maintenance inventory

By Adam E. Lucido and Brian Cowperthwaite

January 2021

The intent of a CMMS asset inventory is to gather data that will be useful to the specific processes within the organization’s asset management program. With the right data, a CMMS can support many different organizational processes and aid policy-based and performance-based management decisions.

Unfortunately, a one-size-fits-all approach to an asset inventory typically results in valuable resources spent on an abundance of unnecessary data or, worse, not enough relevant data to benefit the intended process. To avoid this type of blunder, managers need to invest the time to fully understand an organization’s current asset management processes and future processes. In other words, begin with the end in mind.

Assume the general goal of a CMMS asset inventory is to develop an efficient, scalable maintenance program within a CMMS that has a maintenance staff operating and maintaining many diverse assets in many buildings.

Assemble the team

Next, a large-scale asset inventory requires collaboration and support across multiple departments and includes key individuals at various occupational levels within those departments. Identifying these key individuals has a large impact on the asset inventory’s outcome.

Frequently, these individuals do not wear business attire. Instead, they wear work clothes and carry tools. Managers need to consider that these front-line technicians have job responsibilities that consume their workday, none of which consist of performing an asset inventory. Throughout the process, managers need to appreciate the fact that they need technicians more than technicians need them. The message is that the end results will benefit the technicians.

The most crucial step during the asset inventory is assembling an inventory team to achieve complete collaboration that taps into the knowledge of key individuals. Managers can streamline the buy-in process by ensuring that the inventory team appreciates the assets they are inventorying and the way to service the assets and that they can give on-the-spot advice to support maintenance activities.