Signing up for an asset management tool requires you to capture each asset individually, import it, and then enter the required information. This task takes a lot of time to complete and can be improved with a better workflow. That’s exactly what Scan-to-EAM is for, where you can combine reality capture data with asset identification for import into an EAM solution database. Such a workflow will significantly increase efficiency and reduce costs because facility managers will always know the status of each asset.
The industry and its challenges
Facility management companies are faced with various challenges such as finance, risk & governance, and people & technology. It’s no secret that if these challenges are not addressed, they can hinder a business’ ability to thrive. From a financial perspective, it is often expected to cut costs and improve revenue streams simultaneously, which is challenging but achievable with a solid strategy with digitization as a major part of optimizing existing workflows.
Determining when maintenance or repair is needed is a manual task, from inspecting assets to updating information on paper. This suggests that maintenance and repairs are seldom tailored to individual assets and their spare parts. Because of this, facility managers are often forced to pre-order parts in large quantities. Compared to optimized asset utilization and maintenance, the costs here are higher, and the asset lifetime is lower.
Reality capture workflow with EAM integration
Depending on the project, a variety of reality capture solutions are available and can be used to meet accuracy requirements, ranging from highly versatile survey-grade laser scanners to handheld mobile imaging laser scanners with autonomous functionality. During the scanning process for EAM integration, three types of data are captured:
- 3D point cloud
- Regional image
- GeoTags
Once captured, a digital copy is created of the point cloud and the image is captured. After preparing the data, it can be exported and used for other software solutions to create deliverables. 2D and 3D submissions are then imported into Hexagon EAM to display buildings and the state of each asset captured with GeoTags.
Some of these processes can be performed manually, or if the environment is too hazardous for humans, they can be automated with little or no human intervention. Leica BLK ARC or site change. Once the retrieved data is registered, any irregularities can be handled by the notified person. Parts can be manufactured or ordered and then replaced at the exact location identified by the scanner. Such a workflow minimizes risk and time spent on site increasing efficiency and reducing maintenance costs.
Hexagon EAM – the first step towards an autonomous future 
The next generation of EAM solutions offers many features to improve maintenance workflow efficiency. The three main areas that Hexagon EAM focuses on are:
- Work process
- Asset performance management
- Intelligent Digital Reality™
Better work processes significantly impact employee efficiency, health and safety as more information about assets becomes available. This enables them to better plan, schedule, and execute maintenance tasks and retain materials with precise details about an asset.
Once an asset is in EAM’s Hexagon database, EAM’s asset performance management is responsible for observing and maintaining it. Various concepts of condition monitoring, predictive forecasting, and reliability-centric maintenance (RCM) have high potential to improve the sustainability and energy consumption of listed assets. Knowing when maintenance will be needed makes it easy to plan and maintain it at a lower cost.
The last part of the foundation of an autonomous future is Smart Digital Reality. Hexagon’s Intelligent Digital Reality for industrial facilities is a meeting between the real world and the Metaverse that helps companies maintain safe and sustainable operations. To achieve lowest practical costs and optimize factory production and worker productivity by facilitating data capture and integration from any source. Contextualize, visualize, and facilitate work process improvements across the asset lifecycle. Smart Digital Reality consists of the building blocks of digital projects and digital assets, all enabled by a digital backbone.
Integrate Smart Digital Reality into Hexagon EAM
Hexagon EAM sits at the crossroads of connecting the physical with the digital world, Smart Digital Reality. While digital projects look at as-built, digital assets look at the as-maintained side to cover the entire asset lifecycle. The digital backbone is the facilitator for ensuring interoperability and all data sources are captured and applied in context. Enterprises can leverage autonomous data collection from field data and allow engineers to validate data points to ensure the full picture is captured in the real world.
Registered assets are not just virtual representations but are infused with intelligence derived from manual or autonomous updates made by IoT devices, laser scanners, or flying laser scanners. It is one part of automating processes and analytics to slowly eliminate human interference on the way to a fully autonomous future. Hexagon EAM leverages data captured using the Smart Digital Reality Intelligence Engine to help users plan and perform repairs or replacements for specific parts or entire assets.
With complete asset lifecycle management, maintenance, and financial planning, the Smart Digital Reality intersection enables continuous feedback to understand the company holistically. Better visibility into mission critical assets based on data collected from the real world allows you to make evidence-based and actionable decisions. Therefore, safety, quality, efficiency and productivity are improved, contributing to economic and environmental sustainability.
The future potential of Reality Capture and EAM
Every business depends on its assets. They are in every part of the operation and are essential to success. Achieving operational excellence requires a fully autonomous future with continuous feedback loops between Smart Digital Reality and EAM Hexagon. Asset management is the cornerstone of operational excellence. This allows a company and its workforce to operate at higher levels of productivity, ensures that regulatory constraints and obligations are met, and helps optimize budgets. Digital asset management strategies provide higher organizational visibility, increased enterprise reliability and operational efficiency. Hexagon EAM can be leveraged in many key business areas, providing a comprehensive overview of current operating conditions and insight into what issues need to be addressed.
Hexagon EAM can manage any physical asset; once registered it can support many business processes. Once assets and processes are defined, Hexagon EAM can support multiple maintenance strategies to align with what best suits your current company while ensuring you can grow over time. With all this, business decisions can be managed through next-generation EAM technology to automate decision-making and improve results. They all enable true enterprise-level business goals, taking your digital transformation journey to the next level.
The benefits that Scan-to-EAM offers
There are many benefits that can be obtained if you see the ability of Hexagon EAM. You save time during registration and maintenance because assets can be easily imported and later found with the geo-tagging function. Asset detail information is also easier to access in the field to see its status. More accurate information about each asset helps plan maintenance or repairs and determines whether parts need to be produced or ordered. This lowers maintenance and repair costs because it is only done when needed and is no longer done pre-emptively.
This helps facility managers better coordinate their work and make them more independent with available technology. With greater autonomy, worker safety increases because their presence, in a hazardous environment, is reduced to a minimum. But it requires ongoing training of facility managers to continuously improve their skills in operating hardware and software solutions.
Financial benefits can be seen with a higher degree of automation that reduces human intervention. Intelligent software solutions increase productivity in the office by automating the registration process, and because fewer submissions are required for Hexagon EAM, less time is required to create them. Hexagon EAM adaptability allows you to increase productivity, autonomy and safety while reducing costs.
Jesus Bones
Director of Sales and Business Development
Terrestrial Laser Scanning
Hexagon Geosystems Reality Capture Division
Kevin’s Price
Vice President Portfolio Strategy and Empowerment
Hexagon
