We know that in order for data to be useful it must be entered with consistent standards.

Simple.

What’s not so simple is getting your teammates across multiple departments to agree on what those consistent standards should be. Your HVAC technicians cannot be entering one classification while your electricians are entering another. Once this happens you no longer have consistency and you no longer have useful data. The path to overcoming this is often plagued with inordinate amounts of energy being wasted in a mere attempt to reach an agreement on a standard. It becomes a battle. It becomes personal. It becomes an incredibly large and time-consuming road block.

So how do you avoid the risk of dividing your teams against one another and losing months or more of progress? Here are a couple of approaches that have worked for us.

Let your consultant be the “bad guy”

Rather than having to mediate an often frustrating and time-consuming issue within your organization, have your consultant step in and handle it.

Handle it how?

As subject matter experts, your consultants can lay out the classification structure using current standards such as OmniClass and the United Nations Standard Products and Services Code® (UNSPSC®), to name a few. Having your consultant implement these pre-defined standards will not only diffuse the risk of dispute, but also take additional work off your hands – And who isn’t aching for that?

Seek out official classification systems for your industry

If you simply do not wish to delegate this task to your consultant, then consider handling it in a similar fashion as your consultant would by referring to an available classification system as a guide. There are several classification systems currently available that may pertain to your specific industry. For facilities management, OmniClass provides a common nomenclature that unifies design, construction, engineering, and maintenance. Healthcare and medical equipment have robust asset and failure data sets defined by ECRI. Equipment and failure codes for the Oil & Gas industries are defined in ISO 14224. Regardless of your industry, it is quite likely that data standards have been established. Seek these out and obtain buy-in from your team to simply use these classifications as your organizational standard going forward. This is a neutral solution that is more likely to be accepted by all teammates.

No matter what approach you decide on, a good consultant is an invaluable resource to help you navigate this sort of situation with ease, allowing you to continue moving onward to productivity and effective asset management.