Using Inspection Management Software: What You Need to Know

Managing a facility isn’t easy, especially when it comes to upholding safety standards and health codes. Even with a generally organized system in place, it’s easy to forget to schedule inspections by the deadline or misplace workflow guidelines for mandatory maintenance. Also, safety standards and health codes often change, and keeping up with the ever-changing regulations can be challenging if you don’t have an airtight, documented system.

That’s where inspection management software comes into play.

Inspection management software is about more than convenience or cohesive oversight. While it does provide both of those things, inspection software’s key benefit is that it can improve your facility’s safety and effectiveness—and isn’t that always the goal? 

What is inspection management software?

Often used in conjunction with other digital facilities management systems, inspection management software uses checklists, forms, and scheduling tools to plan and track necessary inspections. Ideally, the software will also record the results of each service or maintenance task for recordkeeping and traceable proof of compliance. 

Due to the nature of facility inspections, inspection management software will often work in tandem with work order management systems, reporting dashboards, and maintenance management software to maintain a facility at large.

Why is inspection management important?

Mandatory health and safety codes exist for a reason, and failure to follow regulations can be dangerous for staff, visitors, and nearby workers or residents. Suppose equipment in a manufacturing facility isn’t properly secured per regulation; in that case, it might fall on a worker while they perform their regular duties. Or if a school auditorium doesn’t have enough exit points, it could prevent students and staff from exiting safely in an emergency.

Oversight

Whether you manage a school, manufacturing facility, or church, ensuring your building and grounds are safely maintained and ready for thorough inspection is always important. Even if you have the best intentions with your current system for inspection management, things can slip through the cracks without complete oversight or automation. Software solutions help fill those gaps, providing more direction and better data storage so you always know how your facility and equipment stack up against regulatory standards.

On-the-ground support

Field inspection teams and other service providers frequently use inspection management software to log equipment, asset, or facility data, including current conditions, past maintenance services, the next service date, and more. When used correctly, this software can help individual workers comply with the correct health and safety codes, like those enforced by state laws, county laws, and OSHA. Facilities managers or upper management can outline ideal workflows per those rules and ensure uniform work each and every time.

The key features of inspection management software

Inspection management software should do several key things, whether those functions apply to equipment, facilities, grounds, or other vital assets. Whatever the apparatus or facility type, inspection software aims to ensure those responsible, whether they be facilities managers or the technicians performing the tasks, know and follow necessary procedures and safety guidelines. 

Inspection software should perform each of these key functions:

• Define inspection tasks and to-dos
• Schedule and track inspection tasks and work orders
• Store inspection procedures and expected workflows 
• Capture inspection data for safe recordkeeping and easy tracking
• Report on inspection results
• Integrate with other software (quality management software, environmental health and safety software, work order management software, facility maintenance software, etc.)

Each software is different. Some inspection software applies only to transportation or automotive inspections, while others are geared toward property inspection and management. In many cases, inspection software will apply to a broad range of assets and will, as mentioned above, work together with other facility management software.

What are the benefits of inspection management software?

As with any similar software solution, inspection management software aims to improve oversight, make the organization more intuitive, and improve efficiency. More specifically, inspection management software benefits include the following: 

• Increases employee safety
• Ensures compliance with safety and health standards, as well as federal, local, and industry-specific requirements
• Captures digital records of inspections
• Decreases downtime otherwise spent repairing equipment failures

Potential challenges with inspection management software

Although inspection management software can help reduce spending in the long run, the upfront cost is often the most significant deterrent. Another challenge with inspection management software is finding the best software solution for your situation. Some software focuses solely on one type of asset, such as automotive, while others focus on various facility needs within specific industries. 

If you’re in the market for a software solution, consider your needs, budget, and existing software uses. Not all specialized software will pair together, which is why an all-in-one facilities management software solution might be the better option if you’re looking to add inspection management capabilities to your toolbelt.

Why Choose FMX?

FMX’s facilities management software can do more than help with inspection management; it can also manage work requests, maintenance, facility scheduling, and reporting. 

Within FMX, you can use work order management features to schedule regular inspections and oversee due dates by time or meter levels (miles driven, oil levels, etc.). Depending on the inspection guidelines, you can adjust which meters you track and customize inspection checklists for a comprehensive instruction set. Then, measure your tasks against safety guidelines to track pass or fail tests with our custom fields.

To ensure your team is on the same page, you can look at all upcoming and past inspections with our calendar view and set preventive maintenance reminders so technicians never miss a task. 

For management teams looking for complete oversight, you can gather data and track all completed inspection work with our reports:

• Equipment Maintenance Summary Report
• Planned Completion Report
• Planned Maintenance Estimated vs. Actual Hours Report 

Interested in learning more? Reach out today to schedule a demo with our team and discover what inspection management software could do for you.