Why Every Organisation Needs a Fixed Asset Management Strategy
In the 12 months between Q1 2023 and Q1 2024, the number of UK businesses in significant financial distress soared by 30.8% to 554,554. Surviving in an unforgiving economic climate requires organisations to derive as much value as possible from their assets, comply with safety standards and legal and other requirements, and cut as many costs as possible. A fixed asset management strategy can help organisations achieve this, regardless of their size or industry.
Benefits of a Fixed Asset Management Strategy
A well-crafted fixed asset management strategy offers several benefits, such as:
Improved Visibility
An effective fixed asset management strategy offers improved visibility of all your organisation’s fixed assets. You know how many assets you have, where they are, how they’re being used, who’s using them, and what condition they’re in at any given time.
You can identify which assets cause delays, require disproportionate maintenance resources, and need to be replaced or upgraded. This data can also help you decide how to make the best use of your fixed assets to achieve your organisation’s goals.
Enhanced Compliance
By implementing a comprehensive fixed asset management strategy, you can track your organisation’s fixed assets from acquisition and allocations to returns, repairs, and upgrades. This not only makes these processes transparent but also ensures that accurate data is readily available for fixed asset accounting and auditing.
Your fixed asset management strategy can help you identify assets in need of proactive or preventative maintenance. This can help ensure greater compliance with safety standards and protocols.
Cost Savings
The visibility offered by an effective fixed asset management strategy can help your organisation achieve significant cost savings.
You can identify assets that are underused and allocate them in ways that help you derive greater value from them, and you can identify overused assets that are more likely to experience frequent breakdowns for improved preventative maintenance. Additionally, you can cut costs by avoiding duplicating assets.
How to Develop a Fixed Asset Management Strategy
Developing and implementing a comprehensive fixed asset management strategy involves following several important steps. These include:
- Determine your objectives: Gather all relevant stakeholders and review your organisation’s long-term goals, ensuring that your fixed asset management objectives can help you reach them. When you know your objectives, you can choose fixed asset management solutions that can be tailored to your organisation’s needs, such as those from FMIS.
- Assess asset condition and create an inventory: Assess the condition of all fixed assets and make an inventory of them, including their value, condition, and location. Analyse the inventory to identify and categorise assets so that they can be used more effectively and maintained strategically.
- Develop fixed asset management plans: Use the data you gathered in step two to create frameworks, protocols, and schedules for managing all fixed assets and ensuring cost-effectiveness when setting maintenance schedules and deciding how to use resources.
- Implement the strategy: Create a plan for implementing your strategy. Ensure the plan includes each relevant person’s responsibilities and roll-out timelines. Tailor each stakeholder’s training, making sure that everyone understands their role.
- Make regular assessments and adjustments: Revisit the strategy regularly and assess its effectiveness. Use performance data and consider evolving conditions and organisational goals when adjusting the strategy to make it more effective.
Support Your Strategy with Powerful Solutions
The best strategies leverage powerful fixed asset management technologies to ensure accuracy and efficiency in every area. As a leading asset management solutions provider, FMIS can assist your organisation in crafting tailored solutions that meet your unique needs. Support your strategy with solutions that offer real benefits, both in the short-and long-term.