If you’re a facility manager tasked with managing numerous floors and sections in a facility, tracking changes in maintenance management software can feel daunting at times. Even with a solid CMMS in place, there are still challenges with being able to visualize where work orders are distributed in your facility. You may wonder:

Where are all my work orders being assigned to currently?

Can I identify problem areas in my facility?

How can maintenance software help my technicians locate equipment that’s hard to find in the facility?

Whether it be college campuses, hospitals, hotels or large manufacturing facilities, it’s important to understand where preventative maintenance and work order management is needed most. With web-based CMMS software, information on PM’s and work orders are usually organized by spreadsheet or interactive calendars. However, there is also value in seeing where scheduled or demand work orders are assigned to the most in a facility. This is where having interactive floor plans plays a huge role.

Read on to learn more about the benefits of interactive floor plans for maintenance management.


One of the newest ways CMMS software shows work orders and preventive maintenance in a facility is with interactive icons displayed on floor plans. A floor plan can be integrated into your account for each floor or section of your facility. Once icons are plotted on each floor plan the original files are converted into an interactive dashboard. If this sounds like a lot of tedious work to setup yourself, reach out to your software vendor for a quote on setup services. As CMMS setup experts, your vendor can have a facility up and running quickly.

1. Learn to Locate Assets and Equipment Throughout Your Facility

With interactive floor plans, such as our Hippo Advanced Dash, you can digitally view each floor or section of your facility. This lets you navigate rooms, see how equipment is placed across the floor using interactive icons, and learn where machines are located without having to walk through your entire building.

Right-click on the facility floor plan to filter your view by a variety of criteria or show all plotted equipment and headers at one time.

2. Easily Identify and Troubleshoot Problem Areas

Frequency in demand work orders can show other issues that may be present in your facility. You can easily filter facility floor plans to show relevant pieces of equipment, all equipment with an open work order, or display all assets mapped across the facility floor plan.

Each interactive icon can be visible in different colors indicating a particular status. For example, red icons indicate overdue work orders while green conveys work orders that are not yet started. If you notice a cluster of red icons in one particular location of the floor plan, you’ll be able to identify a problem area which you can then remedy accordingly. Perhaps this location/ equipment requires additional dedicated resources, more scheduled work orders, or a complete equipment replacement. By using the intuitive floor plan mapping tools, equipment and location issues are troubleshot directly from your computer.

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3. Locate Work Orders on Assets that May Be Harder to Find

In some facilities, technicians often work on a specific unit of equipment in obscure locations or surrounded by identical units making it harder to find. Floor plan icons are placed in relation to the actual equipment location on the facility – one for each unit. This ensures technicians locate and complete the work order on the correct unit rather than mistaking which equipment unit they should work on. Admin users can also easily manage their facility layout from their account. If you have to relocate a piece of equipment, simply re-plot that equipment’s icon using the Plot Equipment option in the Facility Admin menu.

4. Help Trainees and Upper-Management Understand Their Facilities More Comprehensively

Interactive floor plans can reduce the learning curve for new maintenance tech trainees by providing a simple map of each facility’s section along with the location of every room, asset, or piece of equipment that they may need to service. This quick training tool helps them get better acquainted with the facility layout, potential problem areas, and shows them the types of work orders or jobs that are generally associated with different equipment. In addition, getting your trainees involved with their facility management software early helps them get used to working with a CMMS in their everyday workflow, reducing CMMS training expenses and increasing their productivity. Upper-level management also benefits greatly from an Advanced Dashboard as they may not have an intimate knowledge of each facility section or floor, let alone knowing where various equipment is located. Interactive floor plans provide detailed facility information that all users can easily access and find relevant information from.

5. Interactive Icons That Contain All Equipment Details

Apart from simply mapping out a location or piece of equipment, an interactive icon also houses all asset info that can be displayed when the user clicks on the icon. A drop down list of asset info such as ID tags, images, manuals, warranty info, serial numbers, etc. are uploaded to the back end of the software system and associated with a piece of equipment. You can house as many items as you require with each asset and never again have to worry about searching for important documents in a disorganized filing cabinet.

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In addition, users can click on the asset name and open a comprehensive equipment detail screen displaying all asset info indicated above, ID tags and images, a work order history, associated work orders, and current work order information.

Users can submit a demand work order for each asset or open, modify and close out a work order all directly from the floor plan. Floor plans act as a one-stop-shop for all your graphical maintenance management needs.


Floor plans are a helpful way for you and your team to view work orders, and find and manage asset information. Having a top-down view of all sections of your facility can help you better navigate where maintenance is being done and where attention may need to be shifted. Interactive icons make work orders and equipment simple to identify, manage and navigate for all users, whether you’re a new trainee or upper-level management. For more information on Hippo’s interactive floor plan tool- Hippo Advanced Dash and a product video, click here.


About The Author

Jonathan Davis

Jonathan has been covering asset management, maintenance software, and SaaS solutions since joining Hippo CMMS. Prior to that, he wrote for textbooks and video games.
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