Good equipment management is a recurring concern for companies, but the issue really becomes crucial when problems arise: equipment doesn’t come back, equipment is abused and has to be replaced too frequently, too much breakage, too much time spent looking for equipment that needs maintenance, lost periodic inspection certificates, etc.

TOOLTRACK is a highly effective digital solution that immediately helps you to be much better organised, to manage your equipment with just a few clicks to avoid all these problems, and to be more profitable.

But when it comes to equipment management, there are also rules and good practices to be applied if you want to achieve the best results.

Here we share with you the No. 1 rule of good equipment management, the one you should start with.

The number one rule of good equipment management: marking.

The 1st major question to ask is how to identify and list each item of equipment to be tracked.

Properly marking your equipment means asking the right questions to make the right choices:

• What equipment is involved?
• What material is the base made of?
• what is it used for?
• under what specific conditions is it used?
• what data is expected on the equipment?
• what are the objectives of tracing?

Our advice for appropriate and effective marking of your equipment

– For small items of equipment, power tools, safety equipment and PPE, marking and tracking is generally done using QR-Code or RFID tags. Advantages: you can manage individual assignments, stocks, maintenance and track movements.

– For small vehicles, such as trailers, tippers, generators, mixers, etc., marking is best done using battery-powered trackers or Bluetooth beacons. Advantages: no internet connection. No battery required. Low power consumption.

– For large site machinery such as backhoe loaders, loaders, cranes, excavators or vehicles: marking is done using on-board telematics and geolocation. The advantage: information on position and movements is transmitted in real time.

There is a marking solution for every type of equipment, but it’s important to ask the right questions beforehand to make the right choices, because the economic impact is not the same and oversized investments can be avoided with the right advice.

To see the full demo, click here

Once you’ve put into practice rule number 1 of good equipment management, which concerns the choice of marking and the most appropriate traceability equipment, you’ll have marked each of your items of equipment individually, using a QR-Code label or an RFID tag.

Managing the allocation of equipment enables it to be located and tracked.

Now you need to know who or what you are going to assign this equipment to, so that you can locate and track it.

Where or to whom do you want to connect your equipment so that you always know where it is, or who has it, so that you can keep track of it?

On your TOOLTRACK digital platform, you choose how you want to use your equipment, depending on your logistics, sales, accounting or other needs.

Our advice: to keep track of your equipment, it’s important to choose the right assignment.

You have several choices for your TOOLTRACK digital application.

1 – Assign your equipment to a location: if you choose to link it to a facility, a subsidiary, a storage site, a logistics warehouse, a shop, a point of sale, etc., for example, you can assign it to a specific location.

2 – Assign your equipment to a vehicle: to make it available to a response team.

3 – Assign your equipment to a site: if you want to be able to locate it in a work area without the risk of forgetting it, or if you want to be able to invoice precisely for the time it is used or made available.
This is an interesting solution:

• • • for equipment used on a one-off basis on worksites and which must be recovered at the end of the project
    • for equipment made available to a customer
    • for rental equipment, for which the time of use and the amount to be invoiced will have to be calculated.
      Being able to calculate the time equipment is made available on site and assess its cost means you can calculate a rental amount based on a daily rate and charge it to the customer.

4 – Assign your equipment to a member of staff: if you choose to equip everyone individually and personally. This solution is extremely useful for :

• • • make your teams aware of the need for good maintenance of their equipment
    • manage its status and maintenance
    • making everyone responsible for the use of their equipment
    • make everyone responsible for returning equipment after use.

This will tell you who took the equipment, who returned it and in what condition.

Assigning equipment gives teams a sense of responsibility and helps prevent loss and theft.

By assigning equipment individually to TOOLTRACK, our customers see nothing but benefits:

• • • The equipment is paged every time it is picked up and returned to record its output and returns.
    • There are far fewer losses and thefts
    • Equipment is used more carefully, with less abuse and breakage
    • The equipment is better maintained because breakdowns and malfunctions are reported by the person responsible for them.

For the company, the costs associated with poor equipment management are considerably reduced:

• • • Less equipment needed
    • Less stock and storage space
    • Fewer emergency buy-outs or leases
    • Lower costs
    • Fewer accidents
    • Fewer site stoppages and penalties for delays.

The advantages of TOOLTRACK for managing your equipment assignments.

TOOLTRACK is a really effective digital solution that will immediately help you to be better organised so that you can track and manage your equipment with just a few clicks, avoiding all these inconveniences and making you more profitable.

Our solution is comprehensive and turnkey: labels for marking equipment + mobile reader + web platform on PC + mobile application on smartphones.

Our team will advise and support you, so you’ll soon be autonomous and delighted with your choice.
Thousands of items of equipment are tracked on TOOLTRACK: see our references…

We are based in France, in Valence in the Drôme (26), and our customer service department can be contacted by telephone and by e-mail.

To see the full demo, click here: www.tool-track.fr/en/home

Whether in industry, construction and public works, logistics or maintenance, unfortunately the search for an equipment fleet management tool generally comes when problems have been building up for some time: loss of equipment, loss of time looking for it, loss of money to replace it or hire it out, loss of business due to cessation of activity because of a lack of available or repairable equipment, etc.

This is a great pity, because by using a traceability and management tool for materials and equipment, you eliminate all these unproductive inconveniences and benefit from many advantages:

• Your management is organised, efficient, proactive and in real time.
• You avoid losses.
• You anticipate maintenance and prevent breakdowns.
• You reduce your costs.
• You’ll save your teams time, keep them safe and improve their responsiveness.

The advantages of using software to manage a fleet of equipment are many and immediate

1. Tracking and tracing each item of equipment: by tagging each item in a fleet, you can list it in the IT database of your management tool, find out its location and status, track its allocation and movements, anticipate repairs and maintenance and keep a record of all these operations.
    Good digital tracking helps you minimise loss, theft and omissions, and optimise the use of resources by your teams, in real time.
2. Tracking maintenance and repairs: maintenance operations, repairs and replacements can be anticipated and scheduled. You can avoid unforeseen events, keep your equipment running smoothly and extend its lifespan. You can keep track of periodic checks, and all work carried out can be traced and logged in your software, so you can retrieve it instantly if you need it or if an inspection is carried out.
3. Optimise stocks and resources: the digital traceability of equipment enables you to track its use, identify unused or under-used equipment, redistribute allocations and make informed decisions on the purchase, hire or sale of equipment based on your real needs.
4. Controlling costs and budgets: an equipment fleet management tool also helps you to significantly reduce your costs: purchase, maintenance, repair, storage and equipment replacement costs, etc.
   Accurate monitoring of these costs helps you to better allocate budgets, forecast future expenditure and identify areas where savings can be made.
5. Safety and compliance: an equipment traceability tool enables you to ensure that your equipment complies with the safety standards for your sector, that employees work safely and that the safety measures in force in your sector are in place (compliance with regulations and standards).
6. Renewal and performance: digitised management of your fleet helps you to anticipate equipment renewal and plan its replacement in line with its lifecycle and technological developments. This avoids interruptions to your operations and ensures that your teams always have high-performance equipment.

With equipment management software, the savings are immediate and lasting.

You can evaluate these gains by estimating the savings you would make by answering the following questions:

• How much does lost equipment cost you each year?
  Traceability of equipment, tracking of assignments and entries/exits gives technical teams a sense of responsibility and involvement. It reduces losses and theft.
• How much time do you spend looking for your equipment or its documentation (invoices, warranties, technical data sheets, inspection certificates, etc.)?
  Traceability makes your organisation and your teamwork more efficient. The equipment manager is more relaxed, and the technicians are better equipped and more productive.
• How much do you estimate each year for breakage, equipment buy-back or hire, and problems linked to poor maintenance?
   With a traceability tool, these costs are eliminated. You can manage and plan the maintenance of your equipment so that it is always available and in good working order.
• How much do you estimate the number of work stoppages each year due to equipment not being available on time?
   By managing your equipment fleet more effectively, you can optimise your activity, manage equipment assignments, ensure that it is available at the right time and meet your deadlines.
• How much equipment, and at what cost, do you need to oversize your fleet in order to deal with unforeseen events?
   With a good management tool, you can reduce your stock of equipment, make savings on the size of your fleet and its storage area, improve the rotation of tools between teams and manage more sites with the same amount of equipment.
• How much do fines, accidents and work stoppages cost you if your equipment isn’t checked?
   With traceability for your materials, equipment and PPE, you know the status of each piece of equipment, you can manage repairs, maintenance, periodic inspections and their certificates. Your teams are safe.
• How much do management errors or billing oversights cost you?
   With a good equipment management tool, you can also track the availability of equipment on your customers’ sites and accurately calculate your invoicing costs, without the risk of errors in deadlines.

Other benefits for you: the quality of service you provide to your customers and the image you give them.

Good equipment management not only cuts costs, it also brings qualitative benefits that help you to develop your business, your competitiveness and your sales volume:

• Quality of your customer service: responsiveness, efficiency of technical teams, meeting deadlines.
• Brand image and reputation: an organised, efficient company.

The return on investment in setting up a materials and equipment fleet management solution is immediate in the face of all these expenses.

The gains you make across the board are immediate and lasting.

How do you manage a fleet of equipment properly?
This is a question that comes up regularly when problems are repeated too often.

Good management of a fleet of equipment requires organisation, method and a software tool to track your assets in real time.

Managing your fleet of equipment and tools properly will save you a lot of worry on a day-to-day basis and a lot of expense that weighs on your business: loss, theft, breakage, accidents, buy-back, hire, etc.

Here are a few tips to help you manage and prepare for your equipment fleet.

Upstream preparation is an important phase, as you need to put the right organisation in place and make the right choices.

1. Identify your specific needs

• Take stock of your various items of equipment and their numbers, and analyse your current management processes.
• Identify the main problems you encounter: loss, theft, abuse, forgetfulness, accidents, etc.
• Determine which elements of your fleet you want to track and trace: portable electrical equipment, personal protective equipment, heavy equipment, loan equipment, leased equipment, etc.

2. Choose the right fleet management software for your needs

• Take a look at its functionalities: asset tracking, assignment management, user management, rental management, maintenance alerts, document management, periodic inspection reports, etc.
• Make sure you get the right advice beforehand, so you can get organised and prepare for its use in the best possible conditions.
• Make sure that you can contact the technical department easily if you have any questions about using your tool or managing your equipment.
• Make sure that the service offered and the price are adapted to the size of your fleet and your equipment management issues.

3. Prepare your database

• List each piece of equipment in an Excel table, adding detailed information for unique and precise identification: serial number, characteristics, condition, location, etc.
• Make sure that your data is accurate enough to identify each piece of equipment and that it is up to date, as this is what will be imported into your fleet management software.

4. Import your data

• You will need to label your equipment to identify it using a tag that you choose according to your needs, the nature of the equipment and its use: barcode, QR-code, RFID label or tag, GPS tracker, etc.
• When you page your equipment with a mobile reader, you can then track it in your fleet management software.

5. Train your users

• Make them aware of the benefits of using a new tool to help them be more efficient and waste less time on their business.
• Make them accountable by informing them that you are tracking the equipment they use.
• Plan a training session for your users.
• Make sure that everyone understands the benefits of using fleet management software and that everyone knows how to use it correctly.

6. Establish clear procedures for managing each piece of equipment in your fleet

• Establish internal procedures: how equipment is labelled, recorded, tracked when it is borrowed and returned, etc.
• Set up a monitoring process to identify loss or theft, manage maintenance and programme alerts.

7. Ensure ongoing monitoring

• Analyse usage and identify problems in your management.
• Improve your processes to make your business and management more efficient.
• Keep an eye on your activity.

These steps will help you prepare and organise yourself to manage your fleet, equipment and tools properly.

By managing your fleet more effectively, you can reduce losses and costs very quickly.

But you also need to inform and empower your teams.
They need to understand their operational interest in this new organisation.

For more information, see also our article: https://tool-track.fr/en/advantages-of-equipment-management-software-2/