A preventive maintenance program enables an organisation to lower maintenance cost, extend asset life, and provide insight into asset condition at any given point. Developing a Preventative Maintenance Plan is one of the most important tasks for a Facilities Manager. Unfortunately, Facilities Managers very often complain they lack time to follow a preventive maintenance program. This problem is an endless cycle: The time spent putting out fires to address broken equipment hogs the time. If a Preventive Maintenance Program can eliminate this problem, what would it really look like before and after implementation?
A Preventive Maintenance Program is all inclusive, covering all assets and factors that affect capital planning in a facility. It will take time to develop and implement; however, the cost avoidance savings through a Preventative Maintenance Program are immutable and should be best practice in today’s world.
The first step in implementing a preventative maintenance program goes back to changing the underlying culture of an organization. This starts with the organisational approach, as well as the creation and handling or work orders. The simplest way to achieve this change is with a computerized maintenance management system (CMMS). Instead of forcing team members to rely on outdated work order processes, a CMMS could provide immediate insight into maintenance needs and activities.
CMMS provides a way to hold people (staff and service providers) accountable. A CMMS ensures compliance. Any incident out of compliance will be flagged immediately and escalated. Repeat non-compliances from a specified vendor will impact a vendor’s reputation and contract. This increases the likelihood that a need will be addressed immediately. At the same time real time data from connected assets can avoid future breakdowns through predictive maintenance.
A Preventative Maintenance Program via CMMS further provide possible savings when scheduled visits can be combined with on-demand maintenance. Fewer technician visits save time and money. These savings together with other possibilities makes the effort and cost to implement a CMMS Preventative Maintenance Program worthwhile.
