Darren Jolley

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Founder

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Join date: Mar 28, 2026

About

Darren Jolley is the founder of Trefnus and writes for the Trefnus Knowledge Hub.

He began his career as a time-served plant technician and spent more than 10 years in the construction and mining equipment industries, working for Caterpillar, Volvo and Liebherr in engineering, technical advisory and product support roles. His specialism was earthmoving equipment.

Darren later moved into facilities and operational management, including site management, and worked as a Facilities Manager for the University of Cambridge.

He holds a First-Class BEng (Hons) and is a Member of the Institute of Workplace and Facilities Management (MIWFM). His articles draw on hands-on experience of maintenance, asset management and facilities operations. LinkedIn

Posts (67)

Oct 20, 2026 ∙ 11 min

Asset Tagging Best Practices for Small Businesses

Published 20 October 2026 | Last reviewed 20 October 2026 Every business has equipment it cannot afford to lose track of. Ladders, pumps, forklifts, laptops, compressors and fire extinguishers all need servicing, checking or replacing at some point, and none of that works if nobody can say for certain which item is which. Asset tagging solves this by giving every item a unique, durable identifier that links the physical object to its record. Done well, it makes maintenance planning, audits...

Oct 20, 2026 ∙ 13 min

Asset criticality analysis: a practical guide for SMEs

Published: 19 October 2026 | Last reviewed: 19 October 2026 Every business has a handful of assets it cannot run without, and a long tail of equipment that would barely be missed. Yet most maintenance plans treat them all the same. Asset criticality analysis is the structured way to tell them apart. It ranks each piece of equipment by how much its failure would affect your people, your customers and your finances, so that limited time and budget go where they matter most. This guide...

Oct 1, 2026 ∙ 11 min

Asset replacement planning: a practical guide for SMEs

Published 1 October 2026 | Last reviewed 1 October 2026 Every business relies on equipment that will eventually wear out, from compressors and forklifts to vans, boilers and card terminals. Asset replacement planning is the process of deciding, in advance, when each item should be replaced and how the cost will be covered. Without it, replacement tends to happen in a hurry, after a breakdown, when choices are limited and cash is tight. This guide explains how asset replacement planning...