PeopleSoft Maintenance Management: a deeper look

June 23, 2009
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Last week we dove into the Real Estate Management module included within PeopleSoft’s ALM product suite. This week I’m going to dig into another module within the ALM product suite — Maintenance Management (MM). For anyone interested in asset maintenance and reliability, this one’s for you.

Given the rough sledding in the economy right now, managing a company’s assets is hugely topical. Here’s a quote from a June 2009 AMR Research Report entitled Asset Management Algebra: EAM = ROI:

“Companies don’t have the luxury of large capital budgets in today’s economy. They have to do more—or at least as much—with less. This means that, in respect to their assets, they have to wring out efficiency and extend the life and usefulness of their existing plants, property, and equipment. This is at the core of many organizations’ enterprise asset management programs.”

The PeopleSoft MM system is a full function, end-to-end solution providing complete visibility and control of a company’s capital and non-capital assets. Assets are managed throughout their entire lifecycle, from acquisition through in-service and ultimately to retirement. PeopleSoft customers using the MM system enjoy the benefits of reduced capital equipment downtime, lower costs to maintain these assets, and ease of compliance with safety regulations. In addition, the fully integrated solution minimizes the TCO of the software solution.

Besides providing robust functionality, I believe the biggest benefit PeopleSoft customers receive is the integration into their existing PeopleSoft Financial, HCM, and Supply Chain systems. Interfacing a third-party MM system is expensive, complex, and time consuming. The PeopleSoft MM application ships with native integrations with the following PeopleSoft modules:

PeopleSoft Asset Management
PeopleSoft Project Costing
PeopleSoft Resource Management
PeopleSoft HCM
PeopleSoft Purchasing
PeopleSoft eProcurement
PeopleSoft Inventory
PeopleSoft Accounts Payable

To illustrate my point, consider the lifecycle of a work order and all the systems it touches, from generation of the work order to performing the work required, closing out the work order, as well as all the associated accounting. It’s a lot and complex, so let’s walk through an example.

When a work order is generated, it may access the inventory system for spare parts availability, the purchasing system if parts or other MRO items are not on hand and need to be purchased, the accounts payable system to handle the payment of the purchased MRO items or spare parts, the HCM system to determine what person(s) has the skills to perform the work, and the general ledger and asset management systems after the work is performed. Lots and lots of touchpoints, and this is a relatively limited example.

It is not uncommon for a PeopleSoft customer using a third-party MM system to develop and maintain over 20 bi-directional interfaces to the GL, AP, Inventory, Procurement, HCM and Asset Management systems. PeopleSoft MM eliminates these integration headaches with its native ties to other PeopleSoft systems. If you think this is just spec sheet fodder, it’s not: these out-of-box integrations save massive amounts of time and effort.

So, what about the ROI? Let’s again go back to what AMR Research says:

“EAM systems can provide demonstrable results in a relatively short time frame. In today’s environment, where budgets are tight and freeing up or conserving working capital is paramount, developing and implementing a robust EAM solution can help deliver incremental profit to the bottom line.”

PeopleSoft customers operating in asset-intensive verticals such as Mining, Utilities, Hospitality, Education, State/Local Government, Manufacturing and Oil/Gas would be well advised to review the benefits offered in the PeopleSoft MM system. Likewise, if your organization has a fleet of vehicles, multiple capital assets used for production, or multiple facilities requiring ongoing maintenance, take the time to learn more about PeopleSoft Maintenance Management.

For more information on the PeopleSoft MM product, please email me or give us a call at 800-774-5187. In addition, you can check out Oracle’s website and download some of the collateral related to the product. If you’d like more of a in-depth primer on PeopleSoft MM’s and a deeper explanation of its benefits (especially compared to point solutions), download our free whitepaper entitled PeopleSoft Maintenance Management: An Introduction and Overview of Benefits.

Next week we’ll discuss the features and benefits of the PeopleSoft IT Asset Management (ITAM) application, the third asset management application contained in the PeopleSoft Asset Lifecycle Management (ALM) suite. Be sure to come back (or subscribe to our RSS) if you’re interested. Alternatively, if you’re into social media, hit us up on Twitter or become our fan on Facebook.

An Introduction to PeopleSoft Asset Lifecycle Management

Sneak Peek: PeopleSoft Enterprise Portal 9.1

PeopleTools 8.5: A Look Inside

Related whitepapers (PDF):

PeopleSoft Maintenance Management: An Introduction and Overview of Benefits