Asset tracking is an essential feature for your facility to get maximum returns from investments. It provides you with the exact data such as the date the asset was acquired, the cost of the asset the make and model, warranty expiration date, etc., necessary to strategically optimize the use of owned assets and equipment.
As a facility manager, it is part of your job to care for buildings, appliances, and systems that can be many years old. These assets have a long history of repairs, many of which may be hard to trace back and check what exactly was done and when. With the record management system offered with a CMMS, you can easily access the complete records of virtually any piece of equipment under your management.
If an issue arises within your facility, you can easily track when, if ever, it was last solved and find any indications within the equipment history that may indicate a more severe problem. Your CMMS system will keep track of when repairs were done and who was responsible, and this information will be recorded within that piece’s individual history log. Accessing these records allows technicians, maintenance managers, and environment teams to have a better insight into all assets and to rely on the past experiences to find a better solution for the current issue. It is also a great tool to use in your management and capital planning expenditures for years to come.
Preventing and Dealing with Potential Lawsuits
The benefits of using a CMMS in terms of preventing lawsuits are obvious: you have all reports available at any given moment. However, it is crucial to realize the profound significance of asset history tracking when it comes to liability. Although the majority of maintenance negligence lawsuits is filed against airline companies, you don’t want your facility to go through such experience as a property management company did in February 2019, when due to “a failure to properly inspect and to maintain its premises’ boilers in safe working condition and a failure to maintain adequate ventilation” one tenant died, and many were injured.
Comprehensive asset history will come in handy when you need these records to act as evidence supporting a case. Imagine: any maintenance issue that takes place within your facility will be tracked and recorded through your CMMS software and stored in your account. Suppose your facility gets sued for ventilation or spilled water issues. In that case, the records stored in your facility CMMS can act as proof that the issue was reported and handled according to the regulations. This is because the program will keep track of the issue from the moment it is reported, who was responsible for taking care of the issue, and when the issue got resolved.
Keeping a Step-by-Step Record
Every action or work order completed in your facility creates a separate record. This can also be effective when you need to audit maintenance or an asset history for an insurance or accident claim. With these records available, any inspector will be able to verify if the proper maintenance was performed on a piece of equipment. This means issues that could be caused by a faulty appliance or a problem with the manufacturer will not be blamed on your team’s actions. Your system will keep the data stored safely and keep it available for easy access when anyone needs to review any facility history.
Forecasting and Planning
Forecasting and budgeting for asset replacement can reduce or even eliminate unnecessary repair expenditures and reduce possible downtime for the major pieces of equipment in your facility. Using an Asset Management and Tracking Feature for the annual reviews can help find out which need to be replaced to streamline your spending budget.
Whether you are using records to help improve performance or to help with a potentially dangerous lawsuit, the asset record-keeping features of your CMMS program can significantly help improve the overall function of your facility. You can check out more details about Maintenance Care Asset Tracking feature here: https://www.maintenancecare.com/asset-tracking-software.
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