Stay Connected To Your Tools With An Asset Management Solution

In order to keep operating, construction and engineering companies need to protect their equipment. Even more important, they need to see a return on their investment. The biggest asset-related issues facing your organization today are:

• Lost or stolen equipment
• Tool hoarding
• Low tool utilization

These challenges cause delays, frustrate customers and cost your company money.

Like a Thief in the Night - Are Your Construction Tools Walking Away?

One of the biggest challenges to modern construction and engineering companies is keeping track of all your tools. Sometimes, it’s like finding a needle in a haystack. Unfortunately, COVID-19 has only made this worse. Now it’s more like finding a needle in a haystack that’s been stolen.

The pandemic forced construction sites around the world to shut down and send key personnel home.

This left many job sites vulnerable to theft. In the UK, the Construction Equipment Association reported that in the first few months of the coronavirus pandemic, construction machine theft jumped by 50%. The same trend is also taking place here in the United States.

On the Next Episode of Construction Hoarders...Intervention By Asset Management Solution

Another major issue construction firms deal with is tool hoarding. Crew members can get attached to specific tools when they’re out in the field. They start thinking of tools as their personal property and keep them on their truck, even when they’re not using them. They also keep their favorite tools close to them just in case they might need them.

The only problem is that a specific tool may be needed somewhere else and there might not be another one in the company’s equipment inventory, especially if it’s an expensive specialty tool.

This can lead to stalled productivity and lost revenue as the equipment coordinator has to find equipment they show in inventory, but can’t locate. They either have to waste time calling every team lead and project foreman to track it down, or break down and just buy a new one.

Knowing which tools are assigned to which employee can help you find hoarded tools quickly and get them back to work.

If You Don’t Use (Or Track) Your Tools, You’ll Lose Your Tools

Tool hoarding can also lead to low tool utilization. Investment in tools only makes sense if you can use the tools to complete projects and generate revenue. If tools aren’t being used, they’re draining your business of revenue.

Also, if equipment service history isn’t tracked, an inventory coordinator or project lead might not trust the equipment for fear of liability. It could be considered negligence if you brought a broken or dangerous piece of equipment to the site and it caused harm to people or property. So they frequently choose one piece of equipment over another, leaving the neglected tool to be underutilized and wearing out trusted equipment faster.

When you track your assets, you know valuable information such as:

• Where your construction tools are supposed to be
• Who should have your construction tools
• The status of their service history

Fast Track Your Build with Construction Tool Tracking

Asset Panda is an award-winning asset management solution that helps you track and maintain your jobsite equipment in a way that works best for you. It gives you in-the-field access to real-time asset data on:

• Ownership
• Service history
• Maintenance requirements
• Critical dates
• Last known location
• Lifecycle status

You’ll be able to quickly track down the last person to check out specific tools, enabling you to reach out to that person or team to inquire about status or to request transfers to another site.

The service history of each piece of equipment is tracked so you have a clean audit trail of every time it was repaired, calibrated or maintained. Plus, preventative maintenance schedules can be tracked so you know when it’s due for an oil change or routine inspection.

Critical dates are documented so you know when the equipment arrived on-site and how long it's scheduled to be there, so you can plan where it needs to go next. This attention to detail helps you plan your projects with better accuracy so you’re not wasting time or losing money.

To help better track your tools, GPS pin drops can be applied every time a tool is scanned. This tells you it’s last known whereabouts when it’s time for inventory audits or its time for preventative maintenance work.

All tools have a natural lifecycle based on age, use and maintenance. By tracking this data, you can predict when an asset is approaching the end of its life, so you can plan for its disposal and forecast the purchase of its replacement.

Construction Asset Management - Of Course There’s an App for That!

With Asset Panda’s iOS and Android compatible mobile app for asset tracking, you can access and update your asset information from any job site. Your on-site project managers can scan assets, check for availability of specific equipment, report equipment problems or reassign equipment based on the specific job’s requirements. Other mobile features and functionality include:

• Full integration with the web application
• Built-in barcode scanning
• GPS pin drop when assets are scanned
• Reporting actions
• Quick asset additions
• Audit setup and execution

Keep track of your tools and get the best return on your investment with Asset Panda. Request a demo to learn how to solve the challenges brought on by lost/stolen tools, tool hoarding and low tool utilization.