Continuing the series this week on issues that organizations should consider as they look to begin a journey to gather an inventory of their major mechanical, electrical and other equipment.  The genesis of this series came from the increased discussion around Equipment Inventory & Tagging (EI&T) that I had during many of the Fall conferences that I attended.  There was almost as much interest in EI&T as there was in Facility Condition Assessments (FCAs), which was a change from past years.

In my last post I talked about the importance of tagging your equipment when you inventory it.  Today I am going to talk about the specifics of the tags that you use.

There are three main things to consider when you are designing a tag:

• Numbering/nomenclature system to use;
• To include or exclude a bar code
• To include or exclude a QR code

Let’s start with the numbering system first as it is the most elementary.  I have seen several organizations develop complex tag nomenclature that includes information such as building name, equipment type, location, etc.  This may seem helpful as the tag name/number will provide useful information at first blush.  

However, the biggest issues with these systems outweigh the benefits from my perspective.  When you create a complex nomenclature system you have to have highly customized tags, which must be printed in real-time, requiring that you buy, operate and maintain a tag printer (or more than one if you have different people tagging different types of equipment) so that you can create the tags as you are applying them.  This will slow down the tagging process, which already takes a lot of time to complete even without printing tags as you go.  

As with everything, the more complicated the nomenclature the more opportunity for human error to creep into the system.  Ensuring consistency in the system when you may have multiple different people or consultants tagging your equipment can be difficult.  

Back before there were Computerized Maintenance Management Systems (CMMS) that could scan bar codes and/or QR codes, having complex nomenclatures made more sense as the tag told the technician what type of equipment it was, which made determining the required maintenance tasks easier.  However, now when you scan a code, most CMMS systems will take you directly to the equipment details and/or the work order that they are supposed to be completing.  

This advancement has, in my opinion, eliminated the need for complex tag nomenclature.  A simple numerical tag number, maybe with an organizational short form at the beginning, is all that is required as all the relevant data can be accessed through your CMMS.  

Now you can print tags in bulk and you don’t have to worry about custom printers or numerical sequencing.  If someone has to go out and tag some newly installed equipment they just need to grab a set of the next available tags and affix them to whatever equipment requires it.  This reduced friction makes it more likely that maintenance staff will change the way they have always done things to align with your new process.

The next post(s) in this series will focus on bar codes and QR codes and how you can use one or both on your asset tags.  See you next week!