Facilities asset management is a daunting task. But, it’s an undertaking that’s absolutely critical to your organization.
Quiz time!
Who is managing facilities assets at your organization?
Think about it - 3… 2… 1
Alright! Who is in charge of assets at your facility?
If you answered “nobody”, we need to talk.
But, hang on. If you answered “everybody” you’re not in the clear, either! You may be thinking: “I’ve got this covered. Our entire team is really responsible for data at my organization."
If this is you, I’ve got bad news for you.
If everyone is maintaining your asset data, there’s really no one maintaining your asset data.
All organizations should have an Asset Czar
Your organization needs one individual responsible for managing and maintaining standards and integrity for your asset data. When “everyone” is in charge of the data, critical details often fall through the cracks. Or, it is assumed that “someone” took care of a vital data entry task, when, in reality nobody did.
That’s why you need an “Asset Czar” – one individual whose sole job is maintaining the data at your organization. Your Asset Czar is the single point person responsible for tracking all assets in your organization.
As you set up your Asset Czar, you’ll find that you have a few areas that require your focus. When it comes to establishing someone as Asset Czar at your organization, there are three critical areas of focus for facilities asset management.
To effectively manage your organization’s assets you must focus on:
- Assets
- Data Standards
- Data Integrity
Let’s begin the Asset Czar process by looking establishing assets.
What is an asset?
An asset is everything within or outside your building, as well as any item in your enterprise.
This includes everything from vehicles and chillers in the central plant. While you’ll have varying level of details for different assets within our organization, you’ll need to track all of them. This includes park benches, dumpsters, recycling bins, windows, lights, AV equipment, desks chairs. These are all assets and should be in complete inventory
Sound daunting? Hang on. We’re not done yet.
So, by now you’ve got the scope of the project. Your asset inventory should include everything from vehicles to chillers in central plant
So, now what?
Your next step is establishing a data standard – which we’ll cover in next week’s blog post. So, stay tuned!