Don't forget the importance of hierarchy on the front end which is creating work notifications or work orders. Employees need to be able to easily locate the correct asset.

Equipment hierarchy sets the parents and descendants in the CMMS. It helps in creating an organized structure for your assets. Once set the hierarchy, it becomes really efficient to pin point the location of an equipment, what type of equipment it is, to which department or building it belongs. Makes way for easier analysis. For example, you can see which equipment in a department creates most of the corrective or breakdown work orders. Or, which department or building has most corrective work orders for a particular equipment. Possibilities are endless.

Classification is focused on describing the equipment, and the attributes that makes it what it is. This thing is a pump. What kind of pump? What are its specifications and operating limits? Many CMMS/EAM system have this function that can go as far as generating Descriptions of the equipment based upon the classification and selected attributes. This goes a long way towards standardized descriptions, making searching far easier.

Equipment classification largely depends on the distribution of your assets across your organization. For example, if you are a multinational corporation with multiple plants all around. This is one example of how you could classify equipments. -Region (value-EMEA, Americas) -Country (UK, Finland, US..) -State/Province (Texas, NY) -City (Ohio, London) -Plant name -Sector (Sector 1,2 or Manufacture, Dispatch) -Room -Sub-Room -Equipment Type (Electrical, Mechanical, IT) -Equipment Classification (ATS, Pump, Conveyor, Pulverizer) -Equipment name (ATS-01, GF-Sump-Pump-01) Setting this hierarchy is tiresome. But believe me, once you have done it. Makes your job lot easier in the long run.

"This includes defining clear and consistent naming conventions for your equipment categories and subcategories" I think that you should speak specifically to Taxonomy. The use of equipment naming is critical to success in all areas of manufacturing: Work Instructions, Training, LOTOTO, etc. It is the common language that ties all process together. It insure that the WO is tie to the proper Valve, Motor, Pump etc. The Taxonomy should be as follows: ... (TBD) The governance should be clear and concise ... SOP, Training, If you are interested I can be more specific? All My Best, Greg

Consider use of smart numbering with abbreviations. An example structure is: site-area-sub area-equipment number-component number

Optimizing equipment classification requires knowledge of the industry that this classification is intended for, and utilizing guidelines such as ISO 14224 and 55000 series to ensure the final classification is aligned. This effort involves defining clear categories, considering usage patterns, and implementing a systematic tagging system for easy identification and organization. Existence of regular reviews and updates to adapt to changing needs will enhance the efficiency of equipment classification.

Very good point about now creating too many or too few classifications. Find the right balance is key. The same applies when creating product groups in MRP.

However you or the organization sees fit.... This can be as simple or as complicated as is required to provide the appropriate level of asset understanding. However you do it, ensure it is standardized, repeatable and most importantly... reflects the way people interpret and interact with these assets. (Don't reinvent the wheel) Yes there are standards for different industries, these are great but don't always align with actual business or maintenance operating characteristics. My 1 cent 🤣

Be sure to fully understand the feature/functionality the CMMS/EAM brings to you. You may find that your manual approach is easily eclipsed by out-of-box functionality in these modern systems.

Be sure that your hierarchy can be understood by different departments / people who needs it. For instance, Finance maybe need to relate Fixed Assets and GL account, engineering would needs classification based on their industry requirements (ISO 55000, 14 etc), technicians need something easy to find the equipment they need to inspect / repair. Likewise if you have many contractors and you are changing a lot, you need a taxonomy which is easy to understand / learn to keep productivity high.