There is a common perception that Enterprise Asset Management solution (EAM) is more a financial application, while Computerized Maintenance and Management System (CMMS) is more an operational application, since it tracks repairs, parts, costs of parts and maintenance at the equipment level. But it is too simplified and a bit misleading. The fact is both solutions track the financial and operational information. They are different in scope.
Differences between EAM and CMMS:
- The Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) solution organizes the physical and fiscal information of enterprise assets on one platform, follows the work flows associated with managing assets, supports the business processes of managing the receiving, assigning, deploying, and retiring assets. From an operational perspective, it tracks the physical whereabouts of the assets, who have custody of them at any point of time, and the physical condition of the assets. It also tracks the financial information of the assets, such as lease terms and dates, maintenance costs, residual value, disposal value, and calculates the total cost of ownership of assets.
- The Computerized Maintenance and Management System (CMMS) tracks the maintenance activities and costs for the equipment that require maintenance. It tracks the work flow of maintenance, and the cost information associated with these maintenance events.
The differences between EAM and CMMS include the type of assets they track and the scope of information they track:
- EAM tracks the entire enterprise asset portfolio, including IT and physical assets, equipment and buildings, fixed assets and consumables, while CMMS tracks a subset of that.
- EAM tracks the lifecycle total cost of ownership of assets, while CMMS focuses on the maintenance stage of equipment life.
