The 7 Ways Preventive Maintenance Software Reduces Downtime

The right CMMS can help you reduce operational and equipment downtime.

Since your maintenance department is the foundation for your property, viewing it as a cost center is no longer an option.

Lackluster employees, incomplete procedures, and overall low efficiency can lead to more time spent working on the equipment than the equipment is functioning.

What’s the effect of this?

The scariest result of all is lost dollars – lots of them!

We’ve realized downtime is a disastrous consequence for managers.

Introducing preventative maintenance software to your maintenance team allows for your well-thought-out plans to be put into action.

AN OFTEN-MISSED PRACTICE

Forecasting can be a practice often overlooked by busy managers.

When you’re always stressing over equipment failures and tracking down problem employees, it makes sense why you wouldn’t have time to find ways to increase efficiency.

All you’re doing is cleaning up the mess and putting things back together.

Many managers still wait for the next piece of equipment to break before using the necessary resources to fix it.

Here are seven ways to quickly reduce your operational downtime and increase your operational efficiency to its full potential:

1. Outline and prioritize your work to eliminate operational waste.
2. Define vital activities and tasks, then develop useful checklists and specific steps for completing them.
3. Provide your team with the necessary equipment and materials to perform and complete the work assigned to them. Giving them the tools to be successful reduces their stress and yours.
4. Schedule work to be done for every type of equipment, so nothing gets overlooked.
5. Ensure all work is completed as planned and on time.
6. Inspect equipment for the possibility of additional maintenance to be conducted. This is how you prevent equipment failure before it fails.
7. Document the work details for work orders, inspections, activities, and all tasks for long-term analysis to find ways to reduce downtime even more.

Use preventive maintenance to get the best results, steering clear from the dreaded woes of being a cost center.

Reduce inefficiency to move closer to your goal.

You want resources allocated to the right activities, at the right time, and for the right amount.

Reducing downtime for your team allows them to focus their attention on the very vital issues and projects at hand.

Always sending staff to fix faulty or broken equipment means your resources are being overutilized, and that’s an expense you can’t afford.

PREVENTIVE MAINTENANCE SOFTWARE IS THE SOLUTION FOR THE EXECUTION

Now, you have seven ways to reduce downtime.

Make it a priority to act quickly and implement them today.

Use your preventive maintenance software as the tool to accomplish the goal of reducing waste and increasing profits.

• Execute your plan to reduce downtime and save money.
• Use your automated preventive maintenance solution to achieve Proactive Operations.

In the past, facilities waited for their equipment to fail; we all know this.

However, today, we don’t hear it as often.

Property managers are finally finding ways to prevent these shortcomings before they occur.

Counteracting the problems associated with overutilized equipment and overworked property managers can be accomplished through preventive maintenance.

Consider your current situation: Your property is an ever-changing environment with existing and new engineers, technicians, vendors, materials, and equipment often requiring training or additional attention to detail.

Maintaining code or achieving proper safety standards ensures that you stay compliant.

If you don’t, you’ll probably be replaced, or your property will crumble.

That’s a lot of stress and responsibility for you!

If you don’t currently have a solution in place, now is the best time to get in gear and turn your maintenance software on autopilot for game-changing efficiency.

Efficiency is what gets you to where you need to be.

Use these three actions with your preventive maintenance software.

They’re a solid step in the right direction for reducing downtime and waste in every aspect of your operation.

1. Identify
2. Prioritize
3. Complete

Removing questions gives you the answers and helps you know what needs to be tracked and maintained.

‘Frequency’ is the bonus here because then you’ll know how often you need these activities to be done.

That way, defective equipment can be a problem of the past.

STREAMLINE TO REDUCE WASTE

Lead your organization to effective equipment usage, improved material and workforce allocation, and less operational downtime.

Be a well-managed and profitable organization.

Executing your plans using your preventative maintenance solution will result in the efficiency required to be a successful property manager.

Your solution can help you achieve peace of mind in many ways, but here are a few with immediate results:

• Centrally organize and manage your preventive maintenance activities. The details of your maintenance can be recorded, tracked, and maintained from a single place. Picture being able to administer your preventive maintenance with ease from one activity detail.
• All work to be done, tasks, materials, labor, and equipment needed in one place. Easy for you to access, and it’s simple to understand. Less time is being spent on the computer, and more time is being spent in the field getting your work completed – the key to efficiency. One we talk about often.
• Easily create schedules and view them in a calendar to give yourself the bird’s-eye view you need as the strategist of maintenance operations. Add activities to the specific date and make changes as required.

As the property manager, you’ll have a complete understanding of what’s occurring throughout your maintenance operation.

It makes grasping what’s being done and when it’s being done a whole lot smoother for you.

OVER TO YOU

Maintaining successful implementation of these changes, improvements, and reduction in downtime requires you to know your tools and use them.

Use them to analyze your current state and measure it against where you want to be.

Since you’re ultimately enhancing the culture of your property, everyone needs to accept the changes you’re working towards.

They also need to play a role in advancing your operation to avoid common pitfalls that lead to extra stress for property managers.

Now you have some valuable tools to significantly increase your chances of a long-term reduction in maintenance downtime, and most importantly, your success.

Editor's note: This post was originally published in March 2015 and has been updated for comprehensiveness and freshness.