ForConstructionPros.com

In today's economy, equipment maintenance can be your saving grace. Let's face it, when you can't afford to buy new, you need to keep what you have running longer.

We asked several leading rental management software providers what they have to offer rental business owners to assist them with managing maintenance. Here's what they had to say:

Steve Milcik - Orion Software - Most of the more established rental management solutions offer some kind of maintenance functions as a standard part of their software. Some, like Sirius Pro, have a more robust and complete maintenance program built into the software, as well as offering an optional preventive maintenance module. In the standard package, a client is able to manage each item by serial number, put it into maintenance, assign the internal work order, draw parts from inventory or order them from suppliers and assign staff to complete repairs. All of these actions are kept in history, and then reflect on the value of the item in terms of depreciation and ROI.

When the preventive maintenance module is added, a client can then schedule future maintenance for inventory. For example, if a generator needs to have an inspection, cleaning and oil change every 300 hours of use, Sirius Pro will track the usage of that item, and alert the user when it is time to perform this scheduled maintenance.

Bob Shaffer - Point-of-Rental Systems - Any equipment rental store has both remedial and preventive maintenance needs. Point-of-Rental Systems has recently enhanced its preventive maintenance cycles from four to 10 and added all the fields required to meet the new CARB emission requirements. Rental management software not only needs to flag when preventive maintenance is required or approaching that point, but it should be able to store maintenance instructions, including parts and fluids required for each cycle. Some systems can store and display "how to do it"videos to show the technicians how to properly perform maintenance and repairs. For potential liability and for evaluation purposes, free-form technician comments should be stored. Equipment in for maintenance should be unavailable for rent for at least some estimated period and there should be a method to assign repair costs that affect the ROI of that item.