The Surprising Ease of IBM Maximo Inventory Management

Are you looking to streamline your organization's operations, optimize stock levels, and gain a competitive edge in managing assets? Then you've likely heard of IBM Maximo. This powerful enterprise asset management (EAM) solution is a game-changer for businesses across various industries. But when it comes to inventory, many assume it's a complex beast to tame. Prepare to be surprised! The truth is, mastering IBM Maximo inventory management can be surprisingly straightforward, especially with the right guidance and a clear path to certification.

Imagine a world where you always have the right parts at the right time, minimizing downtime, reducing carrying costs, and improving overall efficiency. That's the promise of effective inventory control, and IBM Maximo is built to deliver it. This article is your friendly, supportive guide to understanding IBM Maximo's inventory capabilities and, even better, how you can prove your expertise by becoming an IBM Certified Maximo Manage v9.1 Inventory Management - Associate.

Whether you're new to Maximo, aiming to validate your existing skills, or looking to advance your career, this beginner's guide will demystify the core concepts of IBM Maximo inventory management. We'll explore the essential features, walk you through the certification journey for the C1000-208 exam, and show you why this expertise is more accessible and valuable than you might think.

What is IBM Maximo Inventory Management?

At its heart, IBM Maximo Inventory Management is a robust module within the broader IBM Maximo Application Suite, specifically Maximo Manage v9.1, designed to meticulously control and track an organization's physical inventory. This isn't just about counting items; it's about strategic management that directly impacts an organization's operational efficiency, financial health, and ability to keep critical assets running.

Think of it as the central nervous system for all your spare parts, materials, and tools. Maximo helps you manage the entire lifecycle of your inventory, from the moment you decide to purchase an item, through its receipt, storage, issuance, and even its eventual retirement. It provides the tools to establish accurate inventory records, optimize stock levels, reduce waste, and ensure that maintenance and operational teams have what they need, exactly when they need it.

Effective IBM Maximo inventory management ensures that critical spare parts are always available for planned and unplanned maintenance, preventing costly equipment downtime. It also helps in identifying slow-moving or obsolete items, allowing organizations to make informed decisions about procurement and storage. This precision minimizes carrying costs, avoids stockouts, and enhances overall supply chain resilience. For those interested in a deeper dive into Maximo's capabilities, particularly for the IBM Maximo Manage v9.1 inventory module overview, this guide will serve as a comprehensive starting point.

Key Aspects of Maximo Inventory Management

• Centralized Data: All inventory information is stored in one place, providing a single source of truth for items across multiple storerooms and locations.
• Item Master Catalog: Define and standardize every item with detailed specifications, ensuring consistency and accuracy.
• Storeroom Management: Organize and track inventory within various physical storerooms, including bin locations and material attributes.
• Demand Forecasting: Utilize historical data and operational needs to predict future demand and optimize reorder points.
• Purchasing Integration: Seamlessly integrate with procurement processes, from requisitions to purchase orders, ensuring materials are acquired efficiently.
• Issuing and Returns: Manage the issuance of parts to work orders and the return of unused or repaired items to stock.
• Cost Tracking: Monitor inventory costs, including average cost, standard cost, and last receipt cost, for accurate financial reporting.
• Physical Inventory and Cycle Counting: Tools to regularly verify the accuracy of inventory records against physical counts.

By leveraging these capabilities, businesses can transform their inventory from a potential liability into a strategic asset, ensuring operational continuity and maximizing returns on their investments. It's a foundational component for any organization committed to asset performance management.

Why IBM Maximo Inventory Management Expertise Matters for Your Career

In today's fast-paced industrial and operational environments, efficient asset and inventory management is not just a best practice; it's a critical competitive advantage. Organizations that excel in this area minimize operational disruptions, control costs, and improve service delivery. This makes professionals skilled in IBM Maximo inventory management highly sought after and invaluable.

The demand for individuals who can effectively implement, configure, and manage Maximo's inventory functionalities is steadily growing. Companies are looking for experts who can unlock the full potential of their Maximo investment, ensuring that their supply chain is robust, their assets are operational, and their financial resources are optimized. A strong grasp of IBM Maximo inventory management career path prospects can lead to roles such as Maximo Functional Consultant, Inventory Specialist, System Administrator, Business Analyst, and even Project Manager, often commanding competitive salaries.

As businesses increasingly rely on data-driven decisions and sophisticated EAM systems, the ability to navigate and optimize Maximo's inventory module becomes a powerful differentiator on your resume. It signals to employers that you possess the practical skills to contribute directly to their bottom line by reducing waste, improving efficiency, and supporting critical operational continuity. For insights into broader IT careers, you might want to visit the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Outlook Handbook.

Furthermore, formal certification, like the IBM Certified Maximo Manage v9.1 Inventory Management - Associate, provides tangible proof of your expertise. It's not just about knowing the software; it's about understanding the underlying business processes and how Maximo can be leveraged to solve real-world inventory challenges. This credential can open doors to new opportunities, higher earning potential, and a more defined career trajectory within the thriving field of enterprise asset management.

Introducing the IBM Certified Maximo Manage v9.1 Inventory Management - Associate Certification (C1000-208)

So, you understand the power of IBM Maximo inventory management, and you're ready to take the next step in validating your skills. The IBM Certified Maximo Manage v9.1 Inventory Management - Associate certification, identified by the exam code C1000-208, is designed precisely for individuals like you. This credential signifies your foundational knowledge and practical understanding of managing inventory within the IBM Maximo Manage v9.1 environment.

This certification is ideal for anyone who works with or intends to work with Maximo, including Maximo implementers, system administrators, business analysts, functional consultants, and even end-users looking to deepen their expertise. Achieving this certification demonstrates your ability to configure storerooms, create items, manage stock, understand inventory transactions, and perform essential inventory control functions.

The C1000-208 exam, officially known as the IBM Maximo Manage v9.1 Inventory Management - Associate exam, covers key areas critical to effective inventory operations. It ensures that certified professionals can contribute immediately to an organization's Maximo implementation, helping to optimize inventory processes and maximize the value derived from their EAM system.

Beyond career advancement, pursuing this certification enhances your problem-solving skills, broadens your understanding of industry best practices, and connects you to a global community of IBM Maximo professionals. It's a clear statement of your commitment to excellence and continuous learning in the field of asset and inventory management. You can find more details about this certification on its Official Page.

Who Should Consider This Certification?

• Maximo users and administrators who want to validate their inventory management skills.
• Consultants implementing or supporting Maximo inventory solutions.
• Business analysts involved in optimizing supply chain and asset management processes.
• Professionals seeking to advance their career in asset management and operations.
• Anyone looking for an accessible entry point into IBM Maximo certifications.

The IBM Maximo inventory control certification is not just a piece of paper; it's a testament to your capability to navigate and leverage one of the industry's leading EAM platforms for critical inventory functions. For comprehensive information on what to expect during your preparation for this valuable credential, you can explore the full exam syllabus and resources available at Edusum's IBM Maximo Manage Inventory Management Associate Exam Syllabus page.

Diving Deep into the C1000-208 Exam Syllabus: Your Study Roadmap

Understanding the syllabus is your first and most crucial step in preparing for any certification exam, and the IBM Maximo C1000-208 exam syllabus is no exception. It outlines the specific topics and their respective weightings, guiding your study efforts and ensuring you focus on the most important areas. The exam covers seven key domains, each designed to test your practical knowledge and ability to apply Maximo features effectively.

Storeroom Setup and Item Creation (17%)

This section is foundational, focusing on how inventory is organized and defined within Maximo. It's all about establishing the groundwork for effective inventory management. You'll need to understand:

• Storerooms: How to set up and configure various storerooms, defining their characteristics, and linking them to organizations and sites. This includes understanding the multi-storeroom environment and how inventory flows between them.
• Item Master and Item Records: The distinction between an Item Master (the corporate definition of an item) and an Item Record (an item's specific instance within a storeroom). How to create new items in the Item Master application, defining their classifications, purchasing details, and key attributes.
• Units of Measure (UOM): Managing different units of measure for purchasing, storing, and issuing items, and understanding conversion factors.
• Issuing Rules: Defining rules for how items are issued from storerooms, including default bins and issue units.
• Item Kits: Understanding how to create and manage item kits, which are collections of items often issued together for specific tasks.

Mastering this domain means you can effectively structure your inventory locations and accurately define every item that will be managed within Maximo. This knowledge is essential for accurate inventory tracking and reporting.

Stock Management (15%)

Once storerooms and items are defined, the next critical step is managing the stock itself. This section delves into the ongoing activities required to maintain optimal inventory levels. Key topics include:

• Inventory Control Settings: Configuring reorder points, economic order quantity (EOQ), safety stock levels, and other parameters that drive automated inventory replenishment. Understanding how these settings influence purchasing recommendations.
• ABC Analysis: Applying ABC classification to items based on their value or criticality to prioritize inventory management efforts. This helps in focusing resources on high-value (A) items.
• Stock Levels and Balances: Understanding how Maximo tracks current balances, reserved quantities, and available quantities. How transactions impact these balances in real-time.
• Transferring Inventory: Managing the transfer of items between different storerooms and sites within Maximo, including the creation of transfer orders and their impact on inventory balances.
• Consignment and Direct Issue Items: Differentiating between standard inventoried items, consignment items (owned by a vendor until consumed), and direct issue items (purchased for immediate use, not inventoried).

This domain ensures you can keep stock levels balanced, preventing both costly overstocking and disruptive stockouts. It's about proactive inventory control and optimization.

Inventory Valuation and Cost Control (15%)

Understanding the financial implications of inventory is crucial. This section focuses on how Maximo tracks costs and provides tools for financial management related to inventory. You will need to grasp:

• Costing Methods: Understanding different inventory costing methods supported by Maximo, such as average cost, standard cost, and last receipt cost, and how they are applied.
• Cost Adjustments: Performing inventory cost adjustments due to various factors like obsolescence, damage, or revaluation.
• Inventory Reports: Generating and interpreting key inventory valuation reports to assess the financial health of your stock.
• Tracking Inventory Value: How Maximo maintains the total value of inventory within storerooms and for specific items.
• Economic Order Quantity (EOQ): Understanding the calculation and application of EOQ to minimize total inventory costs (ordering and carrying costs).

Proficiency here means you can accurately report on inventory value, make informed purchasing decisions, and contribute to cost savings initiatives within the organization. This aligns directly with the 'cost' aspect of IBM Maximo inventory management associate certification cost which refers to the exam fee itself, but also highlights the cost-saving benefits of the certification.

Inventory Transactions for Items, and Tools (24%)

This is often the largest and most dynamic section, covering the day-to-day operations of moving inventory. It carries the highest weighting, emphasizing its importance in practical Maximo usage. This domain includes:

• Issuing Items and Tools: Processing the issuance of inventoried items and tools to work orders, assets, locations, or GL accounts. Understanding the impact on inventory balances and costs.
• Returning Items and Tools: Managing the return of unused or repaired items/tools to storerooms, ensuring accurate re-stocking and cost adjustments.
• Transferring Inventory: Detailed understanding of creating and processing inventory transfers between storerooms, including shipping and receiving aspects of transfers.
• Adjusting Balances: Performing various types of inventory adjustments, such as positive adjustments (receiving without a PO), negative adjustments (issuing without a work order), and adjustments for discrepancies.
• Reservation and Allocation: How to reserve items for specific work orders or assets, ensuring their availability when needed, and the difference between reservation and allocation.
• Material Requests: Understanding the process of creating and approving material requests from various departments, which then drive item issuance or purchasing.
• Condition-Enabled Inventory: Managing items with different conditions (e.g., new, repaired, used) and how this impacts transactions and value.

Mastering inventory transactions is key to maintaining accurate inventory records, supporting maintenance operations, and ensuring a smooth flow of materials. This is where the rubber meets the road in daily Maximo inventory use.

Inventory Item Supporting Data (7%)

Though smaller in weighting, this section covers crucial underlying data structures that support inventory operations. You'll need to know about:

• Item Categories and Classifications: Organizing items into logical groups using categories and classifications, which helps in reporting and management.
• Vendor Records: Linking items to preferred vendors and understanding how vendor information is used in procurement and inventory.
• Hazard Codes and Safety Data Sheets (SDS): Managing hazardous materials information, including associated codes and links to SDS for safety compliance.
• Bins and Rotating Items: Defining specific bin locations within storerooms for precise tracking and understanding how rotating items (like repairable spares) are managed.
• Storeroom Types: Differentiating between various storeroom types, such as main storerooms, satellite storerooms, or tool cribs.

This supporting data ensures that your inventory system is robust, compliant, and provides rich information for decision-making.

Receiving (10%)

The receiving process is the entry point for most inventoried items into your system. Accuracy here is paramount to prevent downstream issues. Key areas include:

• Receiving Against Purchase Orders (POs): Processing the receipt of items ordered via a purchase order, including partial and complete receipts.
• Receiving Against Transfer Orders: Acknowledging the receipt of items transferred from another storeroom.
• Inspection and Quality Control: Understanding how inspection processes can be integrated into receiving and the impact of quality control on item availability.
• Discrepancies and Returns to Vendor (RTV): Handling discrepancies between ordered and received quantities, and processing returns to vendors for damaged or incorrect items.
• Serialization and Lot Tracking: Managing items that require serialization (unique identifiers) or lot tracking (groups of items from a specific batch).

Effective receiving ensures that new inventory is accurately recorded, available for use, and properly costed, minimizing errors from the outset.

Physical Count Management (12%)

Even with the best system, physical verification of inventory is essential. This section focuses on Maximo's tools for reconciling physical stock with system records. Topics include:

• Physical Inventory Creation: Setting up a physical inventory count, either for an entire storeroom or specific items.
• Entering Count Data: Recording the results of physical counts into Maximo.
• Reconciliation: Analyzing count variances and processing adjustments to reconcile system balances with physical counts.
• Cycle Counting: Understanding and implementing cycle counting methodologies for continuous inventory verification, rather than annual full counts.
• Reporting on Count Variances: Generating reports to identify significant discrepancies and analyze their root causes.

Proficiency in physical count management helps maintain high data accuracy, which is critical for reliable planning and reporting. This also touches on how to find answers to IBM C1000-208 exam questions and answers related to practical scenarios.

Preparing for the C1000-208 Exam: Your Path to Success

Now that you have a clear understanding of the IBM Maximo C1000-208 exam topics, it's time to strategize your preparation. Success on the C1000-208 exam requires a combination of conceptual knowledge and practical application. Here's a detailed guide to help you get ready:

1. Leverage Official IBM Resources

IBM provides excellent resources to aid your study. The most critical is the official course recommended for this certification: Maximo Application Suite - Manage: Inventory Management (MAX4328G). This course is specifically designed to cover the exam objectives and will give you a comprehensive understanding of the material. Additionally, review the official certification page for any updates or additional recommended readings. This is your primary IBM Certified Maximo Manage v9.1 Inventory Management Associate training resource.

2. Build a Solid Study Plan

Create a structured study plan that allocates time to each syllabus domain based on its weighting. Dedicate more time to high-percentage areas like Inventory Transactions, but don't neglect the smaller sections, as every point counts towards the IBM Maximo C1000-208 pass score of 71%.

3. Hands-on Experience is Key

Maximo is a practical system. Theoretical knowledge is important, but nothing beats hands-on experience. If you have access to a Maximo v9.1 instance, spend time in the Inventory applications. Practice creating storerooms, defining items, performing issues, returns, and transfers, and conducting physical counts. Simulate real-world scenarios to solidify your understanding. This practical engagement is crucial for the IBM Maximo Manage v9.1 inventory management study guide approach.

4. Utilize Study Guides and Practice Exams

Look for reputable IBM Maximo Manage v9.1 inventory management study guide materials and IBM Maximo inventory management associate practice exam questions. Practice exams help you get accustomed to the format, timing, and types of questions you'll encounter. They are also excellent for identifying your weak areas so you can focus your further study there. Remember, practice makes perfect!

5. Join Study Groups and Forums

Engage with other Maximo professionals. Online forums, LinkedIn groups, or local user groups can provide valuable insights, answer your questions, and offer different perspectives on challenging topics. Discussing concepts with peers can deepen your understanding and reveal blind spots. You might even find a study partner to prepare with.

6. Review Documentation and Knowledge Base

IBM's official Maximo documentation and knowledge base are treasure troves of information. If you're struggling with a particular feature or concept, chances are it's thoroughly explained in the official guides. Becoming comfortable navigating these resources is a valuable skill in itself.

7. Understand the 'Why' Behind Maximo Features

Don't just memorize steps; understand the business reasons behind each Maximo feature and process. Why are reorder points important? What's the impact of an accurate physical count? Connecting the functionality to its real-world benefits will make the concepts stick better and help you answer scenario-based questions more effectively. This critical thinking is vital for tackling IBM Maximo v9.1 inventory management associate exam prep effectively.

Exam Details and Registration

Before you dive into the exam, it's good to have all the logistical details squared away. Knowing what to expect regarding the exam format and how to register will help alleviate any pre-exam jitters.

IBM Maximo C1000-208 Exam Details:

• Exam Name: IBM Certified Maximo Manage v9.1 Inventory Management - Associate
• Exam Code: C1000-208
• Exam Price: $200 (USD). Note that IBM Maximo inventory management associate certification cost may vary by region due to local taxes or currency conversion.
• Duration: 90 minutes
• Number of Questions: 41 multiple-choice questions
• Passing Score: 71% (meaning you need to answer at least 29 out of 41 questions correctly)

The exam format typically includes a mix of knowledge-based questions and scenario-based questions that test your ability to apply Maximo concepts to practical situations. Time management during the exam is crucial, so practice answering questions efficiently during your study. For additional reading on business leaders and digital transformation, you may find this article interesting: New IBM Study: How Business Leaders Can Transform Operations with AI.

How to Register for the C1000-208 Exam

Registering for your IBM Maximo inventory management exam registration is a straightforward process:

1. Visit Pearson VUE: IBM certification exams are administered through Pearson VUE. Navigate to the IBM section of their website: Pearson VUE IBM.
2. Create an Account (if you don't have one): You'll need a Pearson VUE account to schedule your exam.
3. Find the Exam: Search for the exam by its code (C1000-208) or full name (IBM Maximo Manage v9.1 Inventory Management - Associate).
4. Choose Your Test Center or Online Proctoring: You can select to take the exam at a physical testing center or opt for online proctoring from the comfort of your home or office. Ensure your environment meets the requirements for online proctoring.
5. Schedule and Pay: Select your preferred date and time, then complete the payment process.
6. Confirmation: You will receive a confirmation email with all the details of your scheduled exam.

Make sure to read all instructions carefully, especially if you opt for online proctoring, to ensure a smooth exam experience.

Benefits of IBM Maximo Inventory Management Certification

Earning the IBM Certified Maximo Manage v9.1 Inventory Management - Associate certification offers a multitude of benefits that extend far beyond simply passing an exam. It's an investment in your professional development and a clear signal of your commitment to excellence in a critical field. Let's explore some of the key advantages of this IBM Maximo inventory management certification.

Enhanced Career Opportunities and Advancement

One of the most immediate benefits is the boost to your career. This certification makes you a more attractive candidate for employers seeking skilled Maximo professionals. It can open doors to new roles, promotions, and increased responsibilities within your current organization or with new companies. Employers value certified individuals because it reduces their risk in hiring and ensures a baseline level of competency. This is a direct answer to the question, 'Benefits of IBM Maximo inventory management certification?'

Increased Earning Potential

With validated skills comes the potential for higher salaries and better compensation packages. Certified professionals are often compensated more generously than their uncertified counterparts, reflecting the specialized knowledge and value they bring to an organization.

Validated Expertise and Credibility

The certification officially validates your understanding and practical skills in IBM Maximo inventory management. It's a globally recognized credential from IBM, a leader in enterprise software. This credibility can significantly enhance your professional reputation among peers, employers, and clients.

Improved Job Performance and Efficiency

The preparation process for the C1000-208 exam itself strengthens your understanding of Maximo's inventory capabilities. This deeper knowledge translates into improved job performance, allowing you to use Maximo more effectively, troubleshoot issues, and optimize inventory processes with greater efficiency. You'll be better equipped to support your organization's goals.

Contribution to Organizational Success

As a certified Maximo inventory professional, you can directly contribute to your organization's success by optimizing stock levels, reducing carrying costs, preventing stockouts, and improving the efficiency of maintenance and operational workflows. Your expertise helps minimize downtime and maximize asset utilization, leading to significant cost savings and improved productivity.

Professional Growth and Continuous Learning

Achieving this certification often sparks a desire for continuous learning and professional growth. It can serve as a stepping stone to more advanced Maximo certifications or broader roles within asset management and supply chain optimization. The journey itself fosters a mindset of continuous improvement.

In essence, the IBM Certified Maximo Manage v9.1 Inventory Management - Associate certification is more than just a credential; it's a strategic asset for your career, empowering you to become a more valuable and effective professional in the world of asset and inventory management.

Conclusion

We've journeyed through the surprisingly accessible world of IBM Maximo inventory management, from its foundational principles to the specifics of achieving the IBM Certified Maximo Manage v9.1 Inventory Management - Associate certification (C1000-208). It's clear that mastering Maximo's inventory capabilities is not only achievable but also incredibly rewarding, offering tangible benefits for both your professional growth and your organization's operational efficiency.

By understanding how to effectively set up storerooms, manage items, control costs, process transactions, and maintain accurate records, you become an indispensable asset in any organization leveraging IBM Maximo. The C1000-208 certification stands as a testament to your expertise, opening doors to new career opportunities and enhancing your credibility in the dynamic field of enterprise asset management.

Don't let the perceived complexity of EAM systems deter you. With dedicated study, hands-on practice, and the right resources, you can confidently prepare for the C1000-208 exam and earn this valuable credential. The ease with which Maximo can transform inventory challenges into strategic advantages, once understood, is truly surprising. Start your preparation today and unlock a future where efficient inventory management is your superpower. For more insights into how IBM solutions impact various industries, you might enjoy this read on examples of IBM assisting insurance companies.

Take the leap, invest in your knowledge, and become a certified expert who can drive real value through optimized IBM Maximo inventory management. Your career will thank you for it!

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

1. What is IBM Maximo inventory management certification?

The IBM Maximo inventory management certification, specifically the IBM Certified Maximo Manage v9.1 Inventory Management - Associate (C1000-208), is a professional credential that validates an individual's foundational knowledge and practical skills in managing inventory within the IBM Maximo Manage v9.1 environment. It covers topics like storeroom setup, item creation, stock management, inventory transactions, costing, receiving, and physical inventory.

2. How much does the IBM Maximo C1000-208 exam cost?

The IBM Maximo C1000-208 exam typically costs $200 USD. However, this price can vary based on your geographic location due to local taxes or currency exchange rates. It's always best to check the current pricing on the Pearson VUE website when you schedule your exam.

3. What are the key topics covered in the IBM Maximo C1000-208 exam syllabus?

The C1000-208 exam syllabus covers seven main domains: Storeroom Setup and Item Creation (17%), Stock Management (15%), Inventory Valuation and Cost Control (15%), Inventory Transactions for Items, and Tools (24%), Inventory Item Supporting Data (7%), Receiving (10%), and Physical Count Management (12%).

4. How can I prepare for the IBM Maximo C1000-208 exam?

To prepare for the C1000-208 exam, it's highly recommended to utilize IBM's official training course (MAX4328G), gain hands-on experience with Maximo v9.1, review study guides, practice with sample questions, and understand the business context behind each Maximo feature. A structured study plan and engagement with study groups can also be very beneficial.

5. What career benefits can I expect from the IBM Maximo inventory management associate certification?

Earning this certification can lead to enhanced career opportunities, increased earning potential, validated expertise and credibility with a globally recognized IBM credential, improved job performance, and the ability to contribute significantly to organizational success through optimized inventory management. It also fosters continuous professional growth within the asset management field.

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Data is key to intelligent asset management

Planning for business disruptions is the new business as usual. To get ahead in a rapidly shifting environment, industrial businesses are leaning more on integrating operational technology (OT) with IT data, which allows them to move from time-based to predictive maintenance, monitoring and management. But collecting and deriving insights from data that resides across disparate applications, legacy databases, machines, sensors and other sources is a complex affair. In fact, two-thirds of business data remains unleveraged. If companies can’t turn their data into value, it’s useless.

Read More: C1000-059: IBM AI Enterprise Workflow V1 Data Science Specialist

This is where intelligent asset management (IAM) comes in.

Announced today at MaximoWorld, IBM’s intelligent asset management brings together powerful solution suites for asset management, facilities management and environmental intelligence in one integrated place. It empowers the entire organization, from the C-suite to the frontline and all along the supply chain, to make more informed, predictive decisions across key operational and functional arenas. With IAM, all players can:

◉ Monitor and measure operations for a 360-degree view of internal and external data, using asset and sustainability performance management capabilities to help balance net income with net-zero objectives.

◉ Manage assets, infrastructure and resources to optimize and prioritize activities that improve the bottom line, including new integrations between Maximo and TRIRIGA to merge best practices across property, plant and equipment.

◉ Improve product and service quality with AI and next-gen technologies that increase customer satisfaction and cost control with intuitive visual inspection and occupancy experience solutions.

IAM breaks down the walls between these traditionally siloed data sets through a holistic approach to asset management, allowing organizations to untangle their data and bring sustainability and resiliency into their business. Here are just a few examples of how clients are utilizing IAM today.

Creating an end-to-end digital utility

One example is the New York Power Authority (NYPA). The NYPA, already the largest state public power organization in the U.S., seeks to become the nation’s first fully digital public power utility. This ambitious goal is part of the organization’s VISION2030 strategic plan, which provides a roadmap for transforming the state’s energy infrastructure to a clean, reliable, resilient and affordable system over the next decade.

To help unify its asset management system and integrate its Fleet Department, the NYPA turned to IBM Maximo®. The NYPA already uses several Maximo solutions — including the Assets, Inventory, Planning, Preventive Maintenance and Work Order modules — to help manage its generation and transmission operations. But its Fleet Department still relied on separate, standalone software for fleet management, preventing cross-organizational visibility into vehicle information. With the Maximo for Transportation solution, the Fleet Department is helping to ensure optimal management of approximately 1,600 NYPA vehicles. Using this central source reduces operational downtime and cuts costs while boosting worker productivity. It also supports the NYPA’s clean energy goals to decarbonize New York State.

Harnessing weather predictions to deliver power across India

Leading companies are also turning to IAM solutions to become more responsive to changes and to ensure business continuity. They are leveraging tools like the IBM Environmental Intelligence Suite, which provides advanced analytics to plan for and respond to disruptive weather events and avoid outages.

In recent years, India has made massive strides in ensuring that every electricity-consuming entity has access to the power they need. But the country struggled when it came to the reliability and efficiency of these services. Government officials had to calculate energy predictions manually using spreadsheets that could only consider historical energy usage. This process left much room for inefficiencies, waste, and financial loss. Officials needed a new way to understand all the factors that impact demand.

Delhi-based Mercados EMI, a leading consultancy firm that specializes in solving energy sector challenges, worked with IBM to create an AI-based demand forecasting solution to help address this problem. The model combined historical demand data with weather pattern information from The Weather Company’s History on Demand data package, which enabled officials to accurately predict when and where energy would be consumed based on environmental conditions. With this data, Mercados could provide utilities with demand forecasts with up to 98.2% accuracy rate to reduce the chances of outage and optimize their costs when it came to buying capacity. This allowed officials to make better overall decisions to balance supply, demand and costs to the consumers.

Keeping cities safe and sustainable with AI and IoT

As the economics of leveraging AI and monitoring assets remotely become more favorable than large supervisory systems, ensuring this lightweight infrastructure can also provide rapid insights from real-time situation data becomes critical. This challenge is particularly pronounced when it comes to environmental issues, where connecting city systems and infrastructure resources with real-time awareness can make all the difference.

Take Melbourne, Australia as an example. Due to climate change, Melbourne is experiencing more extreme weather such as severe rainfall events. In 2018, over 50 mm (2 in.) of rain fell in 15 minutes, resulting in flash floods and widespread power outages.

To help provide protection against flooding, the city’s water management utility, Melbourne Water, operates a vast drainage network that includes approximately 4,000 pits and grates. To function properly, the stormwater drainage system requires regular inspection and maintenance, which in turn requires thousands of hours of manpower every year, often executed during the most dangerous conditions.

That is why Melbourne water turned to AI-powered visual inspection technology in the IBM Maximo Application Suite. This allowed them to use cameras to capture real-time information about their stormwater system, then leverage AI to analyze the situation and detect blockages. And because Maximo allows easy integration between management, monitoring and maintenance data and applications, crews can focus on the areas that pose the most risk to Melbourne and its citizens.

Source: ibm.com

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Why is more sustainable asset management for utilities important?

Modern society is dependent on power grids like never before. From cars and buses to buildings, the shift from fossil fuels to electric energy carries enormous promise for a greener future. And utilities will play an essential role in this delicate balancing act, ensuring that increased demand is met with reliable supply, while enabling customers to be active participants and accelerators of the energy transition.

Utility companies are hardly alone in this pursuit. According to the IBM 2022 CEO study, Own your impact: Practical pathways to transformational sustainability, which surveyed more than 3,000 CEOs worldwide, nearly half (48%) of respondents ranked sustainability as a top priority for their organization—an increase of 37% from 2021. Yet, despite mounting pressure from boards and investors, many CEOs have cited the lack of reliable data-driven insights as the chief impediment to their ability to act.

New demands for utilities, new approach to distribution 

For utility companies, the task of data management is even more crucial as they expand operations to keep abreast of skyrocketing demand. Further, this demand is projected to keep accelerating. IBM’s Institute for Business Value recently conducted a global study that found that 50% of surveyed consumers are considering purchasing an electric vehicle (EV) in the next three years, and that 63% of these consumers expect to use a home charging station to power them. This growth alone (without considering trends like the electrification of public transit systems and the construction of fully electric buildings) will require a significant expansion of energy and utility companies’ services, necessitating a more resilient and efficient approach to power generation and distribution.

To improve the reliability, robustness and efficiency of the power grid and other utility infrastructure, including power lines, service trucks, turbines, people lifters and earth movers, utility companies need to adopt more sustainable asset management practices and technology. This emerging area balances asset reliability and use optimization (including the best use of an asset within a company) with sustainability, such as improvements in the areas of energy and water efficiency, waste management, and environment monitoring and management.

Intelligent insights

To manage these changes, utility companies need tools that minimize their environmental impact and expand their operations efficiently. Fortunately for utility companies, innovators like IBM have been developing tools to help businesses minimize their environmental impact and expand operations with efficiency.

Take for example, the Downer Group, an integrated services company in Australia and New Zealand. Downer uses the IBM Maximo® Application Suite to power its TrainDNA platform, which provides a holistic view into its more than 200 trains across Australia. This view includes train location, timetable and status information, predictive maintenance insights, as well as remote capabilities such as the ability to remotely disconnect a carriage from the electrical grid to allow for safe maintenance work. The TrainDNA platform supports the company’s commitment to provide more timely service to passengers, getting them where they need to go when they need to get there. Downer also relies on IBM Envizi ESG Suite to capture and manage data that help them more effectively meet their sustainability goals, including data on energy consumption, waste generation and GHG emissions.

Exponential advancements in technology are helping utilities to become better prepared to accelerate the clean energy transition needed for a low carbon economy. IBM’s unified platforms harness the power of data and AI to derive real-time, predictive insights, reducing the complexities of acting on interrelated or dependent activities that support sustainability initiatives. With Maximo and Envizi, utilities can gain greater visibility of their operations as they scale up to meet the rising strain and demands on power grids.

Source: ibm.com

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Save energy, decarbonize and transition to renewables while operationalizing sustainability

Recent political and climate-related environmental events have impacted energy sourcing, supply and costs. The resulting energy crisis impacts all countries, industries, sectors and societies across Europe. Combined with imminent reporting requirements from the European Commission, saving and securing energy sustainably and moving to renewable energy sources equitably is imperative.

The immediate energy crisis coincides with the equally crucial long-term journey to sustainability. A traditional management mindset could see this imperative as an onerous obligation that could cut into profitability. But evidence shows that sustainability efforts unlock value and innovation throughout the organization. Numerous reports cite a direct correlation between sustainable practices, share prices and business performance. According to a recent IBV report, 83% of CEOs expect sustainability investments to produce improved business results in the next five years.

Meeting the needs of energy saving and security, regulatory compliance, cost savings and sustainability requires technological solutions paired with a reconsideration of business processes throughout the entire enterprise.

We see five key functional areas IT and operations executives can assess for transformation:

1. Asset and facility management

Integrated asset management helps organizations minimize the environmental impact of their operations across the asset lifecycle and extend asset life through predictive maintenance and condition monitoring. More accurate replacement planning can help companies minimize and consolidate technician visits, reducing use and saving energy.

Intelligent integrated workplace management software can help organizations infuse sustainability into their real estate and facilities management operations. Criteria for sustainability (such as ISO 14000) can easily be specified for space acquisition or leases, and for construction and renovation projects. Carbon footprints can be reduced through space optimization and planning, and by extending asset life through improved maintenance and assessment.

2. IT: infrastructure and code

The global power capacity of data centers has grown by 43% since 2019. Data centers can account for a large portion of an organization’s energy use, making environmentally sustainable computing more critical. This year’s generation of servers can reduce energy consumption by up to 75%, space by 50% and the carbon emissions footprint by more than 850 metric tons per year, compared to x86 servers under similar conditions.

Hybrid cloud is also a critical enabler of green IT, facilitating increased visibility, greater integration and enhanced capabilities across the cloud estate. Moreover, running workloads in a container platform instead of classically deployed virtual machine environments can reduce annual infrastructure costs by 75%, thanks in part to increased energy efficiency.

The choice of code matters too. Using the right language for the right workload can reduce computing power, and therefore energy usage. Switching from one programming language to another can reduce the energy consumption of an application by up to 50%.

3. Sustainable supply chain and circularity

Through intelligent workflows and automation, companies can reduce waste and improve circularity. Making shipping and routing more efficient and trackable reduces costs and warehouse space, and thus reduces the carbon footprint. It also helps organizations ensure provenance. With 80% of consumers saying sustainability is important to them, and 60% willing to change their purchasing habits based on environmental impact, such assurance can improve consumer loyalty.

Intelligent order management software also marries sustainability to customer satisfaction by allowing companies to consolidate shipments into fewer packages. Integration with carbon-accounting engines allows carbon savings to be shown to online shoppers as they make their shipping choices.

4. Transitioning to sustainable energy sources

Becoming a sustainable enterprise requires a rigorous strategy and roadmap. It encompasses all areas of the organisation right through to enabling customers. It includes ESG reporting and finance, climate risk assessment and adaptation, responsible computing and green IT, a circular supply chain and decarbonization and clean energy transition.

Decarbonization and clean energy transition alone spans many areas including distributed energy, grid resilience, alternative fuels and emissions, flexible energy, new energy systems, mobile energy and low-carbon customers. Moving to a low carbon physical infrastructure, low carbon energy markets, EV platform enablement and digital product business for consumers are among the tactics that can be deployed.

Few organisations have a complete portfolio of these capabilities. Working with partners who can co-create these strategies using proven, repeatable methods, and leveraging extensive partner ecosystems can accelerate realization times on an organization’s journeys to net zero.

5. ESG and risk management

ESG platforms can help organizations build a single system of record that delivers auditable, finance-grade ESG and sustainability data. They enable efficient monitoring of energy demand, consumption and emissions across organizations by capturing data from utility bills, interval meters and renewable assets. When combined with weather and facility information, they can provide a granular data foundation for use with enterprise asset management software, improving predictive insights. ESG platforms also enable organizations to meet increasing regulatory reporting requirements.

Effective use of these platforms can help corporations take the right actions at the right time, reducing corporate risk and the financial and environmental impact of disasters.

Embodying sustainability

IBM leads the way for clients because we embody innovation in sustainability within our organization. We have set precedents for environmental and social commitments for over 50 years, starting with our first corporate policy on environmental affairs, enacted in 1971. Our 21 current environmental commitments include achieving net-zero GHG emissions by 2030 and diverting 90% of nonhazardous waste (by weight) from landfill and incineration by 2025, which we report on annually in our ESG Report, IBM Impact. We also promote environmental justice programs such as the IBM Sustainability Accelerator and Call For Code, enabling organizations and communities to tackle environmental issues.

Proven methods, comprehensive solutions

IBM helps customers save and secure energy sustainably while complying with increasing regulatory demands. We operationalize sustainability end-to-end with data-driven innovation through a comprehensive and growing portfolio of industry-leading consulting and technology capabilities. With an ecosystem of partners, we co-create solutions to uncover new opportunities while finding cost efficiencies, without trade-offs or compromising profitability.

Source: ibm.com

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Planned versus unplanned maintenance and the impact on spare parts stocking strategies

At a chemical plant years ago, a maintenance technician made a hasty pump repair. A required repair part wasn’t available, so the technician did the unplanned maintenance with another similar-looking part. But the materials of construction weren’t rated for the pump’s service, and the pump casing ruptured and vented 1,300-degree oil into the atmosphere.

Luckily, the chemical plant was able to mitigate environmental harm, and no one was in the immediate area when the life-threatening failure occurred. But the accident was a severe wake-up call. The plant couldn’t just hope the right parts were around. It needed an effective strategy to maintain its maintenance and repair inventory.

Maintenance technicians often feel immense pressure to get production up and running after an operations breakdown. Unfortunately, this burden can lead them to take detrimental shortcuts to complete emergency repairs. Though the risks associated with breakdowns are often financial, poor maintenance stocking can also cause environmental and safety risks.

Optimize your MRO inventory stocking strategy

Maintenance effectiveness can be expressed as a ratio of planned maintenance to breakdown maintenance. Planned maintenance is comprised of all planned and scheduled activity (PM, PdM, corrective, etc.) while breakdown maintenance consists of emergency work, reactive work and break/fix work that is unplanned and requires an immediate response. A good target follows the 80/20 rule: 80% planned, 20% breakdown.

MRO inventory refers to critical supplies, spare parts and other materials needed for routine maintenance, repair and operations. If you are optimizing MRO inventory, you will need to determine a few things before considering the overall impact of your maintenance team’s planning capabilities. Does your inventory optimization tool:

 

◉ Dynamically assign criticality to your spare parts?

◉ Have a “where-used” feature to associate spare parts with their appropriate assets?

◉ Consider the asset/equipment criticality in the overall assignment of the spare part criticality?

◉ Calculate a moving-average total lead time rather than relying only on stated lead time?

It’s important to know how critical each part is before you apply forecasting algorithms and cost models. Tools designed for the manufacturing, service and retail industries have forecasting algorithms that focus on procurement and sales data rather than asset and work order data. These algorithms don’t factor in criticality and the business risk associated with criticality, which is crucial for MRO inventory stocking strategies. I like this analogy: If a grocery store runs out of bread, business is hardly interrupted, and the store does not shut down. However, in most industries, a lack of certain parts can prolong outages or potentially shut down operations completely.

Planned versus unplanned maintenance and the impact on stocking strategies

If you are effectively planning and scheduling 80% of your maintenance activities, planned parts should be ordered and available within the stated lead time. Proper planning provides a clear demand signal for spare parts, which eliminates the need to stock for planned work. Planning thereby reduces the need for stocking, maintaining, and managing spare parts. As such, you should stock enough parts to cover the 20% of unplanned work.

It’s important to track spare parts purchases against planned and unplanned maintenance. In addition to achieving the 80% planned work ratio, businesses must consider whether the scheduling window adequately accommodates supplier lead time. If parts cannot be delivered in time, maintenance may be forced to use safety stock to continue operations. When safety stock is depleted for planned maintenance, operations are placed at risk when an emergency arises. A stockout event often leads to increased stocking levels, which creates a ripple effect that increases maintenance budgets, reduces profit margins, increases space requirements and leads to surplus. Today’s surplus is tomorrow’s potential waste.

It is important that the planners have access to an inventory optimization tool that calculates a total lead time (including requisition to order time, supplier weighted average time and delivery time). Having visibility into total lead time allows planners to fully execute their planned maintenance and have the right parts available within the lead time window. If your planning is not effective, you will end up holding more inventory for longer periods, even with an inventory optimization tool. The forecasting algorithms will adjust stocking strategies to include all consumption (unplanned and planned) rather than planning and procuring as needed and keeping stocking levels appropriate for the 20% of unplanned work. Over time, this practice leads to more obsolete, wasted inventory.

Keep your maintenance planning effective by understanding total lead time for required parts. Keep your inventory optimized by stocking for the unplanned, emergent work. Find an inventory optimization tool that is designed for the unique requirements of maintenance activities, and you’ll be able to put the right measurements in place to ensure success.

Source: ibm.com

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To comply with GASB 87, government organizations need a better lease management solution

Over the past few years, the corporate world has worked through achieving compliance with lease accounting standards for real estate and assets. Adherence to ASC 842 and internationally, with IFRS 16, has been a challenging journey for many. Now it’s state and local governments’ turn to shine new light on their lease obligations.

Read More: C9560-680: IBM Control Desk V7.6 Fundamentals

Asset leasing is just as widespread across state and local governments as it is with private sector enterprises. While lease accounting requirements are usually applied to real estate and facilities assets, many other asset classes are commonly leased, such as IT equipment, warehouse space, warehouse equipment, water towers, vehicle fleets, cell towers and office equipment.

In the U.S., all leases associated with these asset classes must comply with regulations from the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB). GASB 87, which took effect in 2021, is the new lease accounting standard issued by GASB to more accurately portray lease obligations and improve governmental financial statements.

Successfully navigating the complexities of GASB 87 compliance requires a cross-functional effort from stakeholders across the organization. Financial and accounting executives need to stay informed about the new accounting rules and the increased complexity associated with financial forecasting in the context of lease management and accounting. Real estate directors can increase efficiencies to reduce balance sheet impacts as they oversee facilities portfolios. And IT executives need to upgrade IT systems to manage finance, real estate and other core asset optimization functions.

What’s changed with the new GASB 87?

For all public sector entities, lease accounting and reporting are being wholly redefined. Under the old GASB 13 and GASB 62 standards, there was a determination about which leases had to appear on balance sheets. That’s no longer the case. Now, with minor exceptions, all leases are considered finance leases and are required to appear on balance sheets.

Further difficulty may arise when leases are scattered across departments throughout the organization. Facility leases may be part of core infrastructure groups, while transportation departments may hold vehicle or truck leases and IT may be leasing laptops, devices or datacenter equipment. There may be other unidentified specialty leases. Finally, there may be leases embedded in service agreements, which need to be identified and accounted for.

All of these leases must comply with GASB 87 standards.

Governments need a more sophisticated lease management solution

Government organizations ultimately obtain funding from legislatures and the implied consent of citizens. The ability to accurately project near-term needs and longer-term obligations through demonstrated financial control is imperative to establishing confidence to obtain future funding. GASB 87 provides an opportunity for improved financial transparency and a better understanding of asset portfolios.

Most government entities will have more than 200 leases, large ones will have far more. It won’t be possible to comply through manual efforts or spreadsheet tracking of leases. Accounting and finance leaders will have to invest in a lease management solution to help. It is not uncommon for an organization to keep documents in file cabinets, transactions in ERP systems, critical dates and options managed in spreadsheets, and workflow managed through e-mail.

Local and state government entities can focus first on integrating all leases and contracts into a digital repository to assess the portfolio. They must identify which contracts contain a lease and which are subject to GASB 87 compliance. There can also be embedded leases in some service agreements. The complexities of these contracts and leases can only be managed effectively with the right technology.

To manage real estate and asset lease contracts, organizations need a consolidated document repository and system of record. A 360-degree view containing lease history, metadata and documents with workflow is vital for contract management and regulatory compliance.

A good lease management solution does the following:

◉ Provides pre-built data structures and processes for all lease types

◉ Integrates with financial and other critical business systems

◉ Identifies underperforming and underused facilities

◉ Models alternative planning scenarios

◉ Compares financial and non-financial returns

◉ Alerts organizations to required lease accounting reviews

◉ Automates lease accounting controls

◉ Supports audits approvals and processes

Manage lease contracts with IBM TRIRIGA

IBM TRIRIGA® provides a comprehensive system of record repository to better manage real estate and asset lease contracts. It has long been among the leading integrated workplace management (IWM) solutions helping clients with real estate and lease management, space optimization, capital projects, sustainability and maintenance needs.

TRIRIGA has helped organizations manage changes in lease accounting standards and portfolio management for over 10 years, helping clients achieve ASC and IFRS compliance since those mandates went into effect.

Beyond delivering a complete solution for GASB 87 compliance, IBM TRIRIGA enables a greater sense of overall confidence in managing asset portfolios. Lease management executives can use TRIRIGA to create a repository and achieve compliance through every step of contract management, lease accounting, and lease administration.

Managing lease contracts is a complex process involving multi-step workflows that require an intelligent set of approvals and routings to provide the necessary controls over each action in the process. Once leases are executed, the monthly payment processing, OPEX management and payment adjustments can be administered. IBM TRIRIGA helps automate the entire process and reduce manual actions by enabling alerts on contracts that may trigger reviews or re-assessment. Users can replace spreadsheets with a digitized document repository and system functionality that helps to accurately determine the carrying value of lease liabilities and right-of-use assets.

TRIRIGA handles the full scope of accounting treatments to support GASB 87 compliance, from standard adoption and activation of leases to modification, reassessment and ultimately expiration or termination.

Once contracts and leases are in order, finance directors and real estate executives can also take a fresh look at portfolio planning and transaction management. TRIRIGA also supports improved sustainability and environmental management, facilities maintenance, capital projects and facilities optimization. Executives can transform the future course of their institutions with the confidence of their stakeholders.

IBM is a leader in the industry with years of experience helping worldwide clients with lease accounting compliance and portfolio management. We are now making this experience and expertise available to state and local government clients. It’s easy to grow with TRIRIGA, using our solution beyond GASB 87 compliance to create an ideal, comprehensive solution for you.

Source: ibm.com

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Turn sustainability ambition into action

For nearly 20 years, IBM has surveyed thousands of CEOs about their biggest challenges. In the latest survey, sustainability ranked at the top, a 5-spot jump from 2021. Nearly 60% of CEOs told us they see significant demand from investors for greater transparency on sustainability. They are also feeling the pressure from multiple stakeholders. Regulators and governments in most top economies have developed corporate disclosure requirements around environmental impact. Customers want to buy from sustainable businesses. People want to work for these companies and invest in them. From the boardroom to the operations centers, all stakeholders want to play a role in making a positive difference for our world.

However, while 86% of companies say they already have a sustainability strategy in place, only 23% say they are implementing sustainability strategies across their entire organization. Many organizations with good intentions are stalled at the planning stage because implementing sustainable practices is complex and they don’t know how or where to make an impact. Despite this delay, the same IBV CEO study found that 80% of CEOs believe investments in sustainability will improve their own business results within 5 years. How can you turn strategy into results?

Take the first steps to build and operationalize sustainability

Becoming more sustainable is an opportunity to innovate, make a difference and grow. Take action by following these three steps:

Define your Sustainability goals – To succeed, your business needs to set and act on clear environmental, social and governance (ESG) goals, then execute with exceptional data discipline across the enterprise.

Establish your ESG data foundation – Create a clear baseline to underpin every goal from which to determine your current impact, track progress and implement adjustments. This requires a single system of record to integrate and manage ESG data that aligns to your goals. Collect, correlate, visualize, and analyze relevant data so you can deliver transparent, verifiable, financial-grade information and more easily identify where improvements are most needed.

Operationalize your sustainability goals – Full benefit can then be achieved by leveraging the links between this system of record for ESG data and the underlying operational systems that run across all the departments and business units of your organization. With these links in place, you can automate feedback loops that enable actions based on insights. These insights help drive sustainable transformation through intelligent facilities and assets, resilient IT Infrastructure, and circular supply chains.

Focus on three key operational areas

Intelligent facilities and assets—Monitoring and recording operational data from your organization’s physical assets and real estate facilities is a good place to start. The data you collect can fuel insights to drive significant energy savings, optimize waste management and provide predictive maintenance data to help reduce unplanned downtime.

Resilient IT infrastructure—Data centers provide multiple opportunities for improving sustainability. Upgrading IT infrastructure with newer, more energy-efficient equipment can help you reduce energy consumption and eliminate wasteful, outdated hardware. What’s more, the same steps you take to improve business resiliency across your organization also help you improve customer experiences and productivity while you work towards meeting your sustainability goals.

Circular supply chains—Encouraging reuse and providing customers with transparent sourcing data for the products they buy is something more consumers are demanding. Deploying intelligent workflows and taking advantage of automation opportunities can not only reduce waste but also optimize fulfillment and delivery paths with lower carbon footprints. Solutions powered by AI and backed by blockchain can help you progress toward a net zero supply chain.

Advance your journey with IBM

As you embark on your sustainability journey and tackle each of our 3 recommended steps, IBM and its ecosystem of partners are on hand to support and help you along the way. We recognize that no one can do it alone, but together we can turn sustainability ambition into action.

Define your sustainability goals with IBM Consulting™ — IBM experts, strengthened by our strategic alliances and partnerships, are helping clients embed sustainability into the fabric of their business to increase operational efficiencies, expose innovation opportunities and drive competitive differentiation. Many businesses rely on IBM Consulting as their partner for the new rules of modern business. We believe open ecosystems, open technologies, open innovation, and open cultures are the key to creating opportunities and the way forward for modern business and our world. Our expert advice helps you leverage sustainability as a catalyst for profitable business transformation.

Establish your ESG data foundation and a clear baseline with IBM® Envizi — Envizi provides a single system of record to manage ESG data that aligns to your goals in a verifiable and auditable way. Automate the collection and consolidation of more than 500 data types, with support for internationally recognized ESG reporting frameworks, to manage environmental goals, identify efficiency opportunities, and assess sustainability risks. Proactively plan and manage the economic impact of weather and climate change events with IBM® Environmental Intelligence Suite®.

Operationalize sustainability goals with IBM technology — At IBM, we are building a comprehensive portfolio of capabilities in collaboration with our network of partners, including AWS, EY, Microsoft, Salesforce, SAP, and WBCSD among others. We help you realize sustainable transformation by leveraging the connections between your ESG data and your daily operations. Many of our clients choose IBM® Maximo® as their foundation for operational insights on physical assets to drive clean energy transition, efficient water and waste management, and decarbonization using AI, analytics and IoT. If your goal is to automate workflows and establish resilient IT infrastructure, IBM Turbonomic® is a no-fuss solution that helps you improve data center efficiency, performance optimization and cloud workflow tracking. IBM LinuxONE can also bring sustainability to mission-critical workflows, helping you manage server sprawl and contain your corporate carbon footprint. And if you seek to improve responsible sourcing and supply chain transparency, IBM Supply Chain Intelligence Suite provides insights and intelligent workflows to enable equitable, net zero supply chains through AI and blockchain. No matter where you decide to act, IBM and its partners have the capabilities to help you achieve your sustainability goals.

Find out more about sustainability solutions from IBM

Industry leaders rely on IBM solutions to help meet sustainability goals

BestSeller—Reducing return rates, driving supply chain efficiencies, and stepping forward to sustainable fashion with the help of IBM Garage, by developing “Fashion.ai” to help customers purchase items that fit their physical dimensions and preferred style.

Celestica—Consolidating, streamlining, and automating ESG data reporting with IBM Envizi Sustainability Performance Management to produce finance-grade, auditable data and transform sustainability reporting across the manufacturing portfolio.

Sund & Baelt—Digitizing maintenance and asset management processes using IBM Maximo to extend the life of critical infrastructure (like bridges and tunnels) by 100 years and avoid 750,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions.

Carhartt—Deploying cloud-first strategy with IBM Turbonomic® Application Resource Management to ensure 24×7 performance while reducing application needs and energy consumption.

BBVA—Adopting IBM z15’s central processing equipment to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and energy consumption of BBVA Data Center processors by 50%.

Partnership for Carbon Transparency—Partnering with the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) and others to enable the secure exchange of verified, standardized product emissions data across organizations.

Source: ibm.com

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Six reasons you need an intelligent asset management strategy now

There is an explosion of data surrounding asset management processes. This data is invaluable, but it can only be used if it can be properly analyzed. Today more than two-thirds of data goes unused due to the complexity of integrating multiple platforms, devices and assets, and the slow, labor-intensive processes required to make it consumable. The result? Subpar operational performance and reliability issues, made most obvious in downtime and defects.

This is where intelligent asset management comes in.

Intelligent asset management (IAM) solutions put data and AI to work to optimize critical asset performance and automate enterprise operations.

Here are six reasons why your company needs intelligent asset management today:

1. Orchestrate and automate your processes

Intelligent asset management focuses on automating operational processes. This streamlines asset maintenance and management to reduce bottlenecks and manual work, improving uptime, productivity and costs.

In the world of building and space management, companies are using integrated workplace management solutions that use data, IoT and AI. These solutions help organizations design a safe, flexible workplace, increase employee engagement and drive operational efficiency.

2. Create value to grow your organization

Intelligent asset management helps grow revenue through increased asset availability and reliability.

Mining companies, for example, use autonomous vehicles for certain tasks. Equipment can be remotely monitored — sometimes from halfway across the globe — to check for proper oil pressure or temperature and to keep the asset running properly. Robots working in mines underground can operate with no downtime, mitigating the safety risks of hazardous conditions such as fire, flood, collapse, or toxic atmospheric contaminants.

3. Be more competitive

Intelligent asset management makes it easier to deploy industry best practices, such as more sustainable operations.

IAM solutions can incorporate AI, weather data, climate risk analytics, and carbon accounting capabilities, allowing organizations to spend less resources curating this complex data and more on analyzing it for insights and taking action.

4. Connect to the enterprise

Intelligent asset management means building an enterprise operations system that governs business operations, financials, and production at all levels of an organization, from the C-suite to the frontline, and along the supply chain.

Changing economic and regulatory conditions challenge oil and gas companies to constantly find better ways to monitor, manage and maintain assets while keeping employees safe.

Kuwait Oil Company needed an asset management solution that could integrate this broad range of processes under a single umbrella. The company improved its production targets through improved efficiency by deploying an IBM Maximo for Oil and Gas solution, not only in its oil extraction and drilling operations, but across operations including marine operations and the employee hospital.

5. Build AI capabilities without data scientists

Intelligent asset management integrates asset data into no-code and low-code applications for visual inspection, remote asset monitoring and predictive maintenance, eliminating content silos to provide visibility across the organization, all without the need for data scientists.

Last year IBM helped Toyota move from reactive, cycle-based maintenance to proactive, reliability centered maintenance. Now the car company can detect anomalies and measure the health of equipment at all times, while predicting and fixing failures before they occur.

6. Uncover simplicity and scalability in one package

Intelligent asset management equals a simple, secure data architecture with an open, extensible asset management platform, to act on any data, on any cloud, anywhere.

Let us help you create an intelligent asset management solution with IBM Maximo, an extendable suite with the capabilities you need.

Source: ibm.com

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What asset-intensive industries can gain using Enterprise Asset Management

Not that long ago, asset-intensive organizations took a strictly “pen and paper” approach to maintenance checks and inspections of physical assets. Inspectors walked along an automobile assembly line, manually taking notes in an equipment maintenance log. Teams of engineers performed close-up inspections of bridges, hoisting workers high in the air or sending trained divers below the water level. Risks, costs and error rates were high.

Enter the era of the smart factory floor and smart field operations. Monitoring and optimizing assets requires a new approach to maintenance, repair and replacement decisions. Work orders are now digitized and can be generated as part of scheduled maintenance, thanks to connected devices, machinery and production systems.

But challenges remain. How do enterprise-level organizations manage millions of smart, connected assets that continuously collect and share vast mountains of data? And what is the value of managing that data better? The answer lies with migrating from siloed legacy systems to a holistic system that brings information together for greater visibility across operations.

This is where Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) comes in. EAM is a combination of software, systems and services used to maintain and control operational assets and equipment. The aim is to optimize the quality and utilization of assets throughout their lifecycle, increase productive uptime and reduce operational costs.

A March 2022 IDC report detailed the business value of IBM Maximo®, one of the most comprehensive and widely adopted enterprise asset management solution sets on the market. Interviewed companies realized an average annual benefit of $14.6 million from Maximo by:

◉ Improving asset management, avoiding unnecessary operational costs, and increasing overall EAM efficiency

◉ Improving the productivity of asset management and field workforce teams using best available technology

◉ Enabling the shift from legacy/manual processes to more streamlined operations via automation and other features

◉ Supporting business needs by minimizing unplanned downtime and avoiding disruptive events and asset failure, while improving end-user productivity and contributing to better business results

◉ Supporting business transformation from scheduled maintenance to condition-based maintenance to predictive maintenance

EAM on the smart factory floor

In a smart factory setting, EAM is an integrated endeavor where shop floor data using AI and IOT can come together to reduce downtime by 50%, reduce breakdowns by 70% and reduce overall maintenance cost by 25%.

These wide-ranging benefits can be seen in action at Toyota’s Indiana Assembly, where a new car rolls off the assembly line every minute, and each process in the vehicle’s assembly must be flawless and it’s become business critical to have zero downtime and defects.

See how Toyota is using IBM Maximo Health and Predict to create a smarter, more digital factory.

Smarter infrastructure for bridges, tunnels and railways

In the U.S. alone there are more than 600,000 bridges. One in three of these bridges is crumbling and in need of repair due to structural cracks, buckled or bent steel, rust, corrosion, displacement or stress.

Sund & Bælt, headquartered in Copenhagen, Denmark, owns and operates some of the largest infrastructures in the world, including the Great Belt Fixed Link, an 11-mile bridge that connects the Danish islands of Zealand and Funen. To inspect bridges, the company often hired mountaineers to scale the sides and take photographs for examination. This kind of inspection could take a month, and the process had to be repeated frequently.

Seeking a next-generation EAM approach, Sund & Bælt collaborated with IBM to create an AI-powered IoT solution, IBM Maximo for Civil Infrastructure, that uses sensors and algorithms to help prolong the lifespan of aging bridges, tunnels, highways and railways. By automating more of its inspection work, the company is on track to increase productivity by 14 – 25% and reduce time-to-repair by over 30%.

These anticipated benefits mirror the strong business value of IBM Maximo displayed in the IDC report, which projects the average organization will realize an average annual benefit of $1.3 million per 100 maintenance workers, resulting in an average five-year ROI of 450%.

Source: ibm.com

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