Facility management is a vast and growing industry that serves organizations of all sizes. Today, facilities have an integrated digital tool, but most facilities professionals find the majority of tools take a one-size-fits-all approach. An effective digital transformation in facility management requires a tailored solution to solve each facility professional’s unique set of problems they face in day-to-day operations and that’s where digital checklists come into the picture.
The benefits of digital checklists are numerous and they reinforce the value of a modern facility management approach. With digital checklists, daily operational tasks and inspections can be completed in minutes. This time saving is particularly useful in facilities where time and safety are crucial factors. Reliable reports cite that the companies that uses digital checklists are likely to record 25% increase in productivity and 36% decrease in mistakes.
How Digital Checklists are Redefining Industries Manage Facilities?
Adoption of digital checklists gives facility managers a complete control over operations and data as it allows staff to share information on a real-time basis. Such digital checklists not only provide organizations with greater visibility but also help them to ensure that any issue is sorted promptly and effectively. It eliminates the need for manually entering the information into spreadsheets, which can cause delays and errors. Besides, digital checklists provide guidance to the staff to ensure that all the tasks are completed on time, their status, and comply with the right standards.
With so many benefits, let’s look at how digital checklists are redefining how industries manage their facilities.
Ensure All FM Process Runs Smoothly
FM professionals need to carry out daily activities like inspections, maintenance, cleaning, etc. effortlessly to make sure that the businesses are operating as they should on a daily basis. Using digital checklists help them to remember what they need to do and keep a record of the tasks that have been completed. In fact, some advanced digital checklists from brands like Axonator also enable companies to create customizable workflows, generate automated reports to ensure that everything is running smoothly.
Enhances Security Standards
Safeguarding a business premises securely could be easier by deploying digital checklist-based apps that provide access to records of when checks have been carried out, who has done the inspection and which are the most recurrent issues. If there are any crucial incidents, they should be informed as soon as possible, before starting to affect the businesses badly. By using proper workplace security checklists, you can run your business smoothly and accomplish the desired business goals.
Maintain Health and Safety Standards
The facility management plays a pivotal role in controlling and managing safety related issues. Failure to do so could lead to unhealthy conditions leading to employee injury and loss of business. Creating a comprehensive digital health and safety checklist app is a first step towards creating a safe workplace. Recognizing potential hazards and creating procedures to handle them will ensure the safety of your employees and show your commitment to the implementation of a culture of safety in your workplace.
Streamlines Daily Cleaning and Inspection Activities
Ensuring that all relevant parts of a building or workplace are inspected and cleaned thoroughly is a key part of running a building. Facility Management Digital checklists provide a timestamped record of when inspections took place, and can be used to guide staff through the process of what needs to be cleaned, and how. From a legal and compliance point of view, having a digital record shows that the job has been actually done at a precise time by a specific worker.
Top Five Reasons Every Organization Must Adopt Facility Digital Checklists
FM Digital checklists offer unprecedented visibility into facility management activities. Previously, tasks would be recorded manually on paper, which can be challenging, if not impossible, to analyze at scale. Digital checklists enable visibility into compliance and operational procedures, regardless of scale. From a single store to nationwide chains, graduating from paper unlocks insights that can help prevent foodborne incidents.
Improved Accountability, Clear Communication
Digital checklists provide excellent accountability into task completion: the who, the when, and the why of each action is perfectly documented well in manual processes. Digital checklists offer timestamps and signatures as tasks are completed, enabling new insights into points of failure that help to identify opportunities for improvement. It’s important to keep a few things in mind for these new levels of accountability, thereby filling the communication gap between employees.
Save Money By Going Paperless
Not only does a checklist-based mobile app save you time and convenience, but it can also help you cut back on your organization’s overhead costs. Reliable sources cite that the paper industry brings in billions of dollars of revenue each year, much of which is obtained from corporate spending. Converting to a mobile app allows you to save money on paper, shredding, ink, and storage costs, while eliminating the difficulties that come with paper forms.
The First Step towards Digital Transformation Journey
The adoption of digital checklists is the first logical step, compact, and cost-efficient step towards the digital transformation journey of any organization. Digital checklists allow companies to automate daily operations such as inspections, manage maintenance work, safety audit tasks, and clean the environment through mobile apps, thereby helping companies to be on the path of digital transformation.
Simplify Workflow Management
Many facility management organizations have hundreds of pages necessary to outline the many regularly scheduled tasks that need to be completed every day. Not only does digital task management eliminate the need for endless paper trails, but it also provides a simpler way of making updates on the fly. With workflow automation, you can automatically send documents to clients, sub-contractors, and others instantly, decreasing the need for snail mail, scanning, and the time and costs related with those processes. Besides, companies can also automate their workflows for automated scheduling tasks, issuing corrective actions, sending comprehensive reports, and giving approvals to clients and other stakeholders.
Centralized View of All Information
With digital checklists, FM companies can store all required information at a centralized location. From audits, trend analysis, non-conformances, to KPIs, Axonator dashboards enable you to see problems before they arise, and continually improve how you work. Moreover, some of the advanced checklist-based apps also enable organizations to send digital reports to relevant departments. It enables field staff members to receive automated alters, approvals, KPIs through real-time report sharing.
Top 10 Must Have Digital Checklists For Every Facility Manager
The modern enterprise is a ‘mobile first’ one. Access to information, seamless workflow, streamlined business processes, and functionalities of mobile apps make the employees more productive than ever before and in recent times, the same has extended to facility management.
Under facility management, digital checklists have earned an important role in streamlining and making things easier for the facility managers. Digital Checklists have grown so much that they are being used to make processes safer and more efficient and can be found nearly in every facility. Thus, it has become important for facility managers to have digital checklists in their digital transformation strategy that can help them accelerate productivity, growth, and return on investment (ROI).
Digital checklists sure are better than paper-based handbooks and checklists that ensure that everything is in order and keep track of problems and procedures that need improvement. However, there are some more challenges such as customizability and mobility in web-based digital checklists that hinder the productivity of the organizations.
And that’s why we advocate that organizations convert the following checklist into digital apps for more advanced facility management.
Incident Management Checklist
The function of a facility manager in the management of incidents is arguably the most important. Not having a comprehensive solution in place can result in equipment damage and business interruption. Hence, it has become vital for facilities management companies to respond quickly to major occurrences by using automated alerts to identify and fix them. Companies may create digital incident checklists that offer fast effective communication across teams and include a variety of functions such as alert management, issue reporting, and so on.
FM teams can use the digital incident checklist app to do the following:
- Assign duties according to the category, location, and importance of the issue to respond effectively to any occurrence.
- Log occurrences and evaluate the data gathered in order to prevent recurrence of such situations.
- KPIs for each department and employee to track and monitor incident responses to ensure better accountability and faster resolution of incidents.
Predictive and Preventive Maintenance Services Checklist
FM enterprises all around the world have been utilizing technology to get more done with less effort and resources. This entails extending the useful life of the majority of essential assets, which can be accomplished by predictive maintenance rather than through conventional preventative maintenance procedures. Predictive models help businesses plan for and execute maintenance on equipment systems such as HVAC systems, elevators, and other similar systems to keep them in peak operating conditions.
What role predictive and preventive maintenance services checklists can play in effective maintenance?
- Monitor the status and activity of critical assets.
- Get alerts and notifications regarding maintenance in advance, as well as assign technicians to execute maintenance tasks.
- Information about the equipment provides important insights to help you make smarter decisions.
Field Service Management Checklist
Field service management digital checklists enable field employees to increase productivity, improve service quality, and improve customer satisfaction without the need for additional capital investment. Energy management, manufacturing, and other service-oriented sectors are among the many areas where they may be found working to manage a varied variety of facilities.
What role does a mobile-based field service management checklist play in enabling field workers to do their tasks with ease?
- Collect real-time data in order to keep track of current tasks and make important decisions.
- Assign the most qualified technician to each work and maintain communication with the team
- Conduct process audits to increase the efficiency of the organization
- Enable consistency and verification of finished work
Work Order Management
In work order management, a significant amount of time is lost in order to reach the appropriate department. Other important resources, such as money and energy, are drawn in by the attraction of time.
What you receive as a result of using a digital Work Order Management digital checklist is as follows:
- Transform the time-consuming nature of old procedures into a digital, automated process.
- Examine suppliers and maintain a record of both favorable and negative encounters in the past.
- Arrange work orders in order to increase output in various industries.
- Minimize the dangers faced by your repair personnel.
Planning and Execution Checklists
The necessity of properly selecting and planning the deployment of a new FM checklist cannot be overstated. Proper planning also guarantees that the organization continues to achieve long-term cost, efficiency, and sustainability savings while still achieving the organization’s overall objectives.
Here’s what the planning and execution digital checklists app can do for your organization:
- The allocation of limited resources in favor of scheduled maintenance as opposed to corrective maintenance.
- Developing, documenting, communicating, and continually improving an organization’s entire operations and maintenance plan.
- Information gathering and distribution to obtain financing, improving facility services, and reducing equipment downtime implementing the LEAN practice.
Inspection Checklists
When utilized appropriately, an inspection checklist may provide confidence that a certain piece of equipment has been thoroughly inspected before it is used. By checking off each item on the checklist, the person performing the inspection is ensuring that each component of the equipment is in proper operating condition.
- Identify several risk scenarios that might occur at the institution.
- Determine the probable consequences of each conceivable threat and hazard, and then offer viable remedies.
- Consider potential evacuation scenarios and make preparations for them.
- Make plans for emergency preparedness and first aid supplies.
- Include provisions for persons with special needs or who have physical impairments.
Audit and Safety Checklists
Safety audits are essential in every organization’s operations. Particularly in situations when workers must deal with complex and possibly harmful assets. The use of safety-audit checklists makes it much simpler to perform a thorough evaluation of all potential risks in the workplace.
- Safety-audit checklists that are properly created contain certain rules that must be followed.
- Assists workers in remaining organized while performing the audit and scheduling their time accordingly.
- Be more accountable than you would be if there was no method to establish shoddy auditing practices
Workplace and Building Management Checklist
Keeping track of workplace initiatives and the general performance of the building will be a crucial part of every facility manager’s job description. Failure to appropriately optimize these areas can result in lower employee happiness, whilst building problems can result in increased corporate expenses due to increasing maintenance costs.
- Gathering data around used resources
- Optimal use of available space
- Record operations of the security system
- Take over contractor scheduling and work agreements
- Timetables for work and timeframes for productivity
Vendor Management Checklist
A business is more vulnerable to data breaches and security events while working with other suppliers, which can result in significant operational, financial, and reputational consequences. An efficient vendor compliance management digital checklist will enable you to identify risks associated with vendors, reduce and effectively control those risks while also increasing the overall security of your business.
- Contract sourcing and oversight
- Third-party contractors for services.
- Management and control of the procurement process
QC Checklists
Suppliers and quality control providers should be provided with a thorough quality control checklist since it communicates their needs and standards. Checklists assist importers in ensuring that their expectations are recognized and that their product is held to the appropriate level by quality control personnel.
- Requirements for the product
- Requirements for packaging
- Product testing and inspections are performed on-site.
- Classification of defects
- Responses from key personnel involved in the manufacturing and quality control processes
How to Convert Paper forms & Checklists Into Mobile Apps?
Although digital checklists offer countless benefits, the shift to digital transformation hasn’t been easy. Although most companies have realized the importance of digital checklists, they don’t know where to start. While this may seem like a challenging transition, Axonator app is designed to make going paperless a breeze. Axonator is a revolutionary zero-code platform that helps organizations to create digital checklists with just a few clicks. The platform has some prebuilt components including form builder, workflow builder, report & dashboard builder, and integration capable of automating your complete day-to -day operations.
Learn how Axonator can help you transition your company to a completely paperless system.
Create, Edit, Save, and Share Custom Checklists
Developing custom forms is a matter of a few clicks with Axonator. The app creation process is intuitive, no-code, easy, and responsive customer support on standby. Companies have access to thousands of pre-built libraries that can be assembled and reused with just drag-and-drop features for creating custom checklists that fit your unique needs.
Companies also choose to edit an existing template instead of building your own app from scratch. Once you are finished creating your custom forms, they are immediately accessible from your mobile device and ready for use in the office or the field.
Advanced Features and Integrations
One of the major benefits of switching to mobile apps is the efficiency they offer. Checklist-based Mobile Apps are digital variants of your existing documents, with the added enhancement of advanced features like scheduler, GPS location, QR-code scanning, mobile payments, signature capture, image annotation etc. The dynamic nature of mobile apps allows you to condense multiple steps of your internal processes into a single app.In this regard, going digital allows you to streamline your workflow processes to create ease and efficiency.
Going Digital How You Can Make it Work
Are you still wondering if the checklist-based mobile app is feasible for your business? Here is a recent success story to provide insight into the accessibility of the paperless process. One of the clients from the United States ( We can’t disclose names because of your agreement terms) have started using the Axonator facility management digital checklist app for all their inspection activities this year. The digital process adoption has led to an increase in ease, efficiency, and profitability for this organization.
Get Axonator
If you are ready to take your business paperless, Axonator FMDC is the perfect enterprise-grade mobile solution for facility mangers or building service contractors who need to digitally manage all facets of facility management including assets, events, hazards, maintenance tasks, and purchase orders. With a sleek UI, drag and drop interface, and intuitive user experience, Axonator’s digital checklists eliminate the use of paper forms and improve productivity. Facility managers have to oversee the day-to-day upkeep of large facilities with numerous people, machinery, and moving parts. With Axonator, they can create facility management digital checklists electronically and access them anywhere.
Sign up for Axonator today! This advanced system and our attentive network of customer support can support you through the transition to a paperless organization. You can use Axonator for free to experience all of these benefits today!
