Blog | AssetPool - Digital Asset Management

How To Optimize Your Fire Safety Inspections

Written by Michael Kirk | Feb 15, 2022 6:30:00 AM

Making sure your fire safety equipment is in perfect working order is vital to avoid risk and disasters. Let’s take what happened at South Africa’s parliament as an example of how fire safety equipment failure can be dangerous. Mr. Ramaphosa, who visited the scene, said the building's sprinkler system had not functioned properly, and praised firefighters for responding to the fire in minutes. He also said that parliament's fire alarm had only sounded when firefighters were already on site. If the sprinkler system had been properly maintained the extent of the fire could have been lessened. This type of story is not uncommon these days but with technological advances we have seen recently there is no excuse for a fire that could have been prevented. In Canada, 1 out of 100 preventable residential fires are fatal. With AssetPool, you can schedule your equipment maintenance and monitor your buildings risk live. If a piece of fire-safety equipment is at risk then you will be notified before it could potentially cause harm. 

 

5 Tips to help you optimize your fire safety inspections

  1. Regular, scheduled inspections: With AssetPool, you can schedule work for technicians and they will be notified when a job card is opened. When it comes to fire safety equipment, it is vital that it is inspected on a regular monthly basis. If a technician misses a month’s inspection on a fire extinguisher, the outcome could be deadly. These inspections are supposed to be recorded on a hang tag attached to each fire extinguisher. In addition to a list of the inspections and the dates they were performed, the inspection tags typically include a description of the extinguisher, including the make and model number. All of this information can be held in AssetPool with more precision and a full guarantee that the work was performed. Typically, fire extinguishers have a tag on them where the technician fills out the date of their monthly inspection, with AssetPool the inspection now includes a virtual time stamp, location, and photographic evidence that it was performed.

  2.  Easy identification of assets: Each asset is identified with use of a QR code, ensuring that they are tracked and treated as an individual element. AssetPool has the ability to group assets into sites and types and it give you a digital asset verification report. If you walk into a building to inspect the fire-safety equipment you will know the exact location of each asset. With paper you do not have the precision that digital platforms have.

  3. Standardized checklist: Every organization is different, which is why AssetPool's smart inspection platform can be customized to suit your unique requirements. AssetPool requires a one-off input of the asset types and checklists, which are key to your business. Create the client, create the site, onboard your assets and let AssetPool do the rest, organized and in real time. There is no need to have paper checklists in 2022.

  4. Go Digital: We live in a modern age where technology can allow us to complete tasks more efficiently than ever before. AssetPool’s mobile app enables technicians to conduct their asset inspections in the field and update the relevant SIP record immediately via the cloud. We use QR codes to ensure efficient tracking and data input. Once the smart inspection is closed off, remote or office-based staff have immediate access to the results of the inspection, in real time. This allows your team to make informed, responsive decisions to improve performance and mitigate risk in the business.

  5.  Photographic evidence: AssetPool’s software has captured 4.3m images which are stored in the cloud. When you are creating your personalised checklists you can chose whether or not photographs are required in the individual checks. If you would like the technician to take a picture of the current state of a piece of equipment you have the power to do that. As the old saying goes, “A picture is worth a thousand words." In the case of an accident, photographic evidence can be the deciding factor in whether  insurance covers you or not.

 

 

Conclusion

 

AssetPool is a SIP (Smart Inspection Platform) that can support and provide you with real time insights into understanding your buildings or facilities risk. The platform will allow you to mitigate this risk. By creating digital twins of all your fire assets in your buildings or facilities, AssetPool can plan, manage, and schedule third party service providers to ensure that your assets are properly maintained. Smart Inspection Platforms like AssetPool can help you and your customers by giving them visibility over their risk. Adopting a digital answer to how you take care of fire safety equipment is vitally important to the future of preventing fires and saving lives.