Keep machinery safe, serviced and certified.

Built for small, owner-managed workshops

Small workshops live and die by their equipment. A milling machine, a column drill, a compressor or an overhead crane out of service for a week can wipe a whole job off the schedule. At the same time, the paperwork doesn't stop — PUWER inspections, LOLER thorough examinations, PAT testing, extraction checks, PPE issues and staff training all need a clean trail.

Ample Control is built for the owner-manager, the foreman and the small team actually running the shop. It is not a stripped-down enterprise CMMS — it's a tool the people on the floor will actually use, with a register, recurring checks, reminders, documents and team roles in one place.

Who this is for

• Small engineering and fabrication workshops
• Joinery, cabinetry and woodworking shops
• Vehicle repair garages and motorsport workshops
• Metalwork, welding and machining shops
• Maker spaces and small production facilities

Common assets, checks and records in a workshop

• Machinery: lathes, mills, presses, saws, grinders, CNC machines, welding equipment.
• Lifting equipment: overhead cranes, gantries, slings, chains, hoists and vehicle lifts — subject to thorough examination intervals.
• Compressors and air systems: service intervals, pressure-vessel records, drain checks.
• Extraction and dust control: filter changes, flow checks, LEV inspections.
• Hand and power tools: drills, grinders, sanders, impact guns — PAT tested and condition-checked.
• PPE: respirators, ear defenders, gloves, harnesses — issued, inspected, replaced.
• Records and certificates: service reports, inspection reports, PAT certificates, insurance, training certificates.
• Downtime and repairs: what broke, when, what was done, parts and cost.

What usually goes wrong without a proper system

• Service intervals tracked in the foreman's head. He's off sick the week the LOLER examination is due.
• PAT testing certificates in a ring binder in the office that nobody can find when an insurer asks.
• Defect reports written on the back of a job card and lost when the job goes out the door.
• Tooling "borrowed" between benches with no record, then quietly gone for good.
• Training certificates emailed in by staff, never filed centrally, impossible to audit.
• A serious incident, and the evidence trail is a mixture of paper, photos on a phone and memory.

How Ample Control helps

Each machine, tool, compressor or extractor becomes a tracked asset with its own history, intervals, photos and documents. Checks and inspections are scheduled per asset, not as a single calendar entry, so the right person gets the right reminder. Defects are logged against the machine in seconds from a phone, with the status flipping to "out of service" the moment the report is saved. See asset tracking and maintenance reminders.

A simple weekly and monthly workflow

1. Daily: operators run a 60-second start-of-shift check on their primary machine — guards, e-stops, fluid levels, visible damage.
2. Weekly: foreman reviews open defects and overdue checks on the dashboard.
3. Monthly: extraction filter checks, PPE audit, tooling audit, compressor service tasks.
4. Quarterly / annually: PAT testing, LOLER thorough examinations, PUWER inspections, insurance and certificate renewals.
5. After any incident: log it against the asset with photos, actions taken and follow-up reminders.

Example records to track

• Mill #2 — daily start-up check, 6-monthly service, PUWER inspection annually
• Overhead crane (bay 1) — LOLER thorough examination every 12 months
• Compressor — weekly drain check, 6-monthly service, pressure-vessel record
• LEV extraction — flow check 6-monthly, LEV inspection every 14 months
• PAT register — annual test across all 110V and 240V tools
• Operator training matrix — per person, per machine, with expiry dates

Example reminder and checklist setup

• "Start of shift" checklist on every primary machine — assigned to operator
• "Weekly housekeeping & defect review" checklist — assigned to foreman
• "LOLER 12-month" reminder — 60 and 30 days before due
• "PAT annual" reminder — bulk scheduled for the whole shop
• "Training expiring" reminder — 90 days before each operator's certificate lapses

Where QR codes help

QR tags on each machine mean an operator can log a defect or run a check without leaving the bench. A scan opens the machine's record, the check is ticked, a photo of the issue is added, the foreman sees it on the dashboard. No paperwork, no second visit to the office.

Where document storage helps

Service reports, LOLER and PUWER reports, PAT certificates, training records and manuals live against the asset or person they relate to. When an auditor or insurer asks for evidence on a specific machine, you open the asset and export — see document storage and exports.

Where team roles help

Owners see the full picture. Foremen manage day-to-day checks. Operators run the checks on their own machines from a phone. External service engineers can be given limited access to upload a report on the asset they worked on. See team roles.

Related features and use cases

• Compliance checklists
• Mobile PWA
• Workshop equipment maintenance
• Certificate renewal tracking

Wondering what unscheduled downtime is really costing you? Try the maintenance cost savings calculator or see pricing.