Reducing the maintenance management costs of a facility while at the same time maintaining a high level of reliability and availability is a finely-tuned balancing act. Here are some tips for reducing expenses without compromising on production.
1. Organizations that are good at keeping maintenance management costs under control generally place a high priority on learning and continuous improvement. Techniques like Root Cause Analysis are used to determine the reasons for failure and appropriate corrective actions along with Reliability Centered Maintenance. This is done in order to develop the best maintenance strategy to prevent equipment failure while improving maintenance performance. These organizations are never satisfied with the status quo; there is always something that can be done to lift the performance to an even higher level.
2. Another key to reducing costs is to ensure that all personnel are adequately trained and mentored to perform their tasks to the standard required. Every person that interacts with the equipment in the field, whether they be operators, maintenance personnel or reliability technicians has an important role to prevent failures and each one should understand that role and know how to fulfill the requirements. Keeping procedures as simple as possible without compromising on safety is part of this effort to enable each person to perform their duties efficiently.
3. Developing and maintaining co-operation between different departments to prevent failures is important. Multidisciplinary teams are essential to cover all possible negative impacts on equipment. When this team takes collective ownership for the reliability of the facility and maintenance costs, there is great potential for significant performance improvement. When different disciplines operate in silos with no collective goals and strategies, it is almost impossible to make a sustained improvement to the costs of asset management.
4. Workflow systems can be a source of great frustration or a tool for great efficiency. The documented workflow process should be the most ideal and easiest process to accomplish maintenance tasks. Any gap between what is documented and the practice in the field will lead to inefficiencies and potential incidents. It is important to get all players involved when establishing a new workflow process so that there is a clear understanding of the practicalities involved and the roadblocks that may need to be removed.
5. Good data is an obvious way to optimize maintenance management costs. If inventory is not clearly defined in the computerized maintenance management system (CMMS), delays will be incurred as the needed parts will not be available for the task. This may even lead to production downtime if a planned outage for maintenance repair cannot be completed due to the unavailability of parts. Starting with critical equipment, it is important to review the quality of data in the CMMS software to ensure that there is no waste of time or resources when it comes to executing maintenance tasks.
Reduce Maintenance Management Costs with a CMMS
DPSI’s iMaint CMMS software is an invaluable tool for managing maintenance while reducing costs. This proven system tracks all costs including labor, parts, miscellaneous and contractor costs, allowing data analysis using reports, graphs and real-time dashboards. To learn more about iMaint and its powerful features, please contact DPSI today to set up a free trial or schedule a CMMS demo.
