Dubai, United Arab Emirates – Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) software provider IFS Ultimo has integrated AI functionality into its next-generation EAM platform to enhance troubleshooting, and enable organizations to reduce the mean time to repair (M5TTR) of their assets. By leveraging AI, EAM toolsets will be more intuitive, accessible and predictive, therefore driving unprecedented efficiency and effectiveness in asset management practices.

“AI will take EAM to the next level. Our vision for AI is to focus on real world use cases. When considering what AI to integrate into our platform, we are only embedding features which will add significant value for our customers and improve their user experience”, says Chris van den Belt, Head of Product Management, IFS Ultimo. “Infusing our EAM platform with AI functionalities will radically improve employee productivity and maximize asset availability.” 

Many AI technologies are geared towards predicting and preventing failures and incidents. However, for the majority of organizations, these technologies are more of a long-term goal than a short-term reality. Reactive maintenance will continue to feature prominently in most organization's maintenance strategies. With this in mind, IFS Ultimo has made the conscious decision to harness the powers of AI to significantly reduce time spent on reactive maintenance. Realizing these short-term benefits starting today puts long-term objectives within arm's reach. 

Use of AI minimizes downtime and boosts productivity   

It is estimated that 80 percent of time in MTTR is spent on diagnosing a problem. The biggest chunk of time wasted is due to a lack of communication and detail in failure reports. With Ultimo's built-in AI capabilities, organizations can realize tremendous value with each percentage point reduction in MTTR. This is not chump change: the average cost of downtime in manufacturing often exceeds $100K per hour. Beyond the clear financial stakes, the productivity impact is also profound, especially in an industry where skilled labor is already hard to come by. Furthermore, the immense increase in overall data quality unlocks a wide array of new and exciting possibilities for achieving operational excellence. 

The newly integrated AI functionality provides better quality of failure reporting. Having to spend less time on diagnosing a problem means skilled employees will benefit from increased wrench time, increased asset availability, reduced admin time, improved collaboration and improved employee satisfaction.  

More accurate failure reports accelerate troubleshooting  

Front line workers spend the majority of their working day close to the assets they know so well. Any changes to the way these assets look, sound, smell or feel will not pass them by. Using a large language model (LLM), Ultimo detects the asset in question and provides a series of tailored suggestions that the reporter can easily add to the failure report without having to type. In doing so, all of the sensory observations are captured on the report accurately, providing maintenance teams with complete and accurate information to quickly solve the issue and increase asset availability and reliability. 

This same approach will be used elsewhere in Ultimo to empower the faster resolution of diagnosed issues and enhance the accuracy of completed work activities registered in the system. The overall benefits include a substantial reduction of time spent on administration, severe improvements to data quality and a boost to employee satisfaction. Furthermore, Ultimo is working on integrated AI features that will greatly improve user experience, such as photo-based meter readings, auto-generated image and document captions and auto-translated multi-lingual data. 

Chris concludes: “We are dedicated to developing our products to help users do their jobs more easily with our best-of-breed EAM software. AI has the capability to enhance EAM in future-ready and efficient ways - empowering employees, improving asset performance, and reducing costs. We are very excited to bring these new AI functionalities to our customers while making sure all relevant data protection is in place.”  

For more information visit www.ultimo.com/ai. 

About IFS Ultimo 

IFS Ultimo, an IFS company, energizes the financial resilience, regulatory compliance and operational excellence for healthcare, manufacturing, and logistics businesses through its innovative software-as-a-service (SaaS) enterprise asset management (EAM) solutions. Focused on maintenance, uptime, safety, cost control, and efficiency, the Company is known for rapid deployment, ease of use and an unparalleled time to value. Ultimo supports over 100,000 technicians who manage more than 15 million assets for 2400+ customers worldwide. For further information, see ultimo.com. 

About IFS

IFS is the world’s leading provider of Industrial AI and enterprise software for hardcore businesses that make, service, and power our planet. Our technology enables businesses which manufacture goods, maintain complex assets, and manage service-focused operations to unlock the transformative power of Industrial AI™ to enhance productivity, efficiency, and sustainability.

IFS Cloud is a fully composable AI-powered platform, designed for ultimate flexibility and adaptability to our customers’ specific requirements and business evolution. It spans the needs of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Enterprise Asset Management (EAM), Supply Chain Management (SCM), Information Technology Service Management (ITSM), and Field Service Management (FSM). IFS technology leverages AI, machine learning, real-time data and analytics to empower our customers to make informed strategic decisions and excel at their Moment of Service™.

IFS was founded in 1983 by five university friends who pitched a tent outside our first customer's site to ensure they would be available 24/7 and the needs of the customer would come first. Since then, IFS has grown into a global leader with over 7,000 employees in 80 countries. Driven by those foundational values of agility, customer-centricity, and trust, IFS is recognized worldwide for delivering value and supporting strategic transformations. We are the most recommended supplier in our sector. Visit ifs.com to learn why.

Contact information
NORTH AMERICA / LATAM: Mairi Morgan
IFS, Director of Corporate & Executive Communications
Email: mairi.morgan@ifs.com

EUROPE / MEA / APJ: Adam Gillbe
IFS, Director of Corporate & Executive Communications
Email: adam.gillbe@ifs.com

Stephanie Fung
Copperleaf, Marketing Communications Manager
Email: pr09@copperleaf.com