A complete, accurate, structured equipment master (i.e., asset registry) is the starting point for collecting good work order transaction data and generating insightful performance analyses. Because it’s so fundamental, it’s important that you get it right. Bad equipment master data can wreak havoc with failure reporting, delay maintenance activities, and make it difficult to use the EAM software system.
Pieces of equipment are entities for which data are stored and Work Orders are created in the EAM System. There are four common levels of equipment hierarchies and numbering standards in the EAM System:
- Location — Physical locations of systems, positions, and assets. For example, a pumping station or system located on 10 Main Street or in the basement of Building 2.
- System — Collections of positions and/or assets that work together to deliver a required business function or service. For example, wastewater collection and treatment systems.
- Position — Positions or Functional Locations identify a location in which an asset resides. Positions are considered to be in the engineering realm and are identified on P&IDs. Tag or engineering numbers are used to identify these equipment records.
- Asset — Assets are maintainable physical objects. In the EAM System, assets are the base unit of equipment information and the smallest tracking unit for capital investments. It is a best practice to have assets auto-numbered by the EAM System.
Locations, systems, positions, and assets for a hierarchy of equipment are stored as information in the EAM System, with locations at the top of the hierarchy and assets at the bottom.
Data is shared among levels of the equipment hierarchy. For example, data for a Work Order performed on an asset is also stored in the position, system, and location equipment to which the asset belongs. Data sharing allows tracking of asset performance in detail and under differing conditions, evaluation of performance of entire systems, and assessment of the effect locations and positions have on systems and assets.
A great equipment master is one that is:
- Complete. (Database includes all equipment in the facility and no critical information is missing — e.g. criticality codes, classifications, problem / failure codes, etc.)
- Accurate. (All information is correct and up to date.)
- Clean. (No duplicate entries, spelling errors, unnecessary syntax, etc.)
- Structured. (Equipment records are organized into a logical hierarchy so that costs roll up properly.)
At SwainSmith, we build equipment masters to meet all of the qualifications above. Our equipment master development service covers everything you need to develop a great equipment master, from plant walk-down to data cleansing to hierarchy development. We bring deep domain expertise as well as industry-accepted data taxonomies, classification schemes, nomenclature standards, and hierarchy structures to every client engagement. We are all about the data.
If you want to improve your asset data management but aren’t sure where to start, ask us for a complimentary data evaluation. We’ll take a no-obligation look at your data and offer a few ideas on how to improve it.