If you have to chop down a tree in only three hours, you could spend two hours sharpening your tool and you would be doing the right thing. Because your tool is sharp, you would put in less energy on cutting down the tree. In fact, you might even get to finish the work with plenty of time left to spare. This illustration shows that properly managing equipment is as useful as owning one. Having said that, let’s proceed to talk about the equipment management system and its benefits. 

Equipment Management System

To employers, equipment is almost as important as personnel. Good equipment allows employees to do their work. Furthermore, it makes the job easy and it often contributes to quality output. But how would a manager get to preserve their equipment? It is through this equipment management system which we will be discussing.

Equipment Management System (EMS) is a strategy that businesses use to keep track of the life cycle of equipment, observe the performance of equipment, and maintain equipment with ease. In simpler terms, EMS covers the use of equipment, monitoring of equipment condition, maintenance or repair of equipment, and finally, the disposal of old or damaged equipment. 

Managing your equipment could be done offline or online. In the first instance, businesses make use of paper documents and other manual means to record and review equipment state or maintenance processes. This might work effectively for a small business that has only a handful of tools. However, bigger businesses with large amounts of equipment will require equipment management system software. 

Unlike traditional equipment management using pen and paper, software makes it easier to organize and store large amounts of information. Good examples of such software are Jotform, GoCanvas, and Typeform.

Common Features of Equipment Management System Software

Quick Input:

Software used in equipment management systems allows quick entry of input. This is far better than writing out on paper because typos and grammatical errors are highlighted by the software, and they can be corrected without having to reduce readability, or impair the overall quality of the document. 

Information Sharing:

Proper management, especially in a business environment, involves sharing good information. And what is good information? It is information that is timely, accurate, and relevant. If information is sent at a time when it is no longer needed, then it is not good information. Similarly, information that fails to contain every necessary detail, and that does not relate to a given situation is no good. 

Equipment management system software is useful when it comes to sharing good information. For example, it allows managers to set time schedules. Software also allows team members to review data or tasks and decide on their relevance before moving to take any equipment management actions. 

Cloud Storage:

Another benefit of using equipment management system software is that it offers access to cloud storage. Cloud storage is a service that utilizes cloud computing in data storage operations. It eliminates the need for physical storage and so helps small businesses utilize all of their office space. Secondly, data stored on the cloud is available for a lifetime. It is also easily accessible by remote workers and can be protected using encryption technologies. 

Benefits of Using Software in Equipment Management Systems

Digital Inspection of Equipment

Companies can choose to develop personalized software for managing their equipment. After doing this, they can then integrate equipment in a way that allows them to digitally inspect it. An advantage of digital inspection over traditional equipment check is that there is usually no need to uncouple the equipment. 

Team Awareness of Equipment Management Processes

We mentioned that equipment management software allows for easy sharing of information. The good thing about this is that it keeps everyone in the team aware of what’s going on. With everyone knowing which equipment is undergoing maintenance and which is not, or which equipment has been installed for use, accidents become less frequent. 

Remote Teamwork 

If nothing else, equipment management system software aids remote work. Team members who are kilometers away from each other can connect over the air to share reports on equipment condition, assign operation or maintenance tasks, and track the progress of each equipment. 

Overall Benefits of Equipment Management Systems 

Inventory Forecast:

Monitoring, as an important aspect of equipment management systems, offers the benefit of forecasting inventory. What we mean here is that managers can estimate the amount of equipment that will be available at a future date, and their conditions by simply looking at available data. 

An instance of inventory forecasting is: if a company notices that the battery of an equipment lasts for three weeks when in full use, and that they have four of these items (battery) in stock, they will forecast that their battery stock will get exhausted in at least 12 weeks, which makes 3 months (number of available batteries x number of weeks that each battery can last).

Preventing Out of Stock Situations:

Since equipment management systems help businesses to forecast their inventory, managers can keep an eye out and promptly restock old and worn-out, or single-use equipment. Businesses that do so would escape the challenge of sourcing equipment especially when such equipment is in high demand. 

Reduced Business Cost:

We have established that proper management keeps business equipment stocked. And what’s the benefit of that? It’s quite simple. Companies do not have to pause production or service due to a lack of equipment. This allows them to operate round the clock. Consequently, they are able to maximize profit.

Conclusion

Equipment management system sets the pace for everything from buying new equipment to operating them, and then repairing or maintaining them and even disposing equipment when they no longer function properly. But in order to manage successfully, founders must decide if they are going to use software or not. We recommend large companies to opt for software while smaller ones can try their hands on manual equipment management. If this doesn’t look like something you can pull off by yourself, Epirus Ventures is ready to help.

‍