What is Equipment Maintenance Log and Why is it Important?

Every company, no matter which industry it belongs to, relies on the health of its equipment in one way or the other. The downtime or unavailability of equipment leads to time wastage and potentially lost sales. This is why taking good care of the equipment you own should be a top priority.

However, it can be quite a struggle to ensure that all these important assets are maintained and inspected as often as needed. It is crucial to maintain an equipment maintenance log for many reasons. For starters, it helps ensure that the revenue-generating operations are constantly progressing as required without any disruptions in the form of unexpected downtime.

Moreover, keeping track of equipment maintenance can also help decrease the risk of injuries at the job sites. According to a study, 272 out of 773 accidental events at work were due to equipment failures. 13 of such accidents even resulted in human injuries. It is believed that equipment failures have an immense effect on the severity and number of accidents in different industries.

What is an equipment maintenance log?

The equipment maintenance log is a simple document that contains a list of all actions that have been performed on a certain piece of equipment. It helps keep track of the maintenance history. It generally contains the following two different sections, each containing different types of information:

1. General information

The first section has to do with general information. This information is used to identify the piece of equipment. It most commonly includes:

Name of equipment
Model or manufacturer
Serial number
Location
Person responsible for equipment

Some equipment maintenance logs also include the Purchase date and Purchase price in this section.

2. List of maintenance actions

The second section lists all the maintenance actions performed on the equipment. It commonly includes the following fields:

Date when the action was performed
Description of the action itself
Name of the person performing the actions

Lastly, some logs also include a Remarks section. This section is useful in case the person performing the maintenance might have any special notes to add for future reference.

Shortcomings of the traditional equipment maintenance log

The traditional equipment maintenance log takes us back to the pen and paper era. It goes without saying, filling out a maintenance blog manually with a pen takes up an excruciatingly long amount of time. Furthermore, there is also an increase in mistakes. Human errors become quite commonplace when everything has to be written down manually.

Apart from these, there are several other problems with the traditional paper-based maintenance log. There is limited flexibility and the data on there is not that easily accessible when needed. Lastly, paper can easily get lost, burnt, destroyed, spilled on – the list goes on and on. If something of that sort happens, you’re going to lost precious data.

Instead, you can choose to move forward with the times and consider software that automates such manual processes for you. Such software will help save precious time and effort that can be better used elsewhere.

Equipment maintenance log and tracking software

Maintenance tracking software eases and simplifies the process of dealing with maintenance issues of your equipment via equipment maintenance log. It records each and every maintenance issue that arises in each of your equipment, thereby leaving a trail of maintenance history. This history can then be utilized by technicians or key personnel who are responsible for fixing the equipment.

Proper maintenance records help to:

Minimize the number of expensive repairs
Identify inventory trends
Increase operator safety
Pitively impact resale value
Enhance the health visibility of each piece of equipment

A robust equipment maintenance feature comes with a scheduler that automatically sends inspection, repair and maintenance alerts to key personnel in case a problem arises. This enables you to take an action to quickly repair or fix the equipment and make it operational again.

Furthermore, the automation of processes ensures monthly and annual maintenance along with timely inspections and required checks.

Recording accurate equipment maintenance logs drive awareness about an item’s maintenance. They also narrow down what elements and parts of your equipment are resulting in performance issues. Several problems in equipment are exposed with the help of maintenance logs.

The equipment tracking solution also helps you save money. It tracks the maintenance history of each asset. Then it actively warns you if certain equipment is costing you more to maintain as compared to the amount of revenue it is generating.

Why is the equipment maintenance log important?

1. It increases resale value of equipment

Proper maintenance and tracking of the equipment maintenance log help your equipment to run in optimal condition. Record keeping also proves to be useful when you decide to replace your current equipment with newer versions.

What directly influences the resale decision for a buyer is knowing about the care put into the equipment by the previous owner. Maintaining records of repairs and maintenance helps to sketch a clearer picture for the buyer about the attention given to the asset to keep it in the best possible condition.

Keeping an updated equipment maintenance history may sound complicated. However, equipment tracking software makes it simple and easy. It keeps adding details of each and everything your equipment goes through, thereby keeping the maintenance records up to date at all times.

Moreover, well-documented maintenance increases the worth of the used equipment as compared to other used equipment that has no maintenance records. To maximize resale value, a complete and consistent record of everything, including repair schedules, usage logs, and maintenance records, is very important. Such records help boost the buyer’s confidence in the seller’s assets.

2. It saves the upfront costs

Having a complete equipment maintenance log lets you know when the time is right to replace equipment. This, in turn, helps you save money. The data that is gathered over time unveils patterns of failure, expenditure, and repair.

Let’s assume a piece of equipment tends to break down every two weeks. It costs $2500 per year to repair. Instead of throwing money away on its maintenance, it will be much more cost-effective to simply replace that machine for $4000. Not to mention, buying a new machine will come with equipment upgrades and a new warranty, thereby minimizing costs and equipment breakdowns.

On the other hand, with equipment maintenance software you might also discover that maintenance is a lot cheaper than actually replacing the whole equipment. The absence of proper maintenance records can lead to frequent unexpected downtimes. These downtimes are going to inevitably result in missing deadlines, halting the production lines and keeping employees idle.

On top of all that, you even have to pay technicians overtime for such unexpected failure plus the extra money for urgent delivery of parts.

3. It identifies trends across makes, models, or components

The equipment maintenance log throws light on the common trends in your equipment across models, components, makes, operators and more. The data on equipment maintenance log tracked by a maintenance management solution highlights which models and makes of certain equipment incur the lowest cost per hour of ownership.

On the flip side, there can be a certain part of the same model of a machine that requires consistent replacement after a comparable number of hours or mileage. This way you can predict that replacement or repairs are going to be required at the same interval for the same model of equipment approaching its benchmark.

Such insight can help companies know the parts that are needed to be in stock and to perform replacement and repairs before any equipment failure.

4. It increases the safety of operators

All sorts of machinery that you use is prone to wear and tear. Routine inspections let you see into repair issues and small damages before they turn into bigger problems. Even documenting these small repairs and inspections goes a long way in tracking all maintenance tasks that your equipment goes through.

Yet another benefit of documenting maintenance records is being able to find self-inflicted damage. Self-inflicted damage means damage as a result of the negligence of operators and employees that interact with that particular piece of equipment. If you have records about such damage, you can keep an eye on those operators who don’t take good care of your equipment and those who do.

Many accidents that take place in industries are because of unplanned equipment failures. Timely repairs, routine checks, and scheduled maintenance help to make sure that your equipment is safe to operate and to eliminate the risk of such accidents. It also increases the general safety of your business landscape.

Routine inspections, such as checking friction material, lubricating gears, and conducting periodic scans, help to improve the overall health of the machines you own. With a well-documented equipment maintenance log, you can make sure that the equipment is safe to work with.

An equipment tracking system allows you to schedule inspections when required so as to maintain the operator’s safety. It also holds the operator accountable for performing required inspections and reduces the chances of accidents or incidents due to faulty machinery.

Opt for EZOfficeInventory to optimize equipment maintenance

Optimal equipment performance calls for an accurate equipment maintenance log. EZOfficeInventory, cloud based rental software, is designed to automate equipment maintenance recording and scheduling. It helps track warranty information and maintenance history, thereby letting you monitor your operating costs at a glance.

You will also be able to print analysis reports whenever you need them and save yourself countless hours of manual reporting. You’ll have all the equipment maintenance information is right at your fingertips. This easy-to-use software solution saves you a ton of time and frees you from the clutches of stress.

EZOfficeInventory comes with numerous features to optimize equipment maintenance. You can easily schedule future maintenance, either by date or hours/miles. Moreover, other helpful features include monitoring operating costs and automating your preventive maintenance system with ease.

You can quickly and easily track your equipment maintenance information and maintenance logs all in one place. From overlooking upcoming maintenance sessions activity, approving requests, and generating work orders, to entering maintenance requests – you can do it all with EZOfficeInventory.

Furthermore, using logs of equipment usage, you can track the labor required for work orders and what parts are used. So you no longer have to keep manual logs anymore.

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What Is An Equipment Maintenance Log And Why Is It Important For Your Business?