Chances are good that your asset and maintenance data is not quite as pristine as it could be. After all, some of it’s been around for a long time, right? The last time that data was touched was when we had that retiree come in for a few weeks to clean it up. When was that? I know. It’s hard enough to capture the data for new equipment as it is added, let alone go back and deal with the old stuff. But just how big is the gap between good data and bad data? How do you know? If you had infinite time and resources, you could assign people to tackle this problem piece by piece. But who has that kind of time, let alone patience?
Is there software that can help with this? If so, what kind of gaps would you find?
- Data for equipment that has been retired or scrapped. Likely you have maintenance plans and task lists for it too. You might also discover that you are stocking spare parts for this equipment.
- Equipment that has been moved from one location or plant to another, but the data for this equipment was not moved accordingly. Perhaps even the spare parts are stocked in the wrong place, or even the wrong country.
- Equipment that is installed and has no data whatsoever. No maintenance information. No critical spares list. Nothing.
- Duplicate equipment records, probably driving the stocking of duplicate spare parts. (Unless you have no link to a list of spares, in which case maybe you are not stocking any spares for these. Oops!)
- Equipment records that are missing a tag, criticality, classification, characteristics, manufacturer, model, etc.
- Equipment records that have incorrect data, such as manufacturer, model, tag, etc.
- Equipment records that are missing maintenance information such as maintenance plans, task lists, etc.
- Equipment records that have no manufacturer’s content, including parts catalogs, photographs, illustrations, maintenance instructions, or installation instructions.
- Equipment records that have no linkage to spare parts information.
- Materials that have no link to any equipment or location: they are just there.
Imagine if you could identify all of the gaps in your data, and methodically close them. You would stock the correct parts, your work orders would be more accurate, and your maintenance costs would be reduced. Fool’s paradise? I think not.
Brenda Horner | Linkedin
Manager, Information Experience
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