Conducting an Inventory Tour of Assets

This article will guide Facilitron Works Order Administrators and Order Processors in preparing an inventory tour of assets assigned to any property. It will also guide inspectors in performing the inventory tour.

Getting Started with an Inventory Tour

An inventory tour enables Property Owners to track and assess the quantity and quality of their assets. It is recommended to perform inventory on a regular basis. 

To conduct an inventory and inspection of your assets, you will first need to configure the Inspection Results Types to rate the condition of the assets. You can do this by going to Manage > Web Site Configuration > Inspection Standards & Ratings.

Districts may use the “Good, Fair, Poor, or Deficient” standard or a numeric scale that will then correspond to the “Good, Fair, Poor, or Deficient” asset status. However, the benefit of using a numeric scale, such as a 1-10 scale (8-10 being good, 4-7 being fair, and 1-3 being poor), is that it can be adjusted during times of tight budgets. This way, your inspectors won't have to change their process, and the district will still have the flexibility to adjust results accordingly.

The system is designed to allow wireless scanners (such as Bluetooth scanners) to work with barcodes affixed to each asset. Most assets are given barcodes when received by the district. If an asset is found not to have a barcode, one can easily be added while doing inventory. 

Please note that a bar code is simply a label the computer recognizes that identifies an existing asset in the system. You can think of it as an alternative to typing in the asset information to bring up the computer record.

Performing the Inventory Tour

The inventory tour is designed for a phone or tablet using the Facilitron Works site. Using a tablet to conduct an inventory tour is recommended, as it is typically easier to type on a tablet than on a phone. 

Make sure you have a Bluetooth barcode scanner connected to the device before starting the tour. When you have a Bluetooth bar code scanner connected to your mobile device, the user can scan the District Asset ID barcode and the system will automatically lookup that asset and save it as part of your tour sequencing.

First, go to Assets > Inventory - Assets > Assets - Conduct Inventory.

At Step 1, select the Property and click Next.

At Step 2, scan or type in the location (i.e. the room you are in) using a bluetooth scanner. 

Please note that to successfully use the bar code scanning method, all rooms should be barcoded so the computer will easily recognize the specific room and property. Placing barcode stickers in areas where they will not be in the way of cosmetic updates is a recommended best practice. An example of this would be placing the sticker on a door hinge. This allows for cosmetic updates to sites (such as painting) since the hinge shouldn’t be affected by these updates. 

If using the dropdown list of room locations, these can also be added from the Inventory Scan Dashboard (see section below).

Scan the inventory asset’s district-provided ID barcode. The system will  automatically look up that asset and save it as part of your tour sequencing. If the asset is not currently in the system, you may enter it and scan the barcode that should be associated with this asset. You may also enter the asset without associating a barcode with it by simply hitting enter.

 After entering the barcode, you will be brought to the inspection log. Here, you will be able to record any changes of condition and add any pertinent notes.

Please note that if you scan a barcode for an asset not currently in the system or the bar code has not been associated with an asset in the system, you will receive an error message in red. 

You will be prompted to click Link this Barcode to New or Existing Asset Location. This will take you to will take you to Step 2b. Here, you can select an existing location to link the bar code or add a new one by entering the Building Description, Location Description, and Door Number for the asset.

The Asset Inventory Scan Dashboard

This dashboard allows you to easily manage your asset locations, inventory, and scan alerts for assets with barcodes associated with them. From the Inventory Scan Dashboard, you can also pull a report of various assets that have changed in condition or have a specific inventory result.

The Inventory Scan Dashboard can be found under Assets > Inventory - Assets > Inventory Scan Dashboard. 

From this page, you can access the location or asset lists in the system and manage those inventories. Please see How To Add Missing Building and Locations to Works and Adding Assets to Facilitron Works for more information.

Inventory Scan Alerts tell you when multiple assets are associated with a single barcode, and also when an asset is found in a different location than listed in the system.

Select one of the alert types, then click Apply Filter to access the inventory scan alerts.

You can utilize the Recurring Work Order (RWO) feature of Facilitron Works to schedule a tour on behalf of a department. Doing so ensures that the worker can be associated with the tour. Labor and costs can be tracked and costs can be tracked, allowing you to see how many hours or days were spent. Please see Creating Recurring Work Orders (RWO's) in Facilitron Works for more information.