Top 4 Asset Management Practices to Optimize Airport Equipment Efficiency

Table of Contents

• The Benefits of Equipment Asset Management
• Equipment Asset Management Best Practices for Airports
• Better Asset Management Pays Off
• Frequently Asked Questions

Key Takeaways

Airport equipment asset management keeps downtime low and costs in-check while maintaining compliance and safety standards with the help of reliable labeling and software all in one place.Location tracking alone doesn’t make for effective asset management. By monitoring asset lifecycle and utilizing performance metrics like MTBF and MTTR, airports can leverage proactive maintenance practices and improve operational decision making.

Airports are complex facilities with many moving pieces. Ground support equipment, baggage handling systems, tool inventories and even airport infrastructure itself all require organization and maintenance. Managing these assets at scale can seem nearly impossible, especially for overstretched airport maintenance teams.

Instead, airports should aim to centralize equipment asset management operations across the airport. Discover why equipment asset management is critical to airport operations and learn proven best practices to take control of your equipment.

The Benefits of Equipment Asset Management

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Without equipment asset management, you put your operation at risk of running out of critical equipment when you need it most. Not only does that drive up costs, but it also damages the passenger experience.

By contrast, when airports implement a centralized approach to equipment asset management they can:

• Reduce downtime: Even minutes of downtime can lead to cascading delays at airports. With equipment asset management, you can quickly locate the right equipment, monitor its status, view service history, and address issues before they cause a breakdown.
• Cut costs: Asset management puts your assets (and dollars) at your fingertips. It can reduce unnecessary purchases of duplicate assets and prevent asset loss, while also maximizing equipment life through preventive maintenance.
• Enhance safety and compliance: There are a lot of strict safety regulations airports need to follow. Without proper asset management controls, you can’t prove you’re in compliance. Equipment asset management allows you to record inspections and ensure servicing is done on schedule, keeping passengers safe and your airport in compliance.
• Optimize maintenance: Maintenance technicians shouldn’t have to waste time digging through asset records or paper files to find important information. Take the manual labor out of maintenance by implementing a centralized system for equipment asset management. Give your team access to real-time asset info and they can do their jobs better and faster.

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Equipment Asset Management Best Practices for Airports

Knowing where equipment is located in an airport is a good start, but effective asset management requires more than just finding equipment. Follow these best practices to strengthen operations and get more value from the equipment you depend on.

1. Invest in Durable Equipment Labels

Identification labels equip techs with important information like manufacturer details and unit numbers. Assets with scannable labels like barcodes, QR codes, or RFID simplify the process of connecting physical assets to digital service records for maintenance teams.

But paper labels won’t cut it at the airport. Extreme weather, chemicals, abrasion and heavy use challenge airport assets at every turn.

Labeling equipment provides techs with critical information, such as manufacturer

Camcode’s industrial labels and asset tags are built to last your asset’s entire lifetime, even in the toughest conditions. Our Metalphoto® labels are made from anodized aluminum which seals the image inside a layer of the aluminum. This makes the labels:

• Resistant to abrasion/wear
• Chemical and solvent resistant
• UV and temperature resistant
• Waterproof and outdoor ready

In the field, we generally see these labels lasting 20+ years, some lasting longer than the asset itself. You can be confident your asset information will stay scannable and readable for decades.

For high volume or high speed assets, Camcode has RFID labeling options. Asset teams can scan assets without requiring line-of-site, making them ideal for use in equipment yards, baggage handling and MRO facilities.

2. Use Software for a Single Source of Truth

Labels can’t remember your assets’ full service history. That’s why smart airports feed all of their equipment maintenance records into a computer-aided facilities management (CAFM) or computerized maintenance management software (CMMS) solution.

A CAFM or CMMS will bring visibility into one centralized location and create a single source of truth for every piece of equipment at your airport. From belt loaders to tugs, airport personnel can find what they need instead of digging through spreadsheets, paper files, or other departments to find it.

By integrating durable asset labels with your CAFM or CMMS, you ensure every scan pulls from and writes to an accurate, auditable database. Accurate recordkeeping is crucial when audits of your documentation are a possibility.

3. Monitor Equipment Lifecycles

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Maintenance teams that run efficient airports don’t see assets as they are in the present moment. Consider an asset’s current condition as well as its entire lifecycle. Lifecycle monitoring allows you to plan proactively instead of reacting when equipment breaks down. You can make data-driven decisions that factor in total cost of ownership.

Airports should have a projected lifecycle for equipment. They should know how long an asset will be able to perform as expected. They should know when something will need to be repaired or replaced. They should understand how that factors into budgeting and airport operations.

It all starts with permanent labeling. Labels that only last a couple years aren’t built for lifecycle tracking. Invest in labels that will allow data to move with your assets from acquisition to decommission.

4. Track Performance Metrics

Fact-based maintenance relies on data, not assumptions. Maintenance and equipment performance metrics are simple to track when using a CAFM or CMMS solution that records performance over time.

Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF) and Mean Time To Repair (MTTR) are two of the most helpful metrics. MTBF shows how frequently equipment fails while MTTR tracks how long it takes to return equipment to operational status.

Effective labeling ensures each piece of data is linked to the correct asset. If your labels fade, your metrics will be off.

Better Asset Management Pays Off

Airport equipment asset management can be difficult, but these best practices will help your maintenance department operate more smoothly and proactively. The right combination of rugged labels and performance tracking can keep critical equipment up and running with minimal unexpected downtime.

No matter your specific processes, durable labels and tags are an integral part of tracking physical assets in a digital system. Camcode’s rugged asset tags, labels, and RFID solutions are designed to help airports track equipment accurately in harsh environments. Request your free label and tag assessment kit and see what Camcode can do for you.

Frequently Asked Questions