What an equipment number is for
Your equipment already carries identifiers: a serial number from the manufacturer, maybe a rental company's barcode, a QR tag if you've started tracking. None of those works when the foreman calls the shop to say a generator won't start.
Said out loud
“GEN-04 won't start” is a whole sentence. A 15-character serial number has to be read off the plate and spelled.
Written on paper
Sign-out sheets, repair tickets and inspection tags need something short enough to write in a box.
Typed into a search
One number finds the machine in a spreadsheet or an app, where “the Honda” matches four.
The serial number still matters for warranty, insurance and theft reports, so keep it in the record. It just isn't the number people use day to day.
Five rules for numbers that stay useful
- 1 Short enough to say. Three letters and three digits at most. If people shorten it when they say it, it's too long.
- 2 Unique, forever. One number, one machine, for good. A number is how two years of repairs and inspections stay attached to the right generator.
- 3 About nothing that changes. Not where it lives, which crew has it or who bought it. “VAN3-02” is wrong the day it moves to Van 5. Location is something you record, not something you write on the machine.
- 4 One format. Pick a pattern and use it for everything: same separator, same number of digits. Mixed formats (GEN4, Gen-04, G-004) defeat searching and sorting.
- 5 On the machine, where it's seen. A number in a spreadsheet that isn't written on the equipment helps nobody on site.
Three schemes, and which to pick
Plain sequence
Under about a hundred items, mostly one kind.
- Nothing to decide
- Never wrong
- “0047” says nothing about what it is
- Hard to spot a typo
Category prefix
Most contractors: mixed tools and equipment, a few hundred items.
- GEN-04 is clearly a generator
- Short, and sorts by kind
- Needs a short prefix list
- One more thing to agree on
Company or division prefix
Separate companies or divisions that own their own equipment.
- Shows whose books it's on
- Numbers don't collide across divisions
- Longer: ELC-GEN-04
- Only for ownership, never for where it is
The category prefix is the usual answer. It stays true wherever the machine goes, it tells the shop what kind of thing is broken before anyone looks, and a list sorted by number groups the generators together.
Category prefixes for common contractor gear
Three letters, chosen so they read as the thing they stand for. Here's a starting list:
-
Power and air
- GEN
- Generators
- CMP
- Air compressors
- WLD
- Welders
- PMP
- Pumps
- HTR
- Heaters
-
Tools
- DRL
- Drills and hammer drills
- SAW
- Saws
- LSR
- Lasers and levels
- PRS
- Pipe presses
- CAM
- Inspection cameras
-
Access and safety
- LDR
- Ladders
- HAR
- Harnesses and lanyards
- EXT
- Fire extinguishers
- SCF
- Scaffold sets
- LFT
- Aerial lifts
-
Rolling stock
- TRL
- Trailers
- SKD
- Skid steers
- FRK
- Forklifts
- LTW
- Light towers
- MIX
- Mixers
- Keep the list short. Ten to fifteen prefixes covers most companies. A prefix for something you own two of is a prefix nobody remembers.
- One catch-all. Everything that doesn't fit gets one general prefix, like EQ. Give it its own prefix later if you end up owning a dozen.
- Prefixes by what it is, not its brand. “MIL-04” stops making sense when the crew switches drill brands.
How many digits
Enough for the most you'll ever own of that kind, with leading zeros so the numbers sort in order. Without padding, GEN-10 sorts before GEN-2 in a spreadsheet.
- Two digits (GEN-04) allows 99 per prefix. Fine for generators and trailers.
- Three digits (DRL-004) allows 999. Use three for hand and power tools, which you buy and lose far more of.
- Plain sequence: four digits (0047) is plenty for a contractor.
Hand out numbers in order and keep track of the last one used for each prefix, in your equipment list or on a single sheet in the shop. Gaps from retired machines are fine; gaps are how you know a number was never reused.
Kits, sets and parts
Number what gets handled, inspected or lost on its own:
- A kit that always travels together (a pipe press with its jaws in one case) gets one number, on the case and the tool.
- Anything inspected separately gets its own number, even if it's stored in a kit. Every harness and lanyard has its own inspection record, so “the harness bag” can't be one item.
- Scaffold sets and similar can be numbered as a set (SCF-03), but if frames get split between jobs, count the set short rather than pretending it's whole.
- Consumables like blades, bits and fittings don't get numbers. That's stock, not equipment.
Numbers you already have
Most companies start with some numbers already on the gear: from an old spreadsheet, a previous system, or whoever painted “14” on the generators years ago.
- If they follow the rules, keep them. Renumbering a machine that's been GEN-14 for five years confuses everyone for a year.
- If they encode a location or a person, renumber, and write the old number in the item's notes so old paperwork still matches up.
- Rental company and manufacturer barcodes aren't your numbers. Keep the serial number in its own field and give the machine your own number as well.
Retiring and replacing
-
1
Retire the number
Mark the item retired, not deleted. Its history stays under its number.
-
2
New machine, next number
The replacement gets the next number for its prefix, never the old one.
-
3
Mark it the same day
Label and number go on before it leaves the shop for the first time.
If a stolen or lost item turns up again, it gets its old number back. That's the other reason never to reuse one.
Write the number where a label can't fall off too: a paint pen, an engraver or a stamped plate on the body. It survives when the label doesn't, and it helps get stolen equipment back. The guide to tagging your equipment covers labels and where to put them.