Equipment management and asset organization are far more efficient and accurate with equipment management software.
This guide discusses what equipment management software is, then provides an in-depth report on its many benefits.
It then offers suggestions about the best options for equipment management software and its features, including an overview of their pros and cons.
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What Is Equipment Management Software?
Equipment management software is a comprehensive method that allows businesses to log, organize, track, and measure their assets and inventory.
It gives each item a unique code, a tag appropriate to its location and use, and an alphanumeric identifier.
As employees scan each item, a history builds of where the item is, how it performs, and what the latest status of its maintenance cycle is.
This is valuable because it creates a profile for each item. Here’s an example:
It means that even if a company owns five water heaters of the same make, model, and age, the system charts them separately.
That makes it easier to tell them apart and to monitor their lifecycle.
The data this information produces allows for better efficiency, easier planning, and more effective maintenance.
Reports are easily and quickly generated by the equipment management software for audits, study, presentations, and decision making.
The Benefits of Using Equipment Management Software
There are several benefits to using equipment management software. It’s best to think of what your company wants from its system, and choose software to fit these goals.
Once your equipment management software is in place, at least some of these benefits should quickly manifest.
Better Availability
Equipment management software can mean better availability.
By facilitating organization and communication, the system provides streamlined tasking for the entire business.
It enables employees to:
Know what is in working condition: Equipment management software enables employees and managers to know if an asset is in preventive maintenance or broken, to avoid pushing assets beyond their increased reliability.
Communicate better about equipment: Having an overview of what assets are available at which times helps prevent double booking and eases communication about blocking off certain items.
Plan more easily: With equipment management software, the whereabouts and plans for each asset are available at a glance. Decision-makers and managers can plan for maintenance, schedule the use of equipment, and provide realistic expectations for clients more efficiently.
Control the flow of assets: Seeing availability allows employees to redirect assets and equipment in the event of a sudden breakdown, weather issues, or other changes in plans.
Real-time updates: Equipment management software, via scanning or GPS updates, is updatable in real time. This provides an invaluable database for quick action.
If a manager or workforce member isn’t aware that an item is available, it’s almost as if the asset doesn’t exist for the company.
Therefore, having a robust and constantly updated idea of availability boosts cost-effectiveness.
Loss and Damage Control
A good equipment management system helps reduce damage and prevent loss or theft. Here’s how it helps:
Employee accountability: Scanning creates a custodial trail, one that is continually updated. When it’s clear that a tagged item has tracking capabilities, asset shrinkage lessens.
Identification: Because equipment management equips each item with a unique alphanumeric identifier, law enforcement and employees or managers can provide proof of ownership in the event of loss or theft.
Difficult-to-remove tags: Strong adhesive, welding, and drilling can be used to attach these easily customizable tags to the asset. They can be tamper-proof, slowing down thieves or leaving discernable marking if removed.
Know what’s missing: If an item remains in a system after loss or misplacement, employees waste valuable time, and customer expectations might become frustrated.
Limit access: People with access to proprietary information and the movements of assets along the supply chain can take illicit advantage of this knowledge, even selling it on the dark web. Equipment management systems limit this access with individual passwords on a need-to-know basis.
A strong offense is important in loss and damage control.
Preventing loss and allowing for a quick recovery is easier with an equipment management system.
What to Look for in Equipment Management Software
Since companies use equipment management software in a large variety of industries, finding the best fit for your organization is important.
The following list of features, however, is universal in a strong and workable system.
Mobile and Cloud-Based
A flexible, mobile equipment management solution is not only a better choice for your business, but most expect it of a modern company.
Here are the benefits of a mobile and cloud-based solution:
Scalable: Large and small businesses can use these systems. Whether assets ship internationally or deploy in a one-room business center, equipment management software keeps them organized on the go.
Instant updates: Despite time zones, distance, and work shifts, with equipment management software, asset tracking updates automatically.
Accessible by all relevant parties: Individual passwords and 24-hour access means that information is immediately visible when needed.
Better customer service: Since customer questions, texts, and emails are accessible instantly, you can confer with clients as necessary. In addition, if your team has a question or requires clarification from a client, communication is instant.
Instant automation: When an asset tag scans, information is automatically and accurately updated.
Safety: Employees in the field can quickly file accident or damage reports. In addition, individual logins for employees who need it increases security.
Lower costs: When a scan uploads data to the cloud, it’s possible to eliminate paper and hard-drive-based storage, thus cutting costs. In the event of a natural disaster, hard drive theft, or office move, the information is still available as necessary.
Using mobile devices in combination with cloud-based storage helps to meet the expectations of both team members and clients.
Scannable Tags
Scannable tags offer a flexible and mobile-based system for businesses of all types and sizes. Systems like GoCodes are ideal in harnessing the benefits of scannable tags.
Outdoor Tags Suitable for a Wide Range of Conditions: Assets that stay outside require a different subgenre of tags than those that remain in an indoor environment. An asset in warm, humid air near saltwater has different needs than one kept in constant cold or around harsh chemicals.
Customizable Tags for Frequently-Handled Indoor Assets: Some objects, such as library books, don’t spend a lot of time outdoors, but pass from person to person a great deal. They undergo a lot of handling but do not withstand extreme temperatures or environments. GoCodes can customize each tag for each asset.
Ease of Use: Scannable tags either use a QR code or barcode. Employees can scan QR with any common mobile device, such as tablets or smartphones. Barcodes typically use handheld scanners. Both are intuitive and simple to work with.
Selectable: Not every asset can or should carry an asset tag. The ability to choose which items receive tags streamlines the inventory and asset tracking process.
The right tags make a great deal of difference.
Integrating scannable tags with a full equipment management system is essential. When patented QR tags are part of the inventory structure, customization is easy and adjustable.
Identifying Issues
A good equipment management system should feature a troubleshooting option that allows for digital inspections, as well as tracking performance.
Equipment management software permits real-time information and helps minimize downtime.
When operators track their assets consistently, they identify safe and baseline operating conditions, and notice incongruences in a timely manner.
The system instantly communicates potential issues to and growing trouble areas with asset tracking.
Asset tag scanning is far more reportable and accurate than spreadsheet tracking or out-of-date updating on paper.
When employees track assets digitally, intuitive apps will alert management teams or maintenance crews of any malfunctions or other problems instantly.
This efficiency reduces downtime and streamlines the maintenance process.
In addition, an equipment management system allows for the tailoring of inspection forms for each item or group of items. Teams can also update them in batches.
Safety also increases with asset tracking. Instantaneous updating alerts all crews of potential maintenance issues and ensures they are up to date for each inspection.
What is more, marking an asset as unusable or in need of maintenance can help to prevent injury or any potential asset breakdown that results from pushing the item past its potential limits.
Monitoring asset use is also an important part of identifying potential maintenance usage.
Some manufacturer’s guidelines limit vehicles or other mechanical assets by hours of use, mileage, or number of items produced.
Digital tracking helps to keep the team updated in all these metrics.
Bookings Overview
Good equipment management software enables decision-makers, stakeholders, and other interested parties to track the use of equipment in order to prevent double-booking and similar issues.
When assets and equipment are unavailable, repair costs can increase, which can result in panic buying.
Proper equipment management practices, including the use of software, help avoid unwise purchases.
Another benefit of equipment management software is that it carries a digital schedule.
Configuration for alerts and automatic scheduling are possible, helping create a routine for all members of a team. Order completion and maintenance schedules maintain accountability for all.
A booking overview also allows tool categorization, individual tagging, and usage tracking.
This information can be useful when deciding which asset to use at which time, and help extend optimum utilization amongst employees.
When using a digital bookings overview, the information is more accurate.
Pen and paper tracking can cause additional errors, misinterpreted handwriting, missed entries, and the danger of falsified information.
The same issues apply to outdated spreadsheet systems.
This form of booking is prone to synching issues and miscommunication; they are device-dependent and not easily edited for team members in different time zones or offices.
Employees can book on the fly and update the status of a particular item instantly for all employees.
Reports
Customizable reports are an indispensable feature of equipment management software.
Here’s why:
Easy generation: Equipment management software provides easily generated reports in a variety of formats for many kinds of audiences.
Completion: Reports can key in all team members in on the progress of task completion
Employee time: This feature allows studying and discussion of how employees spend time, and in what ways it might become streamlined.
Budget: A budget report on all parts of a project or business lets a team know it is consuming a project’s budget, as well as whether or not spending is on track.
Presentation: Presenting hard data in consumable form—charts, graphs, other forms of visuals—helps pull other team members on board or sell your project to investors. Knowing what will work best for you and your business is easier with customizable reports.
All of these features help to increase efficiency and coordinate task completion.
Best Management Equipment Software
Good equipment management software is scalable and adjustable for security purposes. Industries that often use this form of equipment management include:
- manufacturing
- property management
- healthcare
- food and hospitality service
- education
Administrative, reporting, and security interfaces can allow for several different layers of access. All can benefit from a system like GoCodes, which is customizable and provides full support.
Assets are also easier to group, organize, and distribute with systems such as this, and compliance is more easily tracked.
The record trail that each scan produces allows for employee accountability, streamlining plans, and supply chain transparency.
GoCodes offers many benefits, including report generation, booking overview, issue identification, scannable tags, and mobile customization.
Conclusion
Management equipment software is an important part of an efficient business. The right system will save time and money for organizations both large and small.
It will improve the organization’s control of the availability of particular assets, preventing double booking and delays related to the lack of appropriate equipment, while also reducing the risk of loss, theft, and damage.
When choosing the proper equipment management software, decision-makers should make sure that the system they choose has the essential features listed above, while being customizable enough to suit their organization’s specific needs.
