Asset Management vs Facility Management: Understanding the Key Differences

Asset management and facility management are two processes that people often talk about interchangeably, but what do these terms really mean? What’s the difference between asset management vs. facility management? In this blog, we’ll clarify these questions and provide tips for implementing these practices yourself.

What is Asset Management?

Asset management is the overall maintenance of a facility’s physical assets in a way that maximizes their value and longevity. These assets can include a range of items such as:

• Manufacturing equipment and vehicles
• Equipment and machinery
• Other physical assets

Asset management ensures that these supplies remain operational and that high-value assets are preserved for as long as possible.

What is Facility Management?

Facility management is the overseeing of operations and maintenance of a facility in order to ensure that it functions efficiently. This includes supervision over:

• Infrastructure
• Buildings
• Physical assets

The purpose of facility management is to create a safe and productive environment for everyone within it while maximizing the longevity of these facilities. To help your facilities team close skill gaps, improve productivity, and expedite onboarding, check out our Vectors Solutions training courses for facilities management.

Key Differences Between Asset Management vs Facility Management

While these terms can easily get confused with one another, asset and facility management differ in many ways. Let’s dive a bit deeper into some of their key differences.

Focus and Objectives

Asset and facility management vary when it comes to their respective focuses and objectives:

Responsibilities and Activities

Engaging in both asset and facility management requires a wide range of responsibilities and activities.

For asset management, this includes:

• Acquiring and sustaining assets
• Tracking the reliability and lifespans of assets
• Managing risks associated with asset ownership and operation
• Optimizing the performance of assets through strategic planning
• Disposing of assets at the end of their life cycles

For facility management, this entails:

• Managing maintenance and repair schedules
• Ensuring compliance with regulations like OSHA
• Optimizing space utilization and overall facility layout
• Workforce management and training

By fulfilling these responsibilities and activities, you can increase organizational efficiency, safety compliance, and workforce productivity within your organization.

Skills and Training Required

Each of these processes require a combination of specific skill sets and training to be conducted effectively. The main differences between asset management vs facility management are in the application of these skills.

But both disciplines require:

• Risk Management. The ability to assess and mitigate risks when maintaining assets and/or facilities.
• Preventive Maintenance. Avoid equipment and facility downtime with proper preventive maintenance training.
• Health and Safety Compliance. Keep your workforce informed of health and safety regulations when performing regular maintenance using HSE training. And utilize EHS management solutions to find and address safety hazards in real time.
• Management. Managing the day-to-day maintenance of assets and facilities is critical to increasing operational efficiency and saving your organization time and resources.

For some tips on how to implement a facility management training program for your workforce, get our list of seven practical training tips. This is especially helpful for filling skills gaps among employees, increasing onboarding speed, and cross-training employees on a variety of topics.

Importance of Asset Management

Asset management is a critical component of sustaining a well-running facility. Here, we will explore the impacts of asset management in a bit more depth.

Benefits for Organizations

When conducted properly, asset management serves as a helpful tool for companies, their employees, and their clients. Some benefits include:

• Better business practices
• Improved asset acquisition and use
• Long-term system integrity
• Improved regulatory compliance

Impact on Efficiency and Costs

In addition to the benefits that asset management provides organizations, it also has a positive impact on efficiency and costs.

Did you know that 43% of businesses aren’t tracking their assets efficiently? And 80% of equipment maintenance is reactive? This leads to time wasted, inefficient operations, and increased costs.

When companies optimally allocate resources and then properly manage them, the productivity and efficiency of their employees naturally increases.

Additionally, asset management leads to cost efficiency because it:

• Optimizes asset utilization
• Minimizes downtime
• Fosters informed decision making about maintenance and replacements
• Decreases the need to purchase new equipment

All of these factors help lead to a decline in overall operating costs for companies, as employees are able to spend more time on tasks that truly matter.

Importance of Facility Management

Facility management is equally important to improve the efficiency, safety, and productivity of an organization.

Enhancing Safety and Compliance

Implementing facility management skills and training has a significant impact on safety and compliance in the workplace. Here are some of the benefits:

• Quickly identify safety issues. Regular audits help identify potential safety issues and non-compliance.
• Proactive maintenance and management. Strategic facility management enables you to switch from reactive to proactive and preventive maintenance, increasing uptime and saving your organization money.
• Improved emergency preparedness. Creating clear emergency action plans decreases organizational risk and improves employee safety.

Improving Workforce Productivity

When employees are satisfied at work, their productivity increases by 20%. Facility management directly leads to this level of employee satisfaction and increased workforce productivity, as it ensures a clean, safe, sustainable work environment.

Work with Vector Solutions to Improve Asset and Facility Management

At your organization, you’re likely focused on improving both facility management and asset management to maximize the value of your assets, increase uptime, and create a safe, productive workforce, while minimizing associated risks and costs.

Combining best practices and providing comprehensive training for your technicians and maintenance personnel is key to achieving your business objectives.

Vector Solutions provides award-winning, online training specifically designed for facilities teams. Our courses are designed to close skills gaps, accelerate onboarding, and improve the performance of your teams.

Eager to learn more about implementing facility management in your own company? Check out Vector Solutions’ online courses for facilities management and training.