Five Best Practices for Annual Equipment Inspections

Equipment inspections involve multiple processes and can be a time-consuming task to perform every year. Regular annual inspections are critical to the core of any business and have far reaching consequences on both short term and long-term growth of the company.

Why Carry Out Annual Inspections?

Annual inspections enable detection of minor wear and tear or any other defects that can lead to operational failures. Early detection makes it possible for early remedial and preventive action. Doing so will eliminate the need for expensive repairs and investing in new equipment, particularly when there are budget constraints. Regular maintenance ensures that there are no unfortunate workplace accidents and injuries leading to complex legal and insurance related procedures.

Carrying out asset tracking and inventory tracking during inspection is not only time consuming and elaborate but involves a lot of manpower to enter and file data. It becomes difficult also to retrieve the inspection logs and records when there is an emergent need.

Five Best Practices for Annual Equipment Inspections

Annual equipment inspections are at the central of safety management systems of businesses. They also enable assessment of whether there is adherence to the quality standards and certifications.

1: Set objectives: The first step is to set out the objectives of the annual inspection. Determine what the intended outcomes of the equipment inspection are, how the process will be carried out and who would be responsible for each level of inspection. Set a time frame for carrying out the inspection with allocation of responsibilities. Ensure competent personnel who are well versed with the latest standards updates and legal requirements carry out the inspections.

2: Prepare checklists:
Regulatory bodies normally have a checklist for carrying out equipment inspections. If your objective is to do a voluntary pre-emptive inspection, prepare your own checklist with detailed information on what equipment need inspection, what elements of each equipment need to be checked, and the standard procedures for inspection.

3: Invest in smart asset tracking: The checklist must be reviewed and validated to make sure no equipment is missed out or forgotten during the annual inspection. The best way to ensure smart asset tracking is to integrate QR codes and cloud based software systems.

GoCodes offers the complete solution for equipment inspection, asset tracking and inventory tracking with free QR code scanning app that the designated employees can download on their smartphone.

With customized QR codes labels, all they need to do is attach these unique codes to every equipment that needs asset tracking. Just scanning the codes using smartphones will let the employees enter, update and retrieve inspection data at any time from any location. Details of when the inspection is scheduled, whether it was carried out and whether repair or maintenance work is needed are all available at the fingertips.

4: Ensure maintenance: With smart asset tracking, it is possible to identify previous schedules for maintenance and repairs. Reviewing and verifying if they were carried out on time lets you stay on track of your safety audits.

5: Prepare reports: Once you carry out the inspection using GoCodes QR codes and app, storing the records on the cloud based software lets you easily retrieve and prepare the report for regulatory authorities.