth in your organization, whilst cutting back on time, money and manual efforts. Having automated asset inspections, repair cost estimates and extensive data at your fingertips empowers you with valuable insights and predictive maintenance capabilities.