If you have physical assets like property, vehicles, equipment or machinery, you need to maintain and repair them. This process can be well, downright frustrating; inefficient processes, disorganization, lack of motivation and a variety of other issues can stand in the way of proper routine maintenance and repair tasks.
Luckily, it doesn’t have to be that way. In the age of technology there are many solutions and prevention strategies for maintenance crew inefficiency. Here are a 8 ways to improve the productivity of your facilities team:
Set Expectations
Nothing makes workers less enthusiastic about their job than disorganization. If you aren’t clear in communicating what is expected, your technicians may flounder trying to figure out what they’re supposed to be doing or how it’s supposed to be done. A clear list of tasks and established methodology for how to proceed makes it easy to stay on task and move forward confidently after each task is finished.
Use a CMMS
A computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) offers a range of functionality that can forge your maintenance team into a single cohesive damage-fighting machine. CMMS works to reduce asset downtime by promoting preventive maintenance scheduling, offering work order and inventory management features, offering internal messaging systems and much more.
Schedule Work Ahead of Time
You know the feeling when you get overwhelmed by what seems like a sudden onset of work? Odds are, it’s not actually sudden — humans tend to procrastinate, and this bad habit leads to more work in the long run. By scheduling routine maintenance tasks ahead of time and on a recurring schedule, you can reduce the likelihood that the task will be forgotten. It also helps prepare your maintenance team for what to expect outside of emergencies.
Perform Preventive (Not Reactive) Maintenance
Routine maintenance is key. Repairing assets when they fail is like waiting for your car to break down before taking it into the shop. It costs more than making smaller, more frequent repairs along the way. A total productive maintenance plan helps users monitor and manage these maintenance tasks in order to optimize technician schedules and prevent unexpected asset breakdowns — as well as the costly, time-consuming repairs that come with them.
Automate Work Order Processes
Another way to streamline the maintenance process is to automate the work order pipeline. Who is allowed to create work orders? Who has authority to close them? Do they have to be submitted manually, or do they automatically go to the next person in the chain of command when they move to the next phase of completion? Automated work order systems automatically kick work orders into the next person’s court and allow users to set role-based authority for closures.
Offer Mobile Access
No one wants to complete their tasks at a stationary computer these days. First of all, it isn’t efficient, especially if the technician team is mobile. It also leaves more room for error and forgetfulness if technicians have to enter information after the fact when they are back at the computer. Offering a mobile platform to help them track tasks, complete work orders and send internal messages streamlines the process and brings your maintenance team into the 21st century.
Use Barcode Scanning and Camera Capabilities
If you already have mobile access to your schedules and work orders, you’ll love the possibilities barcode, QR code and camera integration unlocks. Techs can attach images of completed work directly in the asset profile, scan barcodes to pull up a detailed equipment and access complete repair history from their mobile device. This not only makes their current job easier, it also makes future repairs smoother and protects you from liability via asset records and digital blueprints.
Improve Cooperation
One of the main sources of inefficiency is lack of communication. CMMS often offers an internal messaging system to let team members communicate with each other from their work-approved mobile devices, so your team is always within reach. It also allows users to assign specific tasks to individual technicians, so no one will ever wonder who’s supposed to be doing which task.
Do you want to get started improving your maintenance team efficiency right away? Contact us for a free price quote and demo of the innovative operations solution with CMMS capability from FacilityONE Technologies.
