Company Owned Tools?

We currently have a variety of company owned tools that my crew uses on a daily basis. They range from putty knives to large-scale sewer machines. The problem is that small items go missing, and the larger items are damaged, and no one ever knows anything about it. Does anyone have any ideas how I can make things more efficient?

Kristopher,

Please call me or send me your phone # or e-mail address. I know the perfect solution to your problem, but Multifamily Insiders frowns heavily on mentioning vendor names.

My phone # is 609-882-3868 or [email protected].

Best regards,
Leigh

Make sure that you have an updated inventory of all your company owned tools, large and small. Then have them sign out the tools as they use them. When something turns up missing, the last person who signed out the tool is held responsible for the item. This is not just for replacement purposes, but you'll find your crew will be a bit more motivated to turn the item back in or put it away properly.

I like Danielle's idea of having items signed out. It can be a tedious task to track, but cost of materials is very important. One other idea that I would mention is to give your maintenance personnel the basic tools that they would normally need and have them sign out other tools on an as-needed basic. For example, you could issue each of your maintenance personnel a tool belt with the basic tools that they would use on a daily basis. They would then become responsible for that belt. If they needed larger items, they would sign them out with their supervisor.