Cleaning the Corners

Fall weather is finally here. For a lot of people, that means leaves falling, pumpkin spice lattes, and comfy sweaters. For my family it means football, pumpkin spiced beers, and fall cleaning.

Twice a year my wife and I divide up the house and clean each room from top to bottom. The biggest chore on my list is always the garage. I spend several hours taking everything out, sweeping every corner out, winterizing some equipment, throwing some things out, and finally cleaning everything off before putting it back in its place. It’s a tough but necessary job.

A lot of things in our lives, like the garage, need regular maintenance as you go: putting things back where they belong, fixing things that break, replacing things that run out—but they also need some extra attention now and then as well. The same goes for our cars, our workspaces, and even our computers and technology. An EAM application is no different.

You may spend every day closing out Work Orders or Purchase Orders, and you probably even do regular inventories on your stores. You might have even tracked all your labor hours and updated all your asset data this year. But when is the last time you really cleaned in the corners?

Ask yourself some questions, like:

• How long has it been since you adjusted the activities on your PMs or removed the old equipment from them?

• When was the last time you purged zero stock items that you no long carry in your stores, or zeroed out your temporary bins?

• When is the last time you made sure all the employees and users that needed to be were marked out of service or updated your trade rates?

• When did you last review your user groups’ menus, permissions, work order types and status authorizations to make sure everything made sense with your currently security and work flow needs?

A lot of junk can build up in our garages and our databases over time. It’s always good to dig in and clean out the corners of the places in our lives that we don’t pay attention to every day.

It’s something I think about that first cool fall day every year. It can be a daunting task, but unlike me and my garage, you don’t have to do it alone. Your team is behind you to help shine the light in the corners and help clean out all the built-up gunk.

Until next time…we are Advoco, make every minute count.

About Joshua: Joshua is a Solutions Consultant at Advoco. Always on the road, he loves spending time understanding what our customers need and helping create a solution custom fit to help them reach their goals. His 8 years in the US Air Force have given Joshua a thirst for adventure and travel. In his free time, he enjoys the quest for the perfect craft brew and cheering on his Carolina Panthers.Questions? Send Joshua an email!