As you may know, September is National Preparedness month in the United States. Each year, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) reminds us to be proactive and ready should a disaster strike. Healthcare facilities are required by CMS to test their emergency operations plan twice a year, and other industries are subject to similar regulations. Here in Florida, we need to plan for the threat of hurricanes. In other locations, winter storms require preparation. While the top priority is always personnel safety, it’s also essential that critical assets are protected. Failure to do so is not only expensive, but it may be catastrophic to public safety. Maximo can help in several ways:

Maintain an Accurate Inventory of Equipment and Tools

As an asset management system, Maximo is designed to maintain the asset inventory you’ll need for disaster preparedness. In particular, the following key details will be important both for preparation and for FEMA reimbursement should a disaster occur:

  • Criticality: Prioritize disaster preparations based on an asset’s criticality
  • Location: Identify where critical assets are located
  • Replacement Value: Required to obtain reimbursement in case of loss

Inspect Critical Infrastructure and Equipment

Prior to a weather event, it is important to inspect buildings for cracks and other structural defects. Vegetation should be managed. Generators must be tested. Each of these activities should be identified in advance and tracked by means of Maximo’s inspection functionality.

Complete Preparedness Checklists

Event preparation activities may be organized in a job plan, creating a reusable set of tasks, labor, and materials needed to complete each task, as well as dependencies and scheduling requirements.

Track Post-Event Cleanup and Replacement

Certain weather events qualify for reimbursement. To do so, any cleanup and repair expenses must be tracked. This may easily be accomplished by creating work orders for these activities and recording labor and materials actuals.

Emergency Operations Planning goes far beyond simply tracking assets and expenses. While much of this work is beyond the scope of asset management, Maximo users can harness these robust capabilities available out of the box to know that this portion of disaster planning is under control.