Tracking your assets isn’t bean-counting busywork. It’s a vital task that facilitates successful management and informed decisions to benefit your entire organization.

Unfortunately, many organizations make the same mistake: thinking that an asset management system alone is enough.

They are one step ahead of companies without any asset management functionalities, but they’re still missing out on the real benefits of effective asset management. Here are three reasons why you need an asset management policy to stay competitive.

It Puts Management in the Driver’s Seat

First and foremost, an asset management policy puts management in the driver’s seat. Think of it this way.

You have a safety policy. This was ironed out and carefully articulated by upper management, allowing them to communicate their safety expectations. It also lets management set an example of what they consider to be good behavior and what they view as business best practices.

The same thing applies to your asset management.

An asset management policy gives management the chance to declare its commitment to efficient asset management. It also allows management to set clear expectations and standards of performance.

A Bird’s Eye View of the Whole Enterprise

Because CMMS asset management policies and systems go hand-in-hand, they are both driven by a complete picture of your organization.

For workers and mid-management, it can be easy to get lost in the day-to-day tasks of asset management. In other words, it’s harder to see the big picture. But this lack of big picture thinking means that essential participants may make decisions that are right in the short-term and wrong in the long-term.

An asset management policy is essential in big-picture thinking because it forces your organization and all levels of management to articulate your goals. This will allow you to take actionable first steps toward achieving them.

Coordinating Every Asset Toward a Common Goal

In other words, by establishing your asset management mission, you can do a better job of coordinating every asset toward a common goal.

Essentially, your policy is a chance to get everyone on board with the company mission – and understand how the mission plays out in their everyday tasks.

Many companies struggle on this front. Leaders are trained to understand the big picture, but workers on the ground often struggle to see how their work applies. This leaves them at a remove from management and the driving vision of the company. As a result, they’re ill-equipped and ill-motivated to make decisions to the benefit of the mission.

An asset management policy gives you a chance to articulate what the goal is, how you intend to get there, and how everyday asset management links to the long-term vision and mission.

Writing Your Asset Management Policy

In short, an asset management policy goes deeper than a predictive maintenance program or a management system. It allows management to bring the whole company together around everyday tasks that employees can understand, strengthening the whole enterprise around a common goal.

Practically and philosophically, it’s an investment in your future success.

For more ideas on how your policies and programs can integrate, make sure to check out our blog for more great tips, like this post on equipment maintenance best practices.