Asset Hierarchy

By combining the strategy of an asset hierarchy with your CMMS, the condition data from your most important assets indicates the ideal maintenance schedule to prevent breakdowns. Using this schedule, you can reduce your emergency maintenance by up to 75 percent. 

Understanding Equipment Relationships Minimizes Downtime

Each facility will be somewhat different in terms of how it assigns the parent-child relationship of its equipment and machinery. Once you determine the relationships among your assets, you can schedule repairs, inspections, and other maintenance tasks, so they create minimal disruption to your entire system.

Accessing Data Means Better Asset Management

If you have a solid record of all your critical machinery, you’ll be able to see, track, and record usage and normal wear. This information plays a critical role in predictive maintenance planning, helping you to make smart decisions about inspections, maintenance, or asset replacement.

Pinpointing Failure Points and Associated Costs

By creating a detailed inventory of all your equipment and their replaceable components, you’ll be able to identify the root cause of failures, which parts are causing the most problems, and where your maintenance costs reside. Having this information not only allows management to make smarter big-picture decisions but can also help guide and inform an individual technician during routine checks and repairs.

How to Build an Asset Hierarchy

The best time to embark on creating an asset hierarchy is during a maintenance software upgrade. Before you begin, be sure to establish a logical structure and consistent naming system. Then, include only those assets that are critical to running your day-to-day operations. It’s better to select fewer machines with more details about each component than to have a surface record for all of your equipment, including the machines you rarely use.

Be sure to assign ownership of the hierarchy to one key maintenance supervisor, so that the system can be audited, modified, and improved over time. Additionally, it's the owner's responsibility to keep the hierarchy up to date by adding any new assets, deleting old assets, and revisiting the relationship structures as the facility or maintenance program evolves.