The need for tool room management software
Tool room management is the art and science of organizing your tools. It can create a fine line between an organization producing high quality, consistent output and an organization being limited by excessive scrap and recurring defects. It is extremely crucial for your workforce to be able to depend on properly calibrated tools like detectors, measurement equipment, machine meters and gauges, jackhammers, drills and many other tools that should be available for use all the time.
It may be easy to just store a tool in the tool crib and hope it is always there when you need it. The larger your organization is, the more tools you have and the bigger is the impact that it will have on your bottom line when your tools begin to go missing. When you begin tracking and accounting for tool use, you will get to know about tool abuse and learn the true cost of your tools.
A variety of obstacles come in the way of efficient tool tracking and difficulties are bound to be there in:
- Tracking tools allocated to multiple project locations
- Optimizing tool life by tracking tool maintenance
- Deploying a tool tracking system that doesn’t incur IT resource costs
- Minimizing tool loss and hoarding to reduce tool expenses
- Maximizing tool utilization
It is here that tool room management software jumps in to save you from all the chaos. Tool room management software has definitely taken a leap forward from the basic spreadsheets and paper-based systems. It tracks tool related issues and returning of tools from employees and contractors. It also keeps a close watch on the transfer of tools between multiple tool room locations and job sites. Tool room management system helps you exercise complete control over your tools and streamline recordkeeping for calibration and usage. Using the software solution, you can achieve total visibility and refine your processes to monitor their effectiveness.
How does tool room management software help your business?
1. It enables you to run off-site tool tracking
Tracking tools from the moment they are issued till they are returned – is the core function of any tool tracking software. Such software solutions work like a library, where tools are signed out to job sites or employees. As soon as the work is completed, the tools are checked back into the library (tool room). When the workers are aware that the tools are being patrolled and they will be held accountable, they are less likely to steal, misplace, misuse or hoard it.
When tools are distributed at multiple sites, they have more chances of being lost or misplaced
There is more to tool room management software than just the check-in or check-out feature. It is such a headache for managers to keep track of tools when there are ongoing projects in multiple locations. In such cases, there are one or more tool rooms that store the tool inventory and then transfer it to one or more job sites. The tool room inventory software keeps a count of all the tools at each location. As soon as the required tools are received at the job site, they are checked out to and returned by the workers as per their usage need. It is at the end of the project that all the tools are transferred back to the tool room. Then the tool room management software is used to keep track of all the tools utilized in the entire project letting you know the status of each of your tools whether or not any of it is missing or requires repairs.
Read more: Does Your Tool Tracking App Have these 5 Cool Features?
2. It enables you to track maintenance management
Is a certain tool in the tool room or with an external service provider? Or is it just lying around in a tool shop ready for repair or maintenance? Knowing the condition of your tools is as important as knowing their whereabouts. If you want to reduce job site injuries and maximize tool life, you need to properly maintain your tools. For instance, a tool may be ready for use but it is about to reach the time for servicing or maintenance because it has to come to the end of a service life of 100,000 strokes and shots. So even though the tool is available, it is not fit for use. It is for this reason that maintenance is extremely necessary for optimal utilization and availability of tool inventory.
If you want your tools to be always available for use, you need to keep them in optimal condition.
Using tool room management software, you can define multiple maintenance tasks and schedule them to be completed at a certain frequency. For instance, you can create a maintenance task once every three months to make sure it meets its ratings. The tool tracking system will notify you when the task is due and allow you to generate a work order for overdue maintenance tasks. Not just that, it even keeps a complete record of work done on each item’s maintenance for reference.
3. It prevents your business from loss and theft
No matter how diverse your tool crib is, the bottom line is that you need to know what you have, where it’s been and where it’s going. An organized tool room is necessary to keep a check on intentional thefts and accidental losses because theft-related losses are considered to be as high as $1 billion every year.
You have more chances of someone leaving out tool items when you have expensive tools just spread around your organization. Even though nobody likes to think about their employees stealing from them but let’s face it, it happens. Among the major contributors to theft, fraud is an opportunity. Don’t leave your tool room as a mess and give your workers a chance to steal from you.
Tool room management system contains the complete trail of tool usage and maintenance. Over time, efficient tool tracking accumulates data and managers are able to identify which employees are misusing the tools and who needs a little more training. Have an updated database with tool room management solution. Every time, every hour, every day, a tool is checked in or out. Your database must be updated with the latest information preventing loss and theft.
Read more: Tool Management Software: Helping your Business Grow
EZOfficeInventory – Keep your tools in optimal condition!
Having the ability to make sure that the right tool is always in the right place is important for any company with tool inventory. EZOfficeInventory is a powerful tool room management software with the much-needed performance to help you exercise complete control of your valuable tools. Easy to use monitoring and effective tracking of countless tools sure give overall peace of mind to managers.
If you really want to use the tool, you should be able to find it efficiently. In case of a toolbox, it is not a difficult task. However, for companies that require enough tools to fill up a room or more, keeping track of tools can be a difficult task and it also happens to be critical for the overall success of your organization. Fortunately, EZOfficeInventory simplifies the job for you by automating everything and makes sure you have the tools when you need them without underestimating its importance. After all, sometimes properly maintained and having the right tools can be a matter of public and employee safety.
Companies of all sizes can depend on our tool room management software to increase overall productivity, enhance accountability, minimize tool hoarding, improve efficiencies and reduce costs in a variety of applications like mining, construction, maintenance, chemical processing, maintenance, and hospitals. Our tool room management system lets you track circulating tool inventory from the time it is issued till it is returned preventing loss and theft. With our software solution, know your trade, know your tools and know where your tools are!
Want to learn more about our tool room management software?
EZOfficeInventory is the leading tool management software utilized by companies around the world regardless of their size. Keep track of your tools and keep them organized to enjoy smooth business operations!
For more assistance, drop us an email at support@ezo.io.
