Your facility depends on you.
We get it.
It’s a complex responsibility, and there are many moving parts.
Maintenance software can help.
You and your staff don’t have to experience workplace stress.
Believe it or not, stress is NOT a prerequisite for running a facility.
So, why do so many facility managers suffer every day?
Well, we’d say they don’t have five crucial areas of maintenance mastered quite yet.
If you’re struggling with your maintenance, don’t worry because we’ve got your back.
Keep reading because we’re going to share how a maintenance software solution can help you tackle these five areas in today's article.
It gets even better because your maintenance operation will be more efficient and effective, you’ll be using a progressive system, and your facility will achieve Proactive Operations.
It’s time to be the master of your domain.
You Must First Understand What Makes a Great CMMS
The five core aspects of a progressive maintenance solution are vital for facility managers to know because they directly relate to the five areas of maintenance you must master.
Pure and simple, you must use them to safeguard your facility’s maintenance initiatives for the long-term.
- Work Orders
- Equipment Management
- Material Management
- Vendor Management
- Preventive Maintenance
Yes, you might find these to be obvious, but when was the last time you sat down and assessed them for your operation?
- Do you have a way to submit and manage your work orders efficiently?
- What equipment do you have online?
- Are your materials running low?
- Do you have a vendor’s insurance coming close to expiration?
- To what degree is your maintenance team proactive versus reactive?
If you getting the information to any of these questions is a struggle for you, you must keep reading.
If you lack effectiveness in any of these areas, there’s a severe flaw in your maintenance operation.
However, the good news is that if you work on developing a maintenance operation using the five traits of a modernized system, you’ll be a facility master in no time!
Drive Efficiency & Effectiveness in 5 Vital Areas
Now for the fun stuff – let’s dissect each area of maintenance your solution can help you master.
Do this first.
Consider the areas you might already have mastered or need substantial improvement.
Take note of them.
Now, are you up for a bit of challenge? We think you’ll have a great takeaway from this one.
- While we help you master these areas, take note of where you currently excel and where your operation needs to move from novice to master.
Are you ready? Let’s dive in.
Managing, Tracking, and Completing Work Orders
One of the most straightforward concepts about running a facility is this:
Stuff breaks!
Unfortunately, for some facilities, stuff breaks often.
Does this sound familiar?
The first step is getting all the details to produce the work orders needed to complete requests, scheduled and on time.
They matter, so why not record them, correct?
Work orders are a primary function of your CMMS.
Your ability to manage them is not only beneficial but essential.
Ensuring everything in your operation runs smoothly makes sure work order management is easy – detailed but straightforward.
You might be asking, how do you do this?
Start by digitally creating, tracking, editing, and automatically communicating these work orders.
Doing this will give your operation the best results.
How happy will your engineers be the next time all your life safety equipment starts malfunctioning around the same time?
Improving Equipment, Material, and Vendor Management
Everything in your facility is associated with equipment, material, and vendors.
One priority you don’t want to miss is managing each of these components.
Imagine the difficulty and stress of managing lots of equipment, all the material related to each asset, and all vendors in an old maintenance solution, or worse, an incomplete spreadsheet!
Tracking your equipment data, all the associated labor and vendor information can produce peace of mind when done and when it can be done.
It’s even better when you have an adequate foundation put into place.
You need equipment information in your solution inclusive of:
- Related Facilities
- Equipment Specifications
- Warranty Information
- Vendor/Vendor Insurance Expiration Details
- Related Materials
Be sure that all of the information is organized and useful, or it definitely won’t be helpful.
All of this applies to your Materials and Vendors too.
For example, your Materials would look something like this:
- Related Facilities
- Equipment Specifications
- Warranty Information
- Vendor/Vendor Insurance Expiration Details
- Related Equipment
Using a solution like this, you can master your maintenance and keep your facility operating with constant uptime.
Digitally document all three of these and maintain a connected relationship with one another.
This means, as you see above, no matter what piece of equipment, type of material, or vendor you’re looking at, you’ll be able to see everything else connected to it.
Let’s take it one step further.
When you need information about a vendor, what do you currently have available for access?
Well, in a progressive maintenance system, you’d open the vendor record, and all the details on all the equipment and materials associated with that vendor become available.
Opening the record on the related material will highlight that specific vendor and, you guessed it, the equipment!
Do you see the value here?
All the details are covered.
Gone are the days of cross-referencing spreadsheets or screens, and you’ll never be worried about the integrity of your data from this point forward.
All of this information is centralized in one location, giving you the ability to be the master of your facility.
Equipment, materials, and vendors are the core of your maintenance operation.
Eliminate the kinks so you can focus on moving your operation to a profit center.
Preventive Maintenance: Being Proactive, Not Reactive
If you aren’t using preventive maintenance, you need to give us a call ASAP.
It’s a MUST, and frankly, there’s no excuse for you not to be using it.
A CMMS without preventive maintenance is like having a facility without 24/7 Software.
Let’s go back to the scenario of all of your life safety equipment malfunctioning around the same time.
Preventive maintenance is the solution.
It doesn’t have to be painful or stressful. You want to be proactive, not reactive; therefore, you need preventive maintenance in place.
Preventive maintenance can help you avoid being a cost center, which most maintenance operations are.
Keep reading because you’re getting much closer to mastering maintenance.
Where you have data integrity coupled with preventive maintenance capabilities, you have proactivity.
It’s simple math:
Data Integrity + Preventive Maintenance = Proactivity
At the heart of your maintenance operation is your ability to be proactive.
Consider this; you have various types of equipment operating throughout your facility:
- Life Safety Equipment
- HVAC
- Plumbing
- Electrical
That’s behind the scenes, not to mention the front of the house where you might find:
- Furniture
- Fire Extinguishers
- Toilets/Urinals
- Elevators/Escalators
There are so many moving parts that will eventually break.
You want to master your maintenance.
You do want to be a highly-effective facility manager, correct?
Do these four steps to ensure preventive maintenance works for you:
- Identify all activities to be completed for each piece of equipment.
- Determine the tasks involved with completing each activity.
- Use your preventive maintenance calendar to schedule and oversee every activity.
- Prevent equipment from breaking by inspecting the equipment before it can break.
Your preventive maintenance leads to sure-fire effectiveness that’ll help you tackle your maintenance initiatives, eradicate equipment downtime, and achieve peace of mind.
Over to You
You understand why we needed to break down these five areas of maintenance now. By opening these areas up, you can see for yourself how your maintenance measures up.
Focus on your strengths and weaknesses, and put a progressive solution to become the master of your maintenance operation.
So, are you ready to master your maintenance using a CMMS?
Editor's note: This post was originally published in November 2015 and has been updated for comprehensiveness and freshness.
