Equipment Maintenance Logs: An Overview & Best Practices
Organizations can use equipment maintenance logs to track maintenance activities. These logs allow an organization to track the maintenance completed for each asset and ensure necessary maintenance is performed regularly.
These logs also enable organizations to track historical maintenance. This is especially relevant when asset management decisions between repair and replacement need to be made. Without an effective way of tracking maintenance, it will be difficult to make strategic decisions that affect budgeting and the reliability of critical equipment.
This article will provide an overview of equipment maintenance logs, their general types, and some important best practices for creating and recording them. We will also emphasize the value of using a Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS), such as LLumin’s CMMS+, to help streamline the entire process.
Understanding Equipment Maintenance Logs
Equipment maintenance logs are paper-based or digital records documenting all maintenance activities performed on assets or equipment. These logs are vital for an organization’s ability to manage assets over short and long-term periods.
At their core, equipment maintenance logs serve two main purposes:
- They help organizations track equipment’s health and maintenance history.
- These records also help an organization make better asset management decisions for repairs, maintenance, and replacement.
Different types of maintenance logs serve specific purposes. Some equipment maintenance logs focus on planned activities, while others track specific machines’ maintenance. Still, others document ongoing projects. Different types of equipment maintenance logs contribute to an organization’s ability to manage assets in different ways.
The main types of maintenance logs include:
- Maintenance Schedule Logs: These logs document planned maintenance tasks so that a company can have a more detailed understanding of ongoing maintenance schedules and their expected completion timeframe.
- Machinery Maintenance Logs: These logs track the maintenance activities of specific machines.
- Project Logs: These logs are used to record maintenance tasks related to current projects. They provide deeper insight into maintenance projects within an organization.
Benefits of Equipment Maintenance Logs
There are several advantages to keeping maintenance logs up to date. For starters, they can help your maintenance team perform regular maintenance, which will help reduce repair costs and prevent unexpected downtime. These logs can also help boost equipment resale value and ensure warranty compliance.
LLumin’s CMMS+ system can help you streamline your maintenance logging processes and improve the accuracy and effectiveness of your existing ones.
| How LLumin’s CMMS+ Supports Maintenance Logs | |
|---|---|
|
Repair Costs |
LLumin automates maintenance scheduling, supporting the timely completion of maintenance tasks and reducing the likelihood of expensive repairs. |
|
Safety |
LLumin’s CMMS+ tracks safety inspections and maintenance tasks, helping organizations comply with important safety regulations and identify and respond to developing safety hazards. |
|
Accountability |
LLumin provides detailed records of all maintenance activities, including technician details, work duration, and costs, helping to improve transparency and accountability. |
|
Resale Value |
Because LLumin maintains detailed historical maintenance records, you can produce records needed to prove regular maintenance when selling equipment or demonstrating compliance with warranty requirements. |
|
Decision Making |
LLumin’s CMMS+ provides valuable insights into maintenance trends, recurring issues and repairs, and costs; this can help your organization make better asset management decisions. |
|
Regulatory Compliance |
LLumin retains historical maintenance records, which can help your organization stay ready for auditing, helping avoid non-compliance penalties. |
|
Resource Optimization |
LLumin provides real-time visibility into maintenance schedules, inventory levels, and technician availability, helping to improve resource allocation and use. |
Important Steps and Best Practices
Before starting, you should decide whether a digital or manual logging process works best for your organization. Digital logging, supported by LLumin’s cloud-based, mobile-ready CMMS+, can provide you and your entire team with fully optimized equipment maintenance logs and provide real-time access to your maintenance data. We’ve also included a template that can be used for manual logging: here.
When manually recording maintenance logs, it’s essential to include asset details, maintenance tasks, and technician information for each task completed. Including a remarks or observations section is also useful for documenting specific conditions observed during maintenance.
| Equipment Maintenance Logs Best Practices | |
|---|---|
|
Regular Updates |
Ensure logs are always current to reflect maintenance activities accurately. |
|
Automation |
Use technology to minimize errors and maintain data integrity. |
|
Accessibility |
Make logs easily available to those who need them. |
|
Simplicity and Standardization |
Keep the format straightforward and consistent across the organization. |
Equipment Maintenance Logs With LLumin’s CMMS+
Regular equipment maintenance logging is a best practice in and of itself. It can help your organization complete and record maintenance tasks and ensure regulatory compliance and safety. With the support of LLumin’s CMMS+, your organization can ensure equipment stays reliable and operates at peak performance levels for longer periods of time.
Getting Started With LLumin
LLumin develops innovative CMMS software to manage and track assets for industrial plants, municipalities, utilities, fleets, and facilities. If you’d like to learn more about the total effective equipment performance KPI, we encourage you to schedule a free demo or contact the experts at LLumin to see how our CMMS+ software can help you reach maximum productivity and efficiency goals.
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With over two decades of expertise in Asset Management, CMMS, and Inventory Control, Doug Ansuini brings a wealth of industry knowledge to the table. Coupled with his degrees in Operations Research from both Cornell and University of Mass, he is uniquely positioned to tackle complex challenges and deliver impactful results. He is a recognized expert in integrating control systems and ERP software with CMMS and has extensive implementation and consulting experience. As a senior software architect, Doug’s ability to analyze data, identify patterns, and implement data-driven approaches enables organizations to enhance their maintenance practices, reduce costs, and extend the lifespan of their critical assets. With a proven track record of excellence, Doug has established himself as a respected industry leader and invaluable asset to the LLumin team.