Asset management technology available. (Technology-Update).

J.D. Edwards & Company, a leading provider of agile, collaborative solutions for the connected economy, announced the general availability of J.D. Edwards Enterprise Asset Management, developed to assist asset-intensive industries maximize the performance and returns on their plant and equipment. While this is the first time EAM is being offered as a stand-alone product, J.D. Edwards has been delivering maintenance management functionality for more than 10 years for several hundred clients. This release offers tight ERP integration with state-of-the-art asset utilization functionality, and also brings forward significant enhancements.

Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) technology allows enterprises to maximize asset productivity. For example, for asset-intensive enterprises, unplanned equipment downtime translates to an unrecoverable loss of revenue. EAM can synchronize operations requirements with maintenance to avoid unplanned shutdowns, select the appropriate technicians for the work, reduce the amount of repairs, and determine when maintenance should be scheduled to minimize interference with production schedules and project deadlines, or when an aging machine should be repaired or replaced.

"Current economic conditions are forcing businesses to focus on bottom-line results," states John Van Decker, program director, META Group. "Asset-intensive business that implement EAM solutions can facilitate the scheduling of equipment downtime and the planning of maintenance outages in advance. By doing this, EAM can increase the efficiency of their assets, while decreasing the potential of lost revenue (and increased expense) caused by unplanned equipment failures. A solution effectively integrated into ERP processes can add value with an attractive return on investment."