As a business owner, you know just how important your assets are to your company’s operations. Organization and consistency are key when it comes to asset and equipment management, regardless of what industry you’re in. Your equipment is what allows your company to operate, and it needs to be well taken care of to keep things running smoothly. Equipment use and maintenance are two areas of your business processes that need to be highly regulated.
Asset management used to be done manually and could often be a very time-consuming process. New technology and software integrations now allow business owners and their teams to streamline equipment management. The following are some of the best equipment management tools on the market today for business owners.
Equipment Checkout Forms
There are a plethora of benefits to be reaped from streamlining the workflows and uses of your company’s equipment. Without any sort of system for equipment use, it’s incredibly common for things to go missing or turn up broken. Beyond costs, this is a very inefficient way for your business to operate. Utilizing an equipment sign out sheet for all of your commonly used assets is the best way for you to promote transparency and responsibility among your employees.
A simple equipment checkout form template can easily be integrated into your daily business processes. Whether it’s for technological assets like laptops and tablets, or for machinery use, a sign-out sheet encourages your employees to use great care when working with your business’s essential physical assets.
Sign-out sheet templates are a great solution for asset management because they can be easily configured to the various departments of your business. Different types of equipment require different information to be input when being checked out for use.
Whether it’s just a signature and time-stamp or in-depth contact information from the users with a required return date, you can customize your sign-out sheet template to include as many rows and fields as you see necessary. The integrity of your company’s assets is at stake when you don’t prioritize the use of an equipment checkout form. Since it’s such a simple solution, it can be effortlessly integrated into the daily operations of your team.
Asset Use Management and Maintenance Tracking
Asset management can mean more than just simple equipment checkout forms. While these forms are incredibly important for tracking the individuals that use each piece of equipment, it can also be helpful to track just how many uses any single piece of equipment is getting.
Asset management also applies to regular and preventative maintenance. When you have a clearer idea of how often your equipment is being used and what state it’s being returned in, you can be more vigilant with your maintenance efforts. Keeping your equipment in working condition and performing regular maintenance is the best way to reduce costs and downtime in your business processes.
Your equipment is the heart of your business, so when it breaks down, stops working, or needs to be replaced, many of your operations will come to a standstill. Being able to constantly oversee which pieces of equipment are in use and how many are currently left unused allows you to stay on top of your business processes and better plan for potential equipment downtime.
Implementing an equipment checkout form system also allows you to seamlessly track prior equipment maintenance and efficiently schedule upcoming maintenance. Rather than waiting for equipment to break down to the point of downtime, you can have a better understanding of its current working condition and have your team complete regular upkeep tasks. This will help you avoid having to constantly repair unusable equipment or completely replace it more often than is necessary.
