Your field criteria become search criteria

Two plants, two ways of identifying the same type of machine. In one, a compressor is found by its manufacturer serial number. In the other, by its accounting asset code. A third organization swears only by its drawing reference. None of these keys is the equipment's "name" in the CMMS — yet it's the one the person in the field has in mind when they search.

This is the reality of any equipment fleet: every organization describes its assets in its own vocabulary. A CMMS that only allows searching on a standardized name forces its users to know that name — or to scroll through entire lists to find the right machine. The reference data exists, but you can't reach it through the doors the field naturally uses.

The gap between what you document and what you search for

An equipment record or a spare part record holds far more than its name: description, item code, and custom fields you configure freely. Serial number, location zone, pressure class, internal reference, supplier code — you put exactly the attributes that matter to your business in there.

The problem, until now, was that these fields documented the equipment without helping you find it. You diligently entered a serial number in a dedicated field, but a search on that number returned nothing, because it only covered the name and description. The data was there, present on the record, but out of search's reach.

This gap has a silent cost. The richer your custom fields, the wider the gap between the information you carefully recorded and the information you can actually use to find an asset. Over time, it produces the opposite of the intended effect: detailed reference data that's hard to query.

Search adapts to your reference data

Mobility Work's equipment and spare parts search now covers the value of custom fields, on top of the name, description, and item code. Your business criteria — the ones you chose, named, and filled in — become full search criteria in their own right.

And the result is explicit: it shows which field triggered the match. If a piece of equipment comes up because its serial number matches your input, you see it. No more doubt about why an asset appears in the list: the search explains itself.

The typical scenario. A maintenance manager receives an expert report mentioning a serial number, with no equipment name. They enter that number into the equipment search. The record comes straight up, flagged with the matching "serial number" custom field. They open the equipment record, review the maintenance history, and schedule the corrective task — without ever needing to know the machine's internal label.

This logic holds whatever your industry, because it assumes nothing about your criteria: it queries the ones you defined. Each organization, its own fields — and therefore its own search.

What you gain

The first gain is reference data accessibility. Any team member can find a piece of equipment or a part from the reference they have in front of them, without having to memorize an internal naming convention. The field reaches the reference data through its own doors.

The second gain is making the data you already enter pay off. The custom fields you fill in stop being passive documentation: they become active entry points to your records. The more finely you describe your assets, the more powerful your search becomes — the effort of data entry finally turns into operational value.

Three actions to make the most of it

1. Map the criteria your teams actually search by. Ask the field: with what piece of information do people approach the CMMS to find a machine or a part? Serial number, accounting code, drawing reference, zone — those answers define your useful custom fields.
2. Structure these criteria in dedicated custom fields, one per piece of information, rather than lumping them into the description. A well-named field is more readable in results and easier to maintain over time.
3. Prioritize the most-used assets. Critical equipment, high-turnover parts: that's where search happens most often, so that's where the quality of your custom fields pays off fastest.

A useful CMMS doesn't impose its vocabulary: it learns yours. By making your custom fields searchable, the search finally aligns the tool with the way your teams actually think and work.