Tracking of Individual Equipment Items
From Imrtwiki
Most CMMS systems allow tracking the equipment history. This enables the identification of the location and repair/overhaul history of a particular rotable. The identification is usually done through serial numbers stamped or solidly attached onto the item. The original manufacturer’s serial number is typically used. The PWCS SERVICEABLE TAG in Figure 1 allows the collection of the old and new equipment serial numbers when a Rotable Item is installed.
Even though most CMMS systems allow the tracking of full equipment history, it is unusual for the functionality to be used. Most sites systems only focus on the equipment location and not on the identity of the equipment in the location. This was suggested to be due to the extra workload that it places on maintenance planners to consistently collect and record the required data over an extended period of time. If a system is started for a maintenance section it is easy to fall into disuse with changes in planning personnel. OneSteel suggested that they were considering the use of their CMMS for rotable tracking but only for higher cost/criticality items such as large gearboxes and motors. There was a suggested need to have some rules to define what items are worth tracking. There were a number of comments about the need to identify the criticality of rotable equipment. Sydney Water is interested in rotable tracking systems and is attempting to use this functionality in Maximo CMMS. The issues they have are around numbering the equipment items and difficulty in getting the data collection & recording problems under control.
Another less formal approach to tracking items is to record Item Serial Numbers of equipment on work orders and then doing text searches for the serial numbers to identify item history.
