Hippo’s turn-key onboarding and implementation solutions ensure you can get your computerized maintenance management software (CMMS) up and running as smoothly as possible. And an important part of the process can be a complete facility audit.
But what is a facility audit, and should your company get one?
Implementation specialists Mike Sokulski and Tyler Syrowitz have traveled the world helping companies get their assets into Hippo’s CMMS. Mike has done audits all over, including a museum inside an aircraft carrier, a small island community, and even a jail. Tyler has worked with customers throughout Canada and America, including a cherry-processing plant and a facility that turns straw into paper and packing. Here they share their insights into facility audits and how companies can set themselves up for success.
But first, let’s look at audits in general.
What is a facility audit?
In general, audits are comprehensive reviews that help you establish a baseline of what you have already in place, including assets, equipment, and inventory as well as processes and procedures. It’s a way to capture information on everything from what you have to what you have in place to look after it. You can also categorize audits by who does them. So, there are internal and external audits.
That’s a general definition. There are also more specific types of audits, each with their own processes and goals.
What is a facility management audit?
Here, you’re making as complete a list as possible of all the assets and equipment you have, making sure to include information about their current condition. You also need to include information about the systems you have in place for maintenance and repairs.
The goal is to help the maintenance or facility manager make the best possible decisions about which proactive programs to implement, when to repair or replace assets, and how to budget for it all.
A facility management audit can include:
- HVAC systems
- Lighting
- Electrical
- Plumbing
- Machinery
- Vehicles
- Signage
Because it looks at the programs and processes you have in place to maintain the facility, the audit can also include tools and MRO inventory.
What is a facility safety audit?
Instead of looking at assets, here you’re looking at the effectiveness of your health and safety management program. In the United States, a large part of these audit involves checking for compliance with OSHA standards, which are wide-ranging, and can include:
- Workstation ergonomics
- Hearing protection
- Fire suppression
- Materials handling
In the final stages of the process, stakeholders from across the organization can work together to make an audit report, which in many ways is simply a list of recommendations. In some cases, it might be as simple as adding additional signage or changing to better non-slip mats. In others, you might find yourself developing new standard operating procedures. For example, new lock out/tag out SOPs.
Quick but important note: Hippo does facility management audits when helping organizations get their CMMS database set up. Hippo does not offer safety audits.
What is the role of facility audit checklists?
Although what you include on the checklist can depend on your industry and facility, the general goal for checklists is always the same: ensuring you don’t forget anything.
When you’re doing a facility management audit, you can create new checklists for each area. Later, when you have a master list of all your assets and equipment, you can create additional checklists to help you collect all the associated documentation. For example, for every piece of equipment in a production line, you can create a checklist so you’re sure you have the O&M manuals, warranties, related maintenance and repairs work orders, and schematics and images.
That’s audits in general. But what specifically does Hippo do for its audits?
What is a Hippo CMMS facility audit?
An audit is how all the asset information that needs to get into the database gets into the database, Mike explains. An implementation specialist comes onsite and catalogs a facility’s assets, including mechanical, electrical, plumbing, and production. Generally, there are three phases.
Phase one: onsite cataloging of assets
First, an implementation specialist arrives onsite to catalog assets. They walk around the facility with a camera and tablet, taking pictures, mapping locations on a digital floor plan, and gathering information. Mike says he collects a lot for each asset, including “serial numbers, model numbers, what electrical panel is it tied to in case you need to shut it down, and for some bigger assets, even motor information.”
Every company gets an audit tailored to its situation, but usually Mike or Tyler will be onsite for two to three days. In rare cases, when it looks like it might take more than a week, Hippo starts thinking about sending both.
A new trend is companies requesting barcoding. “As we’re doing the audit, we’re attaching barcodes to the assets… A lot of companies like it. They like having a number they can reference,” Mike says. The benefit for the company is that later technicians can scan the barcode tag with a mobile device to access all the asset’s information. On Mike and Tyler’s end, barcoding adds a few extra steps. They need to find a good location for the heavy-duty tag, which they then add to the asset’s information along with the barcode.
Phase two: offsite database building
Back at Hippo’s offices, Mike and Tyler start putting everything together. “We take all that information, which is a lot, and essentially we’re combing through it and building your database,” Mike says. Times vary according to the size of the database, but Hippo typically estimates between four to six weeks to get everything loaded, says Tyler.
Phase three: preventive maintenance scheduling
Everything depends on how much of a preventive maintenance schedule is already in place. In some cases, companies just need their information added to the CMMS. In others, Mike and Tyler help companies establish a schedule. “We try to do some research on the equipment and come up with industry-standard PMs.” Hippo already has a lot of this information on hand, but Mike and Tyler sometimes need to hunt down manuals and contact equipment manufactures directly.
Should your company get a facility audit?
Mike suggests companies think carefully about the following questions:
- Do you have an accurate and complete list of all your assets?
- Do you have someone on staff who can load everything into the database, and can you afford to take them away from their regular assignments?
- Are your assets close together? Or, will information be coming from different locations and sources?
If a company answers no to any of the above, it should think seriously about an audit, Mike says. Alternatively, a company can decide by asking itself one question: Do you want a turnkey solution? If the answer is yes, an audit is the way to go.
Tyler has a different question companies can ask themselves: Do you want to be efficient? Tyler knows experience pays when it comes to auditing. Recently, he worked with a company that thought it had thousands of assets to be entered into the CMMS. When Tyler arrived onsite, he realized the number was actually in the hundreds. The company had been counting every part as an asset when it often only needed to be looking at groups of interrelated parts. “Think of your laptop,” Tyler says. “You can have ten assets or one. Would you say it’s a screen plus a keyboard plus a mouse? Practically speaking, for maintenance, it’s one asset.” If it breaks and you’re writing the work order, that’s when you can be more specific about which part needs attention, he advises.
Tyler saved that company time and effort during the audit. He also saved the maintenance department from long-term frustration. His work prevents companies from bloating their database, making work order generation and preventive maintenance scheduling more difficult. “It costs money to have us come there, but we’re saving them money,” he explains.
How do implementation specialists prepare for a facility audit?
First, Mike and Tyler reach out to the company, because they need to know the company’s timeline and how far along the maintenance department is in the overall process. They then need to hammer out the logistics, such as setting arrival and departure dates, reviewing safety requirements, and establishing who will be the onsite liaison. In some facilities, Mike and Tyler are given a brief tour and made to watch a safety video before being left alone to complete their work. In others, a manager or member of the maintenance department is with them at all times.
To help them plan out the audit, implementation specialist request:
- Easy-to-read, digital floor plans, usually as PDFs or CADs
- Existing lists of assets
- Current PM schedules
- Piping and instrumentation diagrams (P&ID)
If a company wants barcodes, Hippo prefers knowing that in advance, so the tags can be shipped directly to the site.
How should companies prepare for a facility audit?
The more preparation a company does leading up to the audit, the better it runs. Having all the requested documents, especially clean digital floor plans, makes finding and cataloging assets faster.
On top of good maps, Tyler encourages companies to provide good guides. Having someone from the company who’s familiar with the facility helps build better accessibility into the databases. Specifically, Tyler wants his guides to know if the technicians have special names for any of the assets. Using these names, which can be completely idiosyncratic, ensures the technicians and the database speak the same language.
Knowledgeable guides also ensure accuracy. Although Mike and Tyler have audited facilities in many different industries and have seen all kinds of assets, they sometimes come across something new. Tyler audited a facility full of highly specialized machines imported from Italy for sorting and packaging cherries, and his guide was invaluable in helping get the right information into the CMMS.
Mike also encourages companies to have their assets ranked by criticality, so that the most important ones get done first. If there’s time at the end of the audit, he can then move on to a secondary list of nice-to-haves.
What are the facility audit benefits?
Some companies are surprised by how Hippo’s CMMS makes training new staff easier, Mike says. Instead of having to be told where everything is, new technicians can access information-rich digital floor plans. Instead of having to be walked through a common repair, they can look at historical data for an asset or follow a customizable checklist.
Tyler sees audits as a chance for maintenance departments to see how much Hippo cares and to spread excitement about implementing new facility management software. Any new project requires a level of buy-in from staff to be successful, and audits help introduce the technology and get everyone onboard.
Next steps
Hippo’s here to help you get the solution that works best for you, including answering your questions about audits and helping you book a live software demo.
CEO summary
Facility audits are an important part of the implementation process if your organization does not already have an accurate asset list. With a facility management, auditors collect information on all your assets and equipment as well as the existing programs in place to maintain and repair them. With a focus on current condition, the goal is to help the maintenance or facility manager set up better proactive maintenance and project future costs. With a facility safety audit, the focus shifts to safety, and auditors systematically collect data on safety compliance issues. When deciding if you want to bring in onsite auditors from Hippo, you need to look at how good your current records are, how close your assets are from one another, and if you can afford to have techs collecting and punching in everything into the new database. In the end, the best way to decide is in direct consultation with your CMMS provider’s implementation team.
