An asset naming convention also referred to as an asset numbering system, defines how your assets will be referenced in a system. In other words, it’s a way to name your assets in your database so they can be quickly identified. Asset naming conventions are important in asset management because they remove any vagueness and ambiguity when communicating about maintenance assets. By looking at the name alone, anyone should be able to tell what an asset is and where it belongs.
Good asset naming conventions have a certain level of logic so that anyone can easily find what they’re looking for, especially within a CMMS. Keep in mind that numbers can get confusing and have very little meaning to the uninformed person, so minimize their use and maximize the use of characters instead.
Below are examples of common components included in an asset numbering system:
Here are a few ways asset naming conventions can improve maintenance management:
Here’s an example of what an asset naming convention could look like within a system. Imagine there are four facilities across four geographical locations. Each facility is made up of multiple buildings. In each building, we have several XLA lasers. A potential asset naming convention could look like the following:
This tells us that XLA laser 001 is in building 1 at the US plant. This nomenclature also comes in handy when doing a search in the CMMS for previous maintenance issues on XLA lasers. All the technician needs to do is type XLA into the closed work orders search box to find the past issues and fixes for XLA lasers.
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