Equipment Management for Schools and Universities: 5 BENEFITS
You had me at one.
From lab equipment to video gear
Organizations with enough equipment to warrant an equipment room, such as schools and universities, need to prioritize equipment management. They often have a diverse range of gear that is frequently exchanged.
From lab equipment to video gear: Lots of gear, lots of hands. 👋🏼 Properly tracking and maintaining this equipment is crucial to avoid the costs of lost or damaged items and to ensure students have consistent access to the equipment for skill development.
Here are the top 5 benefits of equipment management for schools and universities.
1. Reduce costs and create accountability 💸
You all know that losing or damaging equipment can be pretty expensive. Over the course of several years, schools spend a hefty chunk of their budget replacing missing, damaged, or obsolete equipment. Something about money and a drain, right..?
Having a secure system in place for tracking equipment is essential for schools to prevent such expenses. A solid and reliable equipment tracking system not only discourages vandalism and theft but also safeguards the school's budget. A win-win.
2. Minimize the risk of human error 😵
The more human work is involved in a process, the more room there is for error. Manual data input is the type of work that equipment managers should avoid, especially in educational facilities where different student workers often handle the tasks.
Inputting data such as barcode numbers, technical specifications, checkout and return dates, and asset storage locations can lead to mistakes, even with checks and double-checks, which cost valuable time.
Schools seeking reliable and up-to-date information on asset location, condition, and usage history should look into barcode tracking supported equipment management software sooner rather than later. ⏰
3. Find all information in one spot ☝🏼
In this era of cloud computing, accessible data is the lifeblood of many organizations' daily operations. So why should schools and their equipment be left out? It's time to ditch those outdated spreadsheets and forms because there are just too many users, stakeholders, and moving parts involved.
Real-time access for multiple users to inventory data has become a necessity. Its major advantage? Both users and workers have the info they need at their disposal, exactly when they need it, regardless of their role in the organization. No more availability issues or frantic searches for equipment. Students can easily find and reserve the gear they need, while different user roles ensure that sensitive information remains secure at all times, always.
4. Simplify annual inventory audits 😎
When it's time for the annual inventory audit, equipment management software is a total game-changer. Let's face it: Making a completely accurate list of all your assets, with all the information up to date, can be a real snooze-fest... Especially when your school's inventory is always changing.
When it comes to a complete inventory, tracking usage data, managing locations, and performing timely maintenance are all essential. These tasks become a lot more manageable with scanners, barcodes, and equipment management software such as Cheqroom.
5. Make the checkout process hyper-efficient ✨
Don’t forget the bread and butter of any equipment room’s workflow: the check-in and check-out process. By considering the number of times a student borrows an item and the time saved on each checkout, you can understand the tremendous impact a streamlined checkout process can have on your school or university.
With equipment management software, checkouts can happen lightning-fast. Students can book online. Availability guaranteed. The student’s credentials are logged. Automated reminder emails to return the items. There is simply no underestimating how much leaner and more reliable the checkout process becomes with proper equipment management.
Efficient schools use equipment management tools
Better equipment management tools make better schools. Proper equipment management makes the lives of a school's students and staff much easier. It creates accountability, reduces costs, speeds up the checkout process, and just generally increases the efficiency of your equipment handling by a lot.
However, proper equipment management requires proper tools, as spreadsheets and sign-in forms are not fit for scale and will cost you in the long run. We’re obviously quite fond of Cheqroom, the equipment management software of choice for hundreds of schools and universities.
Inventory management done right
We visited three colleges that are using Cheqroom to their benefit. These academic institutions are keeping their students accountable, their inventory organized, and their equipment in tip-top shape. Read the blog post here. 🤩
Try Cheqroom for 7 days for free. No strings attached. Or book a demo straight away!
Meet Hana Belbecir, our dynamic content marketer. She infuses creativity and strategic vision into the core of our brand. Hana, passionate about storytelling and has a keen eye for market trends, is devoted to creating a unified brand identity for Cheqroom. Her favorite part? Working & brainstorming with different creatives.
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