Asset Hierarchies – Why You Need It and How Should it be Set Up

An asset hierarchy shows the relationships between your plant, equipment, and parts to keep track of past data and to help facilitate operations.

Why Do You Need to Establish a Standardized Asset Hierarchy?

To fully utilize your EAM/CMMS system, you should have an organized asset hierarchy. An organized asset hierarchy means better asset management, downtime scheduling, and lower cost of production. Imagine your machines suddenly shutting down, but you need to know which part to order to fix your equipment. You will lose a lot of production productivity while searching for obscure equipment in the asset hierarchy that you cannot find.

If you want to read more about the importance of an organized asset hierarchy, visit the links below:

1. Impact of Poor Asset Data on EAM/CMMS Effectiveness 
2. Benefits of Restructuring Your Asset Hierarchy 

Now that you know some reasons to organize and maintain a standardized asset hierarchy, we’ll list the important details that need to be added to your asset hierarchies.

How To Set Up an Asset Hierarchy? 

First, you should choose a standard with which to align your asset hierarchy so you can have a consistent setup throughout your EAM/CMMS. If you don’t know what standard to conform to, we recommend ISO 14224 for natural gas and oil industries, RDS-PP, or KKS for wind and energy sectors.

Read “Should You Align Your Asset Hierarchy with a Standard” to learn more about aligning asset hierarchies with standards.

Establishing the Hierarchy – What to Include in your Asset Hierarchy 

1. Maintainable Equipment

Ensure all the equipment you want to maintain rather than replace is included in your asset hierarchy. This will make scheduling downtimes and maintenance easier since your failure and maintenance data are recorded in one place.

2. Equipment Tags

Physically tag your equipment in the field with tags that can withstand harsh environments and record them in your asset hierarchies. This can speed up replacing and ordering specific parts when you can find them easily in your EAM/CMMS.

3. Descriptions

Make sure to have accurate and concise descriptions for any equipment in your register, so it’s easy for first-time users to decipher which equipment you are talking about.

4. Diagrams and Machine Manuals

You want to save parts catalogs and diagrams within your EAM/CMMS, so you don’t have to look for them manually when you need to plan work.

NRX AssetHub for Asset Hierarchy Organization

NRX AssetHub, powered by HubHead, provides asset-intensive businesses with high-quality asset and maintenance data for its EAM and CMMS systems. If you don’t know where to start to set up your asset hierarchy, you can download one of our asset hierarchy brochures or book a demo. Our team will happily walk you through common industry standards and show you how our solution can enhance your EAM/CMMS experience.