Several issues in equipment management that urgently need improvement

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Equipment management is a systematic interdisciplinary field that integrates technology, economics, and management; it is also an art of balancing costs, performance, and risks. Equipment managers must maintain high levels of energy, stay closely informed about key policies, and rely on reform, transformation, and innovation to increase the utilization rate of equipment, thereby turning it into a new source of growth for the enterprise and creating new drivers for development. 01 Equipment structure issues: These are evident in the high proportion of equipment that consumes a lot, causes significant pollution, and produces low output, while the proportion of equipment with high added value, low carbon emissions, energy efficiency, and safety is low. At the same time, complex and dangerous tasks, which account for a smaller proportion, make use of high-performance equipment, whereas simple and repetitive tasks, which constitute a larger proportion, are still carried out using outdated equipment or semi-automatic systems, resulting in high costs, high energy consumption, low efficiency, and poor quality. To this end, it is necessary to accelerate technological innovation in equipment, phase out outdated technologies, reduce the use of devices with inadequate performance, promote new technologies, and foster the development of high-value-added equipment, thereby ensuring the green, low-carbon, and rapid development of enterprises. In industries such as agriculture, forestry, and fisheries, it is necessary to widely use machinery to replace manual labor, thereby implementing comprehensive mechanized production processes that improve the quality of outputs, reduce the number of production steps, and lower production costs. 02 Regional (industry) disparity issue: The structural issues at the regional (industry) level are evident in the asynchronous equipment allocation across different regions (industries). In the eastern regions, equipment is upgraded more frequently, and its configuration is more reasonable, whereas in the western regions, equipment upgrading is slower, there is less use of high-tech technologies, and the efficiency and safety performance of the equipment fall short of requirements. Similarly, the same problems exist in different industries; for example, capital-intensive sectors such as telecommunications and aviation are able to keep up with market trends, with rapid equipment upgrades, thus remaining in line with the world’s most advanced technologies ； Industries such as steel and shipbuilding are constrained by market conditions, resulting in slow equipment upgrades; many pieces of equipment that have been in use for thirty to forty years are still operational. Another issue with the regional (sectoral) structure is the uneven, uncoordinated, and unfair development of regions (sectors). For example, some areas (industries) enjoy many \"privileged\" policies that allow them to upgrade their equipment at low costs, while most areas (industries) have to rely on themselves, resulting in severely outdated equipment technology. To this end, it is necessary to uniformly enforce mandatory standards regarding energy consumption, emissions, and safety, raise the thresholds, and require that equipment with high energy consumption, high emissions, and high risks be forced to withdraw from the market. At the same time, monopolistic policies should be abolished, and preferential policies should be implemented for industries such as agriculture, forestry, and fisheries, as well as for relatively underdeveloped regions in the west. Issues closely related to equipment, such as emission patterns, energy consumption patterns, industry structure, and supply security, should be considered from an overall perspective. 03 Issue of continuous input of elements: The continuity of inputs is a very common problem. Many companies today focus only on the one-time investment in equipment and facilities, paying little attention to investments in management, maintenance, upgrading, and renovation; these aspects account for a small proportion of the total costs associated with daily production. As a result, managers are not competent enough, and the performance of the equipment declines. The ultimate consequences are inferior equipment performance, increased energy consumption, higher failure rates, and lower operational efficiency. To this end, business leaders should adhere to the principle that \"preparing the tools well doesn’t delay the actual work.\" In terms of hardware, they should increase investment in equipment inspection, maintenance, and upgrading; whereas in terms of software, they should focus on upgrading the equipment management systems and providing training for maintenance personnel. They should also actively seek out external expertise and adopt advanced management concepts and methods, such as the \"Equipment Manager\" system and PAS management standards. 04 Lack of attention to basic equipment data: The importance of basic equipment data is self-evident, yet in companies it often remains overlooked, as if it’s right in front of our eyes yet invisible. It does not receive sufficient attention. Although many companies collect data on availability rates, accidents, energy consumption, and gauge readings, they use this information merely for recording and evaluation purposes, rather than for conducting data analysis and improving management practices. To this end, equipment management must incorporate big data concepts, collecting, recording, and analyzing data related to the economic efficiency and productivity of equipment throughout its life cycle. For instance, data on product maintenance, operational status, and repair/recovery conditions should be systematically recorded and analyzed using a \"equipment manager\" system, so that problems can be identified and resolved based on this data, thereby ensuring the economic efficiency, safety, integrity, and low energy consumption of the equipment. 05 Equipment inspection issues: Many companies are now implementing inspection systems, but these are mostly of the second generation – descriptive in nature – and they still manage equipment using traditional planned-economy approaches in a market economy environment. The results of inspections can only provide a brief indication of the physical performance of certain components of the equipment over a short period of time; their purpose is narrowly limited to facilitating “shutdowns”. To this end, companies should shift the focus of equipment management downward, avoiding a narrow perspective that considers only the equipment itself. It is necessary to establish the concept that equipment should serve the company’s products rather than production processes. The purpose of routine inspections should be elevated to focusing on preventing downtime, with the goal of ensuring that such downtime is under control, thus fulfilling the responsibility of equipment management in supporting production activities. The \"Equipment Manager\" system should be adopted; while fulfilling the responsibilities related to equipment support, the various interest groups within the enterprise should be combined to form a three-in-one grassroots equipment management structure, so as to carry out the duties of equipment managers effectively. 06 Issues with Spare Parts: There are generally three problems with equipment spare parts: first, the overall quantity of spare parts is unreasonable – either there are too many, leading to inventory issues, or too few, which hinders equipment maintenance ； Secondly, obsolete spare parts that should have been removed from inventory still remain there; due to financial management regulations, such spare parts cannot be written off ； Third is the issue of the supply chain for spare parts to support high-precision and advanced equipment. To this end, equipment managers should take into account factors such as the lifecycle and procurement cycle of spare parts, the maintenance cycle of the equipment, inspection results, and financial budgets, in order to set an appropriate level of spare parts inventory that ensures the minimum inventory required for equipment maintenance. 07 Issues with the income distribution structure: There is a widespread problem of inverted income levels among equipment managers – their incomes are lower than those of maintenance staff, who in turn have lower incomes than operators. Enterprise managers pay more attention to positions that are more closely related to product production, while giving less emphasis to support roles. At the same time, the career prospects for equipment managers are unclear (except in special industries such as ports and chemicals); they reach the ceiling of their careers at an early stage, losing the motivation to keep striving, which can lead to negative attitudes such as waiting, procrastination, and reliance on others. To this end, companies should take equipment managers into proper consideration when making decisions regarding compensation, career planning, and talent development. They need to understand that what can be resolved with minimal effort in an office setting may require seven times more effort on-site, in order to boost the motivation of equipment managers. At the same time, equipment managers should also abandon a passive attitude of waiting, delaying, or relying on others, and actively unleash their enthusiasm and dedication for work. These structural problems in the seven areas are both relatively independent and interrelated, requiring targeted solutions through structural reforms.