HARDCAT Asset Management Worldwide

To ensure it was delivering the best possible technical inspection service, Nobles identified the need to upgrade the operational processes it had in place in regards to gathering inspection data and making that information available to customers.

According to Ian Jongen, Products and Marketing Manager for Nobles, the way information about customers' assets was managed in the past was inefficient and not allowing Nobles to deliver optimum value to customers.

"We had been using a cumbersome combination of Excel spreadsheets and Access databases to keep track of equipment under our inspection services," Mr Jongen said. "Meanwhile, we were using about four different systems across the various States, all of which we had developed internally. Nobles wanted a single system that could be used to manage standardised processes across all 14 branches to help them deliver a better inspection and reporting of inspection service."

Since its introduction, Nobles' Hardcat-based Tech Inspect register has grown to include close to 50,000 assets that it has under management for over 100 clients. Each item in the register has been allocated a barcode and has detailed specifications of the asset, its inspection history including when and by whom it has been inspected, its condition at the last inspection and much more.

At any time that a customer wants to see details of their Tech Inspect service activity, they simply log-in to the Tech Inspect Website, enter a user name and secure password for authentication and have instant access to all information. They can drill down to individual assets and check what assets have been inspected in the past as well as what assets are scheduled to be inspected in the future.

Nobles has gained enormous efficiencies in its operating procedures by using the Hardcat asset management solution as the backbone of its Tech Inspect service. Multiple manual processes have been automated including data capture, database updates, issuing of work orders and reporting to customers.

"The key benefit from our point of view is that we have a uniform system for managing our inspection services throughout the whole company's operations," Mr Jongen said.

"At the end of the day, that creates a great internal efficiency for us in terms of managing the 50,000 or so assets we currently have under our Tech Inspect service. At a glance Nobles' Tech Inspect customers can see and generate instant reports on how many assets they have and what types as well as what condition they are in and when they were last inspected or tested. They also use the solution to keep track of all these assets in regards to which site they are on and where they are on that site while it also allows for all relevant test certificates and inspection reports to be stored as attachments to the database."