Commonly inspection data is held on centralised cloud servers, owned and controlled by third parties. This data will prove vital at some point during the lifecycle of an asset. So why trust others to protect it when you can secure it better yourself with your own personal blockchain? Before we go into how blockchain can be used in maintenance inspection, let's review what we know about the industry.
Maintenance inspections are a means of ensuring that a product is operating safely and efficiently. There are various types of maintenance inspections, including preventive, predictive, condition-based, corrective, and unscheduled.
Preventive Inspection is a process where the quality of a product is inspected to ensure that the quality standards are met. The Inspection may be conducted by a person or machine, and inspections can cover many aspects of a product. A preventive inspection aims to find potential problems before they arise to minimise risk and improve efficiency.
Predictive Inspection is a process that uses sensors to collect data about an object, structure, or material to predict the probability of failure. Predictive inspections are designed to identify potential problems before they become unsafe or expensive ones. The information collected can be used for prognosis, maintenance planning, and even forecasting the risk of failure.
Condition-Based Inspection is a process in which the inspector examines the item to determine if it needs repair. It can be used in various settings, such as in maintenance departments for equipment that requires periodic checkups or by homeowners doing their own inspections before listing or selling their houses. This Inspection differs from a risk-based inspection, which determines if something poses an imminent safety concern.
Corrective Inspections help to identify and fix any issues that may have been missed in the inspection process. A corrective inspection is a type of Inspection that focuses mainly on problems identified by the customer. It might not be an entirely new process, but it is a more in-depth examination of all or specific sections of the product.
Unscheduled Inspection is a process in which an inspector visits a site without warning to make sure that the company has maintained the standards in the contract or lease agreement. This type of Inspection is typically part of a contract between two parties.
Non-Destructive Inspection (NDI) is a process that detects flaws or defects in materials, welds, or other structures without causing any damage. These inspections are used to identify problems that cannot be seen by the naked eye.
A maintenance inspection checklist is a document that records the equipment and services that need to be looked at during the scheduled time. It ensures that everything is in working condition and there are no safety hazards. These inspections are made regularly to ensure that everything is running as expected.
A maintenance inspection checklist should be updated as soon as any changes to the equipment or services are made. It helps to keep track of such modifications, including what was checked and when it was checked. It also helps in identifying any anomalies or anything that needs to be repaired or replaced.
The success of an inspection depends on the preparation. It is crucial to act in advance and make sure you are ready for any surprises that might come up.
Maintenance inspection completed means that the maintenance has been completed (proof of work) and the necessary repairs have been made.
Example: Most of the time, a car needs to go through a maintenance inspection before you can register it for road use. This is because the car will need to be inspected for its safety and reliability.
Facility management is the branch of management that deals with the maintenance, repair and oversight of buildings. It is a fast-growing industry because it encompasses many areas of specialisation that are in high demand.
The maintenance and management of a building is called facility management. The work of FM professionals affects the lives of everyone who enters a facility and can include:
- Managing and maintaining the building to ensure it is safe, functional, attractive, and environmentally sustainable
- Monitoring building systems such as water supply, electricity, heating, ventilation, lighting and security systems
- Ensuring quality standards for everything from food service to housekeeping services to cleaning supplies
- Providing preventive maintenance against emergencies such as floods or fires
- Developing strategies for energy conservation.
The use of maintenance inspection software eliminates the need to manually create reports and spreadsheets that are time-consuming. QR codes, IoT, and mobile technology have streamlined the industry, simplifying processes and recording increasingly accurate data. However, as technology advances and the quantity of data increases exponentially, so too does the cost of storing it and the risk of a data breach.
FM software allows industrial level maintenance and repair schedules to be managed by organisations from a web app, allowing them to save time and money by optimising the management of their assets.
A Computerised Maintenance Management System (CMMS) is a computer program that manages maintenance information and enables operation processes. CMMS shows the use and availability of vehicles, machinery, comms and other physical assets.
Blockchain provides a single source of truth that makes the verification and exchange of maintenance inspection records possible without involving a third party. On top of this, data stored on a blockchain is immutable, transparent and public, leading to more trust, accountability, and safer records.
Trustworthy, accurate, and auditable software is essential when exchanging data and communicating with businesses across different ecosystems, often required within large scale operations. Public blockchain technology provides exemplary data security and accessibility that anyone can examine by using the correct key. Operators, Inspectors, Facility Managers, Investigators and Business Owners will be able to access and interrogate data unrestrained by their current platforms and collaborate with complete trust.
Your data remains yours as blockchain only stores an encrypted value of your information. By taking ownership of your data, you take back the ability to govern what you share, when you share it, and with whom. This enables businesses to store detailed asset, inspection and maintenance records without fear of expensive storage costs or security breaches.
We offer an API-based solution to facility management software businesses, enabling existing technology to send data directly to existing public blockchains. We currently use tried and tested Bitcoin and Digibyte chains but crucially remove the need for tokenisation and incorporate mobile technology to simplify integration. Intrigued? Give us a call. We are always happy to discuss our solutions.
A 4 point inspection is an inspection made by insurance underwriters to examine a home, it examines the current condition of a house, reviewing four major systems: roofing, electrical, plumbing and HVAC.
