Using Data Cleansing for Efficient Asset Management
5 min readThere is no denying that the competition in global manufacturing industries is skyrocketing. Considering the number of people who are battling to get to the top, this leaves no room for errors in the business. People no longer stock up spare parts just so that they can be of use at any given time. Today, it’s all about efficiency and how businesses function more smoothly. To put it in simple words, people now believe that it is better to do more while using fewer resources in order to increase profit margins.
The biggest challenge for asset management in businesses today lies in the kind of master data that they own. This gives them liberty to understand how much material needs to be produced and when they can put a full stop to the production line. Most of these organizations have multiple set-ups across different countries and various spare parts as well as production lines that are in constant running. In this organization employees often have various enterprise systems and different languages that they follow making it difficult to communicate with another geographic locations. This usually causes difference in the materials used as well as an inconsistent end product.
If you want to make sure that the products are well maintained and similar to the ones that are in another place then Asset Management is important. When the master data is of low quality then there are various problems that a business faces some of which are included here. You need to be on the lookout for these things as a business owner.
Unidentifiable Items
These items are usually different from the actual end product and it becomes difficult for a business to even decide what to do with the product.
Duplication
Lack of communication usually results in duplicate products that are produced in large numbers. These products were never in demand and are of no use to the business.
High Inventory Accumulation
When too many products are produced without communication, it becomes difficult for the business to use these products and inventory increases and so does the expense.
False Stock-Out
Communication barriers can also lead to stock-outs that are false. This means that the production line will begin producing the product even though there are enough products available at the store.
Equipment Downtime
Not understanding how to run standard equipment could lead to equipment downtime which can also hinder the production.
Inability To Search And Locate Parts
Not maintaining records of the right spare parts could lead to problems because it becomes difficult to find the spares when you need them.
Misleading Reporting
This is a major issue that happens especially when businesses are spread across different Geographic locations.
It becomes difficult for the vendor Master Data to be precise at all times specifically because of the various catastrophic repairs and other such problems that arise. The material could be different in different Geographic locations and without the live window it would be a huge challenge for businesses to strategically plan their resources and function accordingly. Asset Management is important and so is data cleansing in regards to this because this helps you to sort out the right data and get in touch with them in a time of need.
Asset intensive organizations also need to evolve and ensure that the number of data that they own is put to the right use at the right time. This also includes the various acquisitions and mergers that the business is involved in so that it is made general for people irrespective of their geographic location.
Data Evaluation And The Need To Assess It
Data cleansing is a large process and the entire job requires a lot of time as well as a step by step procedure to be followed correctly. Data evaluation and assessment of the master data is important in order to boost the performance of any organization. Without determining the project requirements it is difficult to assess the data which is why the first stage definitely involves identifying the project requirements and making a list of it. Once this is done a business can then begin to evaluate and analyze the data based on what they are looking for. Generate an automated report to make sure that this data does not contain any duplicate content and it is ready to review. The reviewed data can then be attached to a formal report and sent out as a project. This is why data cleansing is important to any business.
Standard Operating Procedure
When the proposal is accepted by the business outlets, then comes a standard operating procedure that can be followed across the various outlets irrespective of the geographic location. This not only helps to ensure better quality product but it also helps to develop products that are similar to one another with no differences in the quality whatsoever. While this may seem like a very difficult task to achieve the truth is that when you start taking it one step at a time, it will give you the results that you are seeking and you manage to get a clear outcome without any errors in communication.
No matter what field of industry you belong to, data cleansing plays a vital role in Asset Management as well as overall functionality of the business. The sooner a business owner learns this, the better it is for them because they manage to benefit from the process and get end to end results that help the business streamline its functionality and grow better.
There are various kinds of data cleansing tools available in the market to use and as long as you have the right steps that you need to follow, you will manage to benefit from it in a great way. Always begin by checking out what works well for an industry that your business belongs to because different industries have different methods of sorting out the data and those methods prove to be beneficial for those industries specifically.