Heavy equipment maintenance tracking software is any software tool or platform that helps companies track and manage the upkeep and repairs of any heavy equipment they own or use. This includes planning routine maintenance and preventive maintenance, purchasing spare parts, tracking maintenance metrics, and conducting audits.
Heavy equipment is defined as any large-scale vehicle or piece of machinery. This includes construction equipment, mining equipment, and machinery for manufacturing and agriculture. Examples of heavy equipment include:
Most of this machinery requires special training and tools to use and maintain safely. Each piece of equipment is highly complex and requires careful monitoring, a preventive maintenance schedule, and a ready supply of replacement components.
Common features for this type of solution include:
Maintenance tasks can be scheduled for heavy machinery based on date, time, meter, event, or condition-based triggers. Multi-asset preventive maintenance work orders can be created in order to maximize a team’s time in the field. Any time there is downtime or an equipment breakdown, the software can help schedule this maintenance activity and track its progress.
Work requests can be submitted through a work request portal so that all requests are in one place and managed in a paperless environment. It’s possible to design custom work request forms to ensure the right information is being supplied to crews.
All data from work orders and work order updates are saved in the system, which can be called upon to generate comprehensive reports on completion rates, maintenance costs, downtime, follow-up tasks, and more.
Maintenance software can track inventory levels of spare parts and components used for equipment management. It can also track the location of this inventory in the storeroom. It can also help maintenance managers submit, approve, and send purchase orders for replacement parts.
Below are just a few examples of how companies can benefit from using software for equipment management. You can find a more extensive list here.
With heavy equipment maintenance software, you can build maintenance checklists and workflow templates so you don’t have to start from scratch every time a new work order is requested or needs to be created. All this work is done digitally, which makes processes easier to apply and reuse than in a paper-based system.
Busy maintenance teams can rely on equipment maintenance software to provide up-to-date information on open and pending work orders. Stay on top of problematic jobs, unwanted downtime, and unexpected costs.
One of the core purposes of this type of software is to extend the lifecycle of expensive and valuable machinery. By keeping these assets in good operational condition, maintenance teams can help the company increase production and profitability, reduce operating costs, and protect workers and facilities.
These are the factors you should consider when picking heavy equipment maintenance software:
When selecting software, determine the needs of your business and look for products with features that can solve them. Be aware, however, that different software platforms have different combinations of features. And even those that have the same feature set won’t implement them in the exact same way. It’s best to try the software out for yourself and see if it actually does what you need it to do.
Software that’s hard to use won’t be adopted by your maintenance teams—no matter how feature-rich it is. Stay away from equipment maintenance software that has a clunky or unintuitive interface. If you’re having a hard time understanding how to navigate the tool, then so will your crew.
Don’t just look at the price tag when shopping for equipment maintenance software. Instead, see if it matches the value that it’ll bring to your business. You might be saving a few thousand bucks a year for buying the cheaper option, but if it has limited functionality and is difficult to use, then you aren’t saving any money at all.
Leverage the cloud to work together, better in the new connected age of maintenance and asset management.