The role of software for maintenance management has always been more critical. Whether due to the global competitive economy or the increasing pressures on existing processes to be digitized, its importance cannot be overstated. We speak to dozens of managers each week facing new operational challenges.
Maintenance teams in small and medium businesses and enterprise-level organizations are under increasing pressure to increase efficiency, productivity and reduce costs. In the last two decades, companies have been able to produce products at an astonishingly fast pace. Maintenance teams face pressure from management to reduce costly interruptions in equipment that can halt production without warning. The more automated an installation is, the greater the importance of using tools for work order management to efficiently prevent, diagnose, and solve complex asset failures.
Studies show that organizations can also save 12 to 18% if they consistently implement preventive maintenance as part of an integrated maintenance strategy. Translated: You could save five dollars for every preventive care investment. Managers, supervisors, and operators face many challenges in optimizing maintenance programs. These include a need for knowledge about the process, historical data, and time required to perform analyses.
The title implies that maintenance management software is a tool that can be used to ease the burdens of these tasks. This guide will explore the link between software, team leadership, and maintenance strategies. You will feel more comfortable combining maintenance software with specific upkeep methods after reading this guide.
What is Maintenance Management?
The definition of maintenance management is prioritizing and strategizing in order to maintain company assets. It involves monitoring, controlling, and maximizing equipment lifespans to improve profitability and efficiency and decrease downtime. Unplanned and reactive downtime can negatively impact organizations, such as unexpected costs, delayed shipments, and customer satisfaction.
Common Challenges
Why is maintenance management so complex? Maintenance management is often hampered by the following:
- The complexity of the production technology
- Maintenance schedules are not in place
- Work Requests are not adequately processed
- Staff with low technical skills
- Insufficient historical data on equipment
- Automation is not available
- Lack of CMMS
- Apps for iOS and Android are not available
Effective maintenance departments organize tactical and operational actions for maintenance based on business priorities using automated software. By identifying "critical assets targets," organizational leaders can identify those with the most significant impact on operational targets. This is done by performing analyses of 's criticality. (More about that later) and automating workflows for strategic maintenance.
Enterprise Asset Management and Maintenance Management
It is not uncommon to hear asset maintenance, enterprise Asset Management, and Maintenance management used interchangeably. There are some key differences. The maintenance management approach is holistic in managing the facility's operations. This includes not just asset and equipment management but also labor and parts inventory, as well as safety procedures.
On the other hand, asset management focuses primarily on optimizing asset performance concerning output. Asset management software monitors equipment efficiency and helps monitor asset life cycles to help facilitate capital decisions. It also provides depreciation estimations to the accounting team. Some asset management programs include maintenance schedules but are less concerned with presenting work orders that can be easily understood. They often rely on administrators to enter the data.
The Benefits of Maintenance Management
An Accurate Budget
Well-designed maintenance management systems can help your company better understand where the resources of your staff go. A good maintenance management program can help you identify where your staff spends their time. These reports can help managers reorganize their workflow or convince them to hire more staff using the customizable reporting features offered by maintenance software.
Schedule Work
For many organizations, many complex machines and systems require an efficient preventive maintenance program. Many of these organizations rely on Excel spreadsheets, or worse yet, the whiteboard calendar in their managers' offices, to determine what to do next. Software for maintenance management ensures everyone is aware of what has to be completed, when, and how. This is all backed up by a digital audit for full accountability.
Manage Compliance
Has your company ever been the subject of a surprise OSHA or regulator inspection? You may have felt intimidated by the thought of obtaining documentation that would prove compliance. You can instantly retrieve this information using any device connected to the internet and create any necessary reports to satisfy regulators.
Maintenance management systems are more than just a way to share documents with regulatory bodies. They also ensure compliance standards and that work is on time. The digital audit trail can verify that tasks have been completed at the right time by the correct personnel.
Iterate and Optimize
Each organization, and even each site, is unique. A one-size fits all approach is only realistic for some teams. Managers must monitor real-time data to identify trends and gain actionable insight. Your most senior technicians may need to spend more time on routine tasks which other team members can do. It can lead to bottlenecks in more technical maintenance.
Increase Safety
If you had your way, the team could follow a video about safety on their very first day at work and perform flawlessly. This is not realistic. Maintenance management software, in addition to optimizing assets and managing time efficiently, can also provide reminders for safety when performing tasks. Your team may perform only some of the tasks assigned. Safety instructions on mobile devices can help save money and lives.
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What is Maintenance Management Software (MMS)?
It isn't easy to monitor dozens or even hundreds of analog assets. High-performing companies use maintenance management to monitor everything from inventory management to maintenance operations. These platforms, also known as Computerized Maintenance Management Systems, allow managers to assign and track recurring tasks, catalog assets based on location, date of service, or serial numbers, improve compliance through digital audit trails, identify opportunities for cost savings with advanced reports, and monitor conditions using sensor technology.
What is Maintenance Management Software Used For?
A Engineering Study found that 44% of companies still use paper to record maintenance plans. Why aren't all PM programs supported by maintenance management software used? There is an unfounded perception that maintenance management platforms are expensive, time-consuming, complex, and too difficult to use. It's good to know that this is no longer true.
Does a CMMS Require a Lot of Effort to Use?
In just minutes, workers from all types of organizations can learn how to use mobile maintenance apps, regardless of their technical skills. Maintenance management platforms are available on smartphones, tablets, and desktops. Many providers have an excellent reputation for desktop software. However, very few have designed or adapted their programs exclusively for mobile use.
How to Choose a Maintenance Strategy?
It's now time to examine maintenance strategies. Remember that the best maintenance organizations use different methods depending on what assets they manage.
What is a Maintenance Strategy?
Maintenance strategy refers to a systemic approach companies use to keep their assets working optimally. This involves performing maintenance checks and analyzing data (such as KPIs, failure rate, performance, costs, etc.) before replacing or repairing faulty equipment. The high-level programs mix different strategies for maintenance based on individual equipment needs.
Maintenance strategies are usually adapted for each piece of equipment to fit its unique requirements, budget, or goals. Each company has a different optimal balance of costs and performance. In many instances, switching from preventive to corrective maintenance will help you improve your ratio.
Select an effective maintenance strategy to:
- Increase equipment availability and reduce downtime.
- Predictable maintenance costs and low operational costs.
- Optimize the performance of your facility and its production.
- Keep a high standard of safety.
- Increase customer satisfaction.
- Equipment life extension.
Maintenance Strategies Customize
Choosing the best maintenance strategy can be a difficult task. Equipment types can differ dramatically between industries, facilities, and locations. The Return on Investment is also different in each vertical. A company will need to use various strategies to take care of its assets.
Consider the mining industry. According to statistics, 82% of mining machines fail at random, which makes scheduled maintenance unproductive. In recent years, many mining companies have invested significantly in technologies that enable predictive maintenance. Modern sensors can monitor machines' real-time temperature, vibration, and humidity, resulting in more cost-effective care.
Currently, however, preventive maintenance is only cost-effective in some cases. Sensor technology, which is relatively new and still expensive, can be costly. Maintenance management software helps organizations balance reactive and proactive strategies. A facility may use run-to-failure maintenance for light bulbs that are easily replaceable, but preventive care to maintain $10,000 forklifts. We'll take you through the process of comparing values and costs, then choosing the right maintenance strategy for your building.
Read More: Asset Management ERP: Everything You Need to Know
Build Your Ideal Maintenance Strategy
The best way to choose a strategy for maintenance is as a process that involves two levels:
- Maintenance Strategy For Your Whole Facility: Your global maintenance strategy can be defined by your ratio between reactive and proactive maintenance and the approaches you use.
- What Maintenance Method Do You Use For Each Asset: Each asset has its unique maintenance method suited to its criticality, its cost, and the consequences if its failure occurs.
Developing a maintenance plan for each piece of equipment and an overall strategy is essential. It would be best to analyze your current maintenance strategy as reactive and proactive, knowing:
a. proactive maintenance occurs before breakdowns occur;
b. reactive maintenance takes place following a study. These two types of care can be further divided into different maintenance methods (more about that later). In deciding the best maintenance strategy, it is essential to consider both the equipment value and failure costs.
- Costs of replacing or repairing equipment.
- Downtime can cause financial loss.
It would help if you did not change existing maintenance methods more than you can handle now. It's essential to reevaluate the approach if your team needs help to stay on top of procedure changes.
1. How Does Your Organization Compare to Others?
Asset tracking will vary depending on your equipment and its importance to your business. The level of care you give a lightbulb on the supply shelf differs from the attention given to a piece of critical equipment in your production line.
Operations and Maintenance Managers Need to Align Themselves on Kpis That Can Be Implemented
- How much maintenance is proactive compared to reactive?
- How should reactive maintenance be balanced with preventive?
- Do you use a platform for CMMS? Does it work for you?
- What is your team's biggest challenge?
To choose the right maintenance strategy, you must assess existing organizational data, such as asset performance/criticality, uptime/availability, maintenance costs, and failure rates. After obtaining the "big picture" of your company's current operational and maintenance structure, it is recommended that you review maintenance strategies before conducting FMEA or a criticality assessment.
Understanding the Types of Maintenance StrategiesReactive Maintenance (Corrective)
Correctional maintenance is either run-to-failure maintenance that has been planned, run-to-failure maintenance without planning, or breakdown maintenance. Corrective maintenance can be erratic and unplanned, but finding, isolating, and fixing a problem is the goal. In reactive maintenance, the defect is fixed, which leads to a malfunction, such as a production shutdown. Reactive maintenance, for example, will bring the equipment back to life but must ensure that it works optimally.
Correctional maintenance is repairing a problem that was found but has yet to cause the machine to exceed its ranges. This can be done by removing a sensor that is too sensitive. In the short term, you will save money, and the preparation required is minimal. Over time, however, the costs of downtime and assets will decrease while unplanned costs will spiral.
It does not follow that corrective maintenance or reactive management is the only option. The cost of preventive care may not be worthwhile if equipment failure does not result in downtime or pose safety hazards.
Preventive Maintenance
It is essential to perform preventive maintenance regularly to avoid problems from occurring. This can include monitoring parameters, time intervals, or usage metrics. It is common for preventative maintenance to have scheduled downtimes to replace or repair a component. Sometimes it is required for regulatory reasons. Preventive care can be used to detect failures in advance, reducing the need for reactive maintenance. Preventative maintenance work orders prevent your team from being surprised by these problems.
You only need domain knowledge and awareness to manage time-based or usage-based maintenance interval schedules. A CMMS will help you maintain your preventive maintenance schedule and give you the ability to empower team members by knowing exactly when to perform work. A plan like this can become repetitious and costly, resulting in "over-maintenance."
Predictive Maintenance
Predictive maintenance aims to reduce the amount of care that preventative maintenance programs do. Tracking the condition of equipment using techniques like:
Vibration Analysis: Vibration levels detect imminent failures
Oil Analysis: The size of oil particles determines the equipment condition
Thermal Sensors Analysis: Thermostats are used to monitor the temperature of equipment and prevent it from overheating
A "just-in-time" strategy is possible with efficient predictive maintenance. This maximizes the availability of equipment while minimizing maintenance times. The plan is best suited for assets that have intermittent or irregular failures. Your team will need comprehensive monitoring and control tools to perform this task accurately. Many companies find predictive maintenance to be both time-consuming and costly. The cost of IoT and sensors is rapidly declining, making predictive maintenance more possible than ever.
Prescriptive Maintenance
The new generation of maintenance methods uses equipment conditions to determine the optimal maintenance period. The temperature profile of a component will help you predict when it is most likely to break down. A prescriptive evaluation could tell you you have 20% more running time before you fail if you reduce the temperature by 10%. The development of rigid monitoring has also just begun. But artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning are making progress in the direction of prescriptive maintenance.
Reliability Centered Maintenance
It is an enterprise-wide method. All of these types can be included. The goal is to optimize the maintenance plan so that all equipment parts perform at their best. The maintenance plan of an organization must be continuously improved.
2. Perform a Criticality Analysis
A Criticality Analysis is assessing the value and importance of assets for a facility. The items will be categorized into the following:
- Critical Assets: Assets that are essential for the operation of the facility.
- Important: Assets that are critical but important for production.
- Secondary: Assets that do not play a significant role in the process of an installation.
You can a) better manage your resources and b) identify the most critical items by conducting a criticality assessment. It would help if you first clarified what critical assets are. It is essential to maintain essential assets as malfunctioning equipment can lead to disastrous results in terms of productivity, safety, profit, or environmental damage. Kit with spares on hand is also not generally considered to be critical. To stay organized, create a matrix of criticality.
3. Maintain Each Asset According to its Maintenance Strategy
After establishing your criticality assessment, evaluate each piece of equipment on the basis of two factors: cost of failure and ease of monitoring. This will help match every asset to its optimal maintenance strategy.
Explore the Costs of Failure from Multiple Perspectives:
- What will be the impact of downtime on your business?
- Is the health and safety of your team at risk?
- Replacement parts are readily available.
You Can Ask Similar Questions About How Easy it is to Monitor:
- Do you know how to recognize leading indicators that can help to prevent unplanned downtimes?
- Is monitoring the asset worth the investment?
- Can you track this asset compared to other assets within your operation?
The secondary assessment will determine the most suitable maintenance program for each asset. Some assets that can be difficult to monitor could have low failure costs. These pieces can be easily replaced or repaired, so run-to-failure maintenance is the best option. Predictive maintenance is best for critical equipment which can be monitored easily. Preventive maintenance can be found in your vendor's manual or manufacturer's guide. After identifying the assets that need prioritization, ensure you follow the latest guidelines.
4. Get Real-Time Information
It is vital to provide your team with up-to-date maintenance information, including how to maintain and service assets. Essential sources of information include manufacturer's data and guidelines, historical data, and best industry practices. You can use this data to create Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), ensuring that your team performs maintenance correctly.
If necessary, consider additional training. Essential sources of information include manufacturer's data and guidelines, historical data, and best industry practices. You can use this data to create Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), ensuring that your team performs maintenance correctly. If necessary, consider additional training.
5. Take Into Consideration the Availability of Resources
It's essential to consider the available maintenance resources when updating your strategy. The majority of companies need more maintenance resources. To successfully implement maintenance strategies, managers may have to mobilize additional resources.
- Budget
- Workforce
- You can also find out more about
- Inventory
- You can also download the software
The pressure on all industries to deliver more for less is increasing. Budgets are limited, but the workload is growing. Prioritizing maintenance resources according to the criticality of assets is essential for success. You may be wasting time and money if you rely primarily on reactive repairs. In this case, switching from reactive maintenance to proactive can save you money and increase efficiency. Even if most of your maintenance work is bold, it's still possible to fine-tune the process for a higher ROI.
Some of your assets may need more maintenance. It can be rarely used equipment but still gets serviced regularly or low-risk and easy-to-replace parts, which may best be left in a "run-to-failure" maintenance program. Changing the maintenance schedule for every asset at one time is impossible. It's possible to overwhelm your team or need more resources.
Analyze the ROI of the maintenance you provide to your assets. This will help determine which items are the most important and would result in the most fantastic breakdowns and costs for care if they were not maintained correctly. Start with high-value and high-risk assets and gradually add new equipment to your maintenance strategy.
6. All Aboard
Teamwork and communication are critical to the most effective maintenance strategies. It's crucial to involve your whole maintenance team when planning a maintenance strategy. It will ensure that:
- It's not as if you are missing important information.
- Your team will be fully committed to the change you are making.
- The team must know the extent of the work.
- It is a smooth process from start to finish.
You can also form a committee or team to implement some of the most critical changes in your maintenance strategy. It's vital to include maintenance, engineering, and operations personnel to ensure that your company benefits from the skills and knowledge of each department.
7. Maintenance Management Software: Track Your Progress
Assess your progress and monitor it over time. Adjust your strategy if things are going differently than planned. Your team may require additional training to execute your chosen maintenance strategy. You may also need to purchase new tools, materials, and spares.
You can use a Computerized Maintenance Management System to keep track of your progress, analyze key performance indicators and create meaningful reports. SaaS offers different CMMS features and customizations dependent on company pricing plans and other companies. Before changing your strategy, gather benchmark data about the performance of your facility. Most likely, your most valuable KPIs are:
- Equipment Performance.
- The Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF).
- Time Mean to Repair (MTTR).
- Maintenance costs.
This will allow you to draw meaningful conclusions from your new KPIs after launch. After the launch, you can draw valuable conclusions from this preliminary work. You should review your strategy performance regularly and prioritize realistic improvements possible in the short-to-medium term.
Reactive vs. Preventive Maintenance: Considerations
Many companies rely on 100% reactive maintenance when they first start. Maintenance experts recommend a maintenance ratio between 80% proactive and 20% reactive. This is only possible for some organizations because they have limited resources. The following steps can help you move towards a PM-heavy approach:
- Catalog every asset from highest priority to lowest priority.
- Consult manufacturer recommendations for maintenance.
- Use conditional strategies where appropriate.
- Work Orders Scheduled for Recurring Tasks.
Start with the most valuable assets, and then work your way up to scheduling preventive maintenance for your entire equipment. This goal will take time, money, and commitment to accomplish. You should explore predictive maintenance once you have achieved or are close to reaching an 80/20 service ratio. It uses newer technologies like sensors to analyze vibrations and calculate the optimal servicing time. It is a way to help facilities balance efficiency with cost.
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Conclusion
It could be a much more exciting idea to invest in maintenance management systems. It can be a long time before you see a return. It can sometimes seem that top management needs to understand a long-term perspective. It is their job to look years in advance rather than just months. Maintenance and facility managers must continue to push their staff to see maintenance not as an expense but as something that adds value to the organization.
