Octave Attune EAM (formerly HxGN EAM)

My main use case for Hexagon EAM is working for a transportation company, specifically a Government of Ontario transportation company, where we have a lot of buses and trains in our fleet. We use Hexagon EAM for our daily operations and maintenance. For example, if a bus needs maintenance, the technician has to have a work order handy. Back in those days, they used to use paper for maintenance activities, but now with Hexagon EAM application, the work order is automatically generated and managers can easily assign the work order to a technician.

The technician reviews the work order and they can maintain the buses. Every night at 11:00 PM, all the buses go to the garage and these technicians in the field check the work orders that they are supposed to fix on the buses and then go to the buses and fix them. We also use Hexagon EAM for predictive maintenance and preventive maintenance activities as well.

I work for a transportation company where day-to-day, the technicians will perform a lot of preventive maintenance activities for all the assets, including not only the buses but also the trains that are assets of my transportation company. Technicians, managers, planners, operators, and super users all work together to ensure the asset lifespan is increased, the bus lifespan is increased, and buses are put on the road only after inspection and only when they are safe for travel.

A lot of complexity is reduced, and a lot of cost savings are also ensured with the help of Hexagon EAM application.

The best features Hexagon EAM offers include the auto generation of work orders. Whenever the time comes for a bus to be repaired, managers can quickly generate a work order in no time and assign the work orders to the crew. Another important feature of Hexagon EAM is preventive maintenance, which helps to increase the lifespan of the asset, and alert management is also one of the key features we use. Follow-up work orders are another feature; whenever the technician is working on a specific work order and if any follow-up is required, they can easily go to the checklist and mention that a follow-up is required, and it auto-generates a follow-up work order.

These are the main features of Hexagon EAM application, and added to this, dashboards, inboxes, and KPIs are also key functionalities of the EAM application.

Hexagon EAM has positively impacted our organization by providing cost savings and time savings as well. Back in those days, my colleagues and the technicians used to work everything on paper. Storing paper in the warehouse is risky because they cannot store it for long, and millions of pieces of paper are required every day. With the help of this application, we avoid using paper for good, managing inventory calculations, purchase requisitions, purchase orders, invoices, work orders, predictive maintenance activities, preventive maintenance activities, asset management, and procurement online without relying much on paper.

We can send our invoices to the vendors using the application as well, and Hexagon EAM is integrated with Oracle EBS application, making it easily integrated with many other third-party applications. We can reduce the time it takes to procure material and the time it takes to issue a work order to the technician.

When it comes to specific outcomes or metrics since adopting Hexagon EAM, we are able to create a purchase requisition in 5 minutes or even less and a purchase order in just 2 minutes. With the integration of third-party vendors, the vendors see the purchase order within minutes, so whenever a part is required for a bus or a train, technicians do not have to wait for days. They can easily order the part within minutes, getting shipping done from suppliers in no time. This has improved the efficiency of our daily operations and maintenance activities.

In terms of cost savings, this application is also beneficial because we do not need paper nowadays; we have the application that runs 24/7, 365 days a year. By saving time for technicians, we complete work that typically takes 8 hours in just 4 hours, resulting in saving 50% of time and reducing labor costs as a result.

Out of those features, I would say preventive maintenance has had the biggest impact on my team because all the buses and trains and all the assets that belong to Metrolinx need to have their lifespan increased, and safety is also ensured with the preventive maintenance activities. Safety is key because this is a transportation company that belongs to the Government of Ontario, and public travel via buses and trains occurs all day, 365 days a year, 24 hours a day. With these preventive maintenance activities, we were able to fix the issues in advance and ensure public travel in a safe transit.

Hexagon EAM can be improved by incorporating artificial intelligence features, predictive maintenance features, and inventory management improvements. They can also explore adding more features beneficial for daily operations. Hexagon EAM could also extend into different sectors like oil and engineering fields, which they are already doing. The EAM application will help save money through predictive maintenance activities, leading to higher efficiency of the equipment.

I want to highlight that whenever we have hundreds of checklist items on a specific route, which has hundreds of equipment, processing these work orders takes a lot of time. The status changes are time-consuming because these work orders have hundreds of equipment attached to them and numerous checklist items. When we save the work order, it takes a long time. If Hexagon can improve the speed of the application, whether in the on-premise or cloud versions, by optimizing the user interface response times, it would be very helpful for us.

On a scale of 1 to 10, I would give Hexagon EAM a 7. I chose 7 out of 10 because there are still many improvements needed on the EAM application regarding performance and the addition of predictive maintenance and artificial intelligence features. There is significant scope for improvement in application performance, which justifies my score of 7 out of 10.

I have been using Hexagon EAM for 7 years and 2 months.

Hexagon EAM is a stable application.

Hexagon EAM is a highly scalable solution. We have scaled it across our organization, which has around 2,500 users across different departments. It is not just a bus organization; we also have trains, corporate assets, rail services, cleaning services in the stations, and track repair departments. Around 10 to 15 organizations within our organization use Hexagon EAM application, which is also integrated with 7 to 8 other third-party applications, demonstrating its scalability.

The customer support for Hexagon EAM is highly reliable; we receive a response within 1 to 2 hours after creating a case. If it is a critical issue, we get an instant response. I believe customer support for Hexagon EAM is among the best.

I would rate the customer support of Hexagon EAM a 9 out of 10.

We have not used any other solution for our asset management before Hexagon EAM; everything was done manually on paper and in Excel sheets.

I have seen a return on investment with Hexagon EAM. Cost and time savings represent a significant return on investment. If a task requires three people to complete in three hours, it can now be accomplished by three people in one hour thanks to this application. The reduced time to create a work order and assign it to the technician is remarkable compared to previous case scenarios. Nowadays, technicians receive work orders immediately and can get started right away, eliminating downtime. The time saved translates to savings, and the reduction in labor time makes a positive financial impact.

We evaluated options prior to choosing Hexagon EAM, which was conducted by our VP. They looked into IBM Maximo, Oracle EBS for asset management, and SAP, but ultimately chose Hexagon EAM as the best fit.

My main use case for Hexagon EAM is the purchasing cycle and work orders.

As a consultant, I help the business resolve issues during the purchase order cycle, such as when a user creates a requisition that goes to the financial system to get a PO created and sent back to Hexagon EAM for reflection, followed by the receiving and invoicing at the financial system which we receive in Hexagon EAM. I also work as an integration consultant to ensure the flow between Hexagon EAM and other financial applications is smoother. For work orders, users assign work for asset maintenance and preventive maintenance, and I help them resolve the related issues.

I use all four modules in Hexagon EAM: equipment, materials, purchasing, and work.

I believe there are many options in the cloud environment with DataBridge Pro, which Hexagon has introduced to avoid the dependency between external systems like Infor OS, allowing us to do integrations with different systems using Hexagon DataBridge Pro.

Compared to Infor OS, DataBridge Pro has inbuilt capabilities that connect to Hexagon EAM, and its drag-and-drop feature makes configuration easy.

Hexagon EAM helps the business maintain the buses by daily reading their mileage and managing asset life cycle maintenance. Regular work orders and task plans are created, which ensure that the end customer in the transport company is not affected.

Thanks to Hexagon EAM, the process of asset life cycle maintenance is easier, and parts of the organization are procured quickly. Another feature I appreciate is the automatic reordering of parts.

One thing most users complain about is the speed; I do not think it is an application issue but more about maintaining the database.

I feel that giving it an eight is a fair suggestion for different clients, but there is considerable scope to improve the application's performance.

I have been working for 11 years in the IT industry and six years on Hexagon EAM.

In my experience, Hexagon EAM is good in terms of scalability.

The customer support for Hexagon EAM is quite good; I regularly connect with their support, and they are responsive and helpful.

I am not certain about the pricing, setup costs, and licensing since I have never been involved in those aspects.

It was not my responsibility to evaluate different applications, as I am at the consulting level and not the decision-maker.

I would advise anyone considering using Hexagon EAM that it is a good tool with many configurable capabilities for business needs. I would rate this product an eight overall.

My main use cases for Hexagon EAM are asset maintenance and inventory management, which are primarily used in automotive manufacturing and the pharmaceuticals industry.

I can provide a specific example of how I used Hexagon EAM for asset maintenance in an automotive manufacturing industry. For one of my customers in this industry, we use a multi-organization setup in Hexagon EAM. They have a lot of equipment that creates spare parts for different automotive companies, such as Mercedes and Maserati, and they need to perform regular maintenance on the machines that produce those parts. Those machines can be any type, including a simple motor, pump, or sewing machine that stitches car seats. We create work schedules in Hexagon EAM for those equipments and the PM schedule, and based on the type and details of that PM schedule, we release work orders that are carried out by technicians who perform the work and close those work orders, ensuring a record is kept for the maintenance of all equipment.

Regarding inventory management, it was used for keeping a record of spare parts but was limited to the usage of spare parts for maintenance; the purchasing side was not utilized much. We kept a record of all the spares present in the organization, tracking what kind of spare is needed and what kind of spare is issued during maintenance.

The best feature Hexagon EAM offers is undoubtedly the work order management, which helps in tracking different types of maintenance and creating different types of work orders according to the customer's use case and need. It includes variable, fixed, and duplicate types of work orders that fit most scenarios needing work orders. This is one of the best features of Hexagon EAM, and apart from this, there are also some KPIs, inboxes, and charts that help us keep a record and provide live updates on current status, KPIs, and an overall overview of plant maintenance.

Hexagon EAM has positively impacted my organization by reducing the downtime of the assets. In the past, maintenance was tracked through Excel sheets, requiring a new sheet to be created for each day or month. With Hexagon EAM, it is easier and more efficient, featuring an easier UI to understand and read. It simplifies report creation, which has significantly increased overall productivity and helped in tracking maintenance. Preventive maintenance is now easily performed, and we can track common failures, which in turn leads to cost savings through preventing labor from being over-scheduled.

I would add that one of the features of Hexagon EAM that could be improved is the lack of vendor-side integration or a module for vendors. In most cases I have encountered where Hexagon EAM is used for the purchasing module, it has been integrated with another application designed for purchasing. This is an additional feature Hexagon could work on, as none of the vendors, whom I refer to as manufacturers or suppliers, are actually using Hexagon EAM. This creates a break in the linkage.

To address how Hexagon EAM can be improved, it excels at work management, with the majority of its functionalities focused there, but it lacks in the inventory module. Most suppliers or manufacturers do not use Hexagon EAM as their primary product and must integrate it with third-party applications such as SAP purchasing modules, which disrupts the workflow. Additionally, while there are inboxes, a helpful feature would be notifications on your desktop while logged into Hexagon EAM to speed up the workflow.

I have been using Hexagon EAM for nearly four and a half years.

On the integration side, I have not used DataBridge Pro, but I believe it is a good step towards integration with other applications. Reporting through Cognos Report Studio is good and offers most necessary features, and it is as powerful as BI reporting tools. The user experience is good, being clean, simple, and easier to understand, and does not require improvements.

I rate Hexagon EAM as an eight on a scale of one to ten.

I give it an eight because Hexagon EAM is simple to use and decently easier to understand for a first-time user, facilitating easy onboarding. The work management module effectively tracks different types of assets and performs maintenance on them. The new workflow feature for closing work orders with permissions is beneficial. The main area needing improvement is inventory management.

Regarding Hexagon EAM's AI capabilities, I know it is integrated with a version of OpenAI, but I do not have much to say about governance and security. As long as user data remains secure and is not used to train the entire OpenAI model, I believe the security practices and governance are adequate, ensuring that the planning of assets and maintenance schedules stay within the customer's environment.

I have not used Hexagon EAM's AI capabilities to answer this question about its accuracy and reliability of output.

For anyone starting with Hexagon EAM, I would suggest understanding its capabilities, what it can offer, and how powerful it is to fit into their existing equipment framework. Loading all modules and features of Hexagon EAM properly is crucial, as using a powerful application such as Hexagon EAM for minor maintenance does not maximize its capabilities. My first advice would be to fully understand Hexagon EAM and all it can offer to effectively onboard new users.