Avoid Sticker Shock with CMMS
MPulse allows customers to avoid sticker shock with our CMMS. Two of the most powerful benefits of CMMS software are information and the insight that information provides about your maintenance operations. Most of our customers discover a few surprises after they implement MPulse Maintenance Software. A common one is when you start to look closely at the numbers for the first time. More often than not, we hear the same thing, “We’re spending HOW much on that asset?” That’s the moment you see the true value of CMMS software and its ability to improve your maintenance operations. Make Decisions Based on Hard Evidence CMMS software changes the game. It’s the best tool a maintenance manager has for gathering, analyzing, and reporting data about your equipment and your team. And by using that data, you can make decisions based on hard evidence, instead of perceptions or assumptions. We call this approach “data-driven management,” which simply means you’re making management decisions backed by reliable data instead of assumptions or guesses. [related-content] Together, CMMS software and data-driven management give you the picture you need to accurately assess how your department is functioning and where you might make changes to improve. With good data to work from, your organization can make good decisions, which will improve its ability to compete effectively and efficiently. Answer the Questions that Matter to You—and Your Boss With CMMS software, our customers find they can answer a lot of questions, like… Is it more cost effective to repair that forklift or replace it? Should I hire another staff member to reduce overtime costs? What are our biggest repair parts expenditures? We can help you set up your MPulse CMMS software to answer the questions that matter to you and your boss. Best of all, the cumulative nature of CMMS data means you can ask different questions in the future—ones you might not even think about today. It’s easy to miss key information when you’re making decisions based on assumptions or guesses. While you may be surprised how much you are spending on certain assets, knowledge is power. Suddenly you see your maintenance operations in a different light, and you can make the changes you need to make it more productive and efficient. Learn more about how MPulse can help you answer your maintenance questions. Leave a comment or contact us.
Improve Relationships Between Operators and the Maintenance Team
The relationship between your maintenance team and the people who operate the equipment they maintain does not necessarily fall into standard professional definitions. It’s crucial to improve relationships between operators and the maintenance team. While it holds some elements of a customer service relationship (the operator needs the maintenance team’s services), it’s also a partnership as one position directly affects the other, and vice versa. The operator-maintenance relationship doesn’t get a lot of attention in many organizations—and that’s to the detriment of both parties. A good working relationship between maintenance and operations personnel benefits everyone, including the organization as a whole. Who’s at Fault? The operator-maintenance relationship heavily influences key areas of any business, including… Prevention of breakdowns PM scheduling to minimize interruptions Prioritizing work based on value to the organization [related-content] Because these responsibilities directly affect productivity, there’s a tendency to want to assign blame when things go wrong. Is the breakdown due to misuse or abuse? Missed PMs? Carelessness? Neglect? Assigning the blame for downtime will cause pointless disagreements and arguments. It’s important to break away from this pattern and refocus on the best ways to prevent failure in the future. How Can We Prevent Failure? The employees who are mostly likely to trigger downtime events are often in the best position to prevent it in the future—no matter why the failure occurred. As the main users, operators have firsthand knowledge about how an asset is functioning. They also can be the source of asset breakdowns or provide insight as to why it happened. Operators often can diagnose their own machine, and they likely can prevent future downtime events. The maintenance team also holds valuable knowledge that can prevent breakdowns—like technical skills, part availability, PM schedules, and historic documentation. Working together to prevent future failures is essential. MPulse customers have found success by promoting… Training between maintenance and operators on the best ways to perform basic functions like start-up or shutdown Providing tools that promote communication—such as service requesting, PM scheduling, and automatic notification features found in CMMS software Building stronger relationships by promoting interaction outside of stressful situations, like participating in joint meetings or even sharing a lunchroom Improving the relationship between operators and maintenance starts with mutual respect and communication. You can help by ensuring all parties understand each person’s role and appreciate the benefits they bring to the organization. How have you improved the relationship between your operators and maintenance techs? Leave a comment or contact us.
Maintenance Team Recognition is Long Overdue
Last month, Thomas, a young maintenance tech at a local school district, saved someone’s life. Literally. He was in the right place at the right time with the right training (in CPR). He got a lot of local recognition, all of which was well deserved. And as the news spread about his heroics, more stories emerged about everyday things that Thomas did that also deserved recognition—the smaller, but still important, ways that he makes his workplace a safer and more efficient place. It was refreshing. Maintenance techs know when things go wrong, the maintenance department often gets the blame. But the maintenance teams often don’t get the credit they deserve when things go well. Recognizing the contributions of the maintenance professionals is long overdue. So, how do we change that? It’s Time to Raise Awareness Maintenance often gets overlooked until there is a failure. To combat that problem, maintenance professionals themselves need to raise the level of awareness of what they provide to the organization. We can’t wait for others to notice. We need to advocate for ourselves. [related-content] Tell your story. Look for opportunities to share your projects, goals, accomplishments, challenges, and results. Make sure the people in positions of influence understand what your department does and the benefit your team brings to the organization. Do you want other people to understand the real value of your maintenance personnel? Start by asking what they’re worth when a breakdown has your production line at a standstill. As one MPulse Facebook follower said, “Maintenance is like an insurance policy. You don’t know why you pay for it until you wreck your car.” It’s Time to Reach Out to Others No one understands maintenance like other maintenance professionals. So, we need to work together. Join or start a chapter of a professional association (like the Association for Maintenance Professionals or the International Facility Management Association) in your area. Find out what’s going on at other plants or facilities. Get your staff involved in service clubs and organizations. Encourage your team members to give back to their communities. These outreach activities are great ways to promote what maintenance technicians do and how much people rely on them. Maintenance professionals often complain they don’t get the respect they deserve. So, let’s change that, starting in your own organization. Leave a comment or contact us to share how you make sure your maintenance team gets the credit they deserve.
Attract Younger Employees to the Maintenance Field
Maintenance is an aging field. With many long-time employees retiring at a rapid rate, finding younger people to fill positions is one of the biggest challenges facing today’s maintenance managers. So, we asked our customers what they’re doing to attract younger employees to the maintenance field. They gave us three great suggestions. Embrace New Technology The younger generations have spent their entire lives surrounded by technology, and these employees have a greater understanding of its capabilities. As such, these workers will not only embrace new technology in the workplace, but they will also expect it. While much of the resistance to new technology common in older generations is nonexistent with these team members, it’s replaced by expectations that the company will keep its technology up to date for these workers to do their jobs. That includes everything from tools to mobile technology to CMMS software to Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) devices. Value Maintenance Work Younger employees are looking for meaningful work where they feel like they make a difference. Employers need to emphasize the contributions of the maintenance team, making sure everyone understands the important role they play in the organization. Employers need to raise the level of awareness of their maintenance program. Look for opportunities to share their projects, goals, accomplishments, and results. Don’t be afraid to self-promote wherever you can, both internally and also in the local media or national trade press. Invest in Your People It’s hard to pick up all the skills maintenance workers typically need on the job. So, our customers recommend working closely with local high schools and colleges to find people with the right aptitude, even if they don’t have the skills right away. Employers should create a professional growth/training program for the maintenance staff. Professional growth programs are a great recruiting tool. Work with management to provide compensation for tuition, books, and fees. Reward strong work performance with additional opportunities for education. It’s tough to find the right people for maintenance positions. Thinking outside the box can give you the advantage you need. How has your organization tried to attract younger people to the maintenance field? What’s worked? What hasn’t? Leave a comment or contact us.
People Skills in the Maintenance Profession
Maintenance professionals are known for their technical skills—it’s at the top of the list for any job posting. But another skillset might be almost as important. For employees who spend a lot of time with machinery and equipment, people skills contribute significantly to success in the maintenance field. Why Do Maintenance Professionals Need People Skills? People skills are related to interpersonal communication—including the ability to actively listen, explain issues in a way someone else can understand, build trust, show patience, make suggestions, work with others, and display empathy. [related-content] Sooner or later, everyone needs the maintenance team—from the operator on the phone calling about an emergency breakdown, to the vendor working on a warranty job, to the manager asking for an update on a repair. These are a maintenance team’s “customers,” whether they are people paying for services (like building tenants) or internal departments that need something done (that’s everyone, from accounting to production to the executive team). And people skills are key to working with customers. Sometimes these interactions are challenging, because maintenance professionals often work in highly stressful situations where they need to discuss unpleasant information. They also typically need to explain details to other people who might not have the same technical background, as well as educate users about the assets in their care. So, it’s important that maintenance professionals prepare by developing—and refining—people skills to work in this demanding environment. How Can I Help My Team Develop People Skills? Some people are naturally good at people skills. And others need training. Just like you train your people to repair equipment, you need to make sure they have the training and support to develop these “soft” skills. It’s also vital to give your team the tools they need to make communication effective. For example, CMMS software enables maintenance teams to improve customer service by streamlining communication and increasing access to information. Those two things make it easier for your maintenance team to provide quick response times and detailed answers to questions and/or problems. Technical skills will always be a priority for maintenance technicians. But don’t overlook the importance of people skills as well. What’s your experience? What have you found that works? Leave a comment or contact us.
CMMS Helps Improve Capital Planning
Capital planning is an extension of two other key elements of maintenance management—creating and monitoring budgets. Like any budgeting process, accurate information significantly improves the ability to plan. And CMMS software gathers maintenance information with every work order, inventory item, or subcontracted repair—making it a treasure trove of data when you need it. With CMMS data, you’re basing your plan on hard numbers instead assumptions. That’s how CMMS software makes capital planning easier and more accurate, helping your organization stay efficient and competitive. What’s Capital Planning? Capital planning typically includes physical assets like equipment and machinery, but can also include product expansions, research & development, property, and other major capital expenditures. While creating a capital plan usually involves multiple departments, maintenance will likely be a big part of the process because you work closely with an organization’s key assets. And that’s where CMMS software becomes essential. How Does CMMS Software Help? The first step to developing a solid capital plan is knowing what you have. You can use CMMS software to create an asset list and gather data on each of those assets. This data includes key information like purchase date, life-to-date (LTD) maintenance expenses, and other key financial details. Often CMMS data can spot potential trouble, which helps with long-term planning. For example, if your CMMS reports indicate an increasing number of emergency repairs to a key asset, it’s time to take a closer look and what’s really going on. That includes determining if it’s better to replace it, rather than repairing it. This information also helps you prioritize your organization’s capital expenditures, so you know what you should focus on first—and what can wait until later. How Can I Use My CMMS Data? CMMS data helps you verify and justify capital expenditures as well as prepare for them. The process creates better visibility into your maintenance operations, as well as the documentation to back up your plan. That’s important when you need to explain your decisions. Capital planning with CMMS software is another example of data-driven management, which means your decisions are backed by reliable data. Technological advances like CMMS software help make more and more detailed, relevant maintenance data available. You can use that to your advantage. What challenges do you face with capital planning? Contact us. We want to know.
Quick and Easy Budgeting with CMMS
Many maintenance departments create annual budgets based on prior expenses. It’s a simple process—pull all the expenditures, check to see if something unusual happened during that time, and increase the budgeted amount by other planned expenses you see coming. But CMMS data goes far beyond just showing expenses. You’ll also find valuable insights into how your department is functioning, and what you can do to improve. And that information can make your budget process easier and much more accurate. Creating Your Maintenance Budget A maintenance budget includes employee salaries and benefits, as well as direct costs such as parts, equipment replacement, vendor services, and special projects. Every maintenance manager knows that it’s hard to create a realistic budget without historical information. CMMS software tells you exactly what you’ve spent in the past, so you have a strong foundation for budget forecasting. Preventive maintenance schedules make it easy to estimate labor and inventory costs for key assets. Historical data about labor costs, special projects, and staff training are other areas where CMMS software can help you accurately estimated future costs. Unplanned maintenance is more unpredictable, of course. But again, CMMS data can provide information about emergency repairs on assets and what it took to get them running again, giving you a better idea about what to expect. Analyzing a Maintenance Budget Maintenance costs affect any organization’s bottom line in two ways: the money spent and the prevention of additional expenditures via preventive/predictive maintenance. That’s why CMMS software is vital to controlling maintenance costs—and determining where the department can improve. Real-world examples of what MPulse customers have found when they created their budgets from MPulse data include… The cost of overtime labor made it more efficient to hire another person than continue to pay overtime or outsource the work. Too much overstocked inventory was sitting on shelves, quickly becoming unusable. Expedited shipping fees were costing more than stocking certain parts. Some equipment was costing more to maintain than it was to replace. Employee productivity was improving after specific training classes. Some work was less expensive to outsource, so employees could focus on their core tasks. Next time, we’ll talk about a related topic—tracking your maintenance budget with CMMS software. In the meantime, contact us with your specific questions about how MPulse can make your maintenance budgeting process much easier.
CMMS a “Must Have” for Distribution Centers
From automated storage & retrieval systems to conveyors & sorters, modern distribution centers focus on throughput, equipment reliability, and uptime—just like any other production-oriented business. And just like other organizations, more distribution centers are turning to CMMS software for help. “In our environment, maintenance is all about keeping the company assets in like-new condition while minimizing the impact to our operation,” explained Randall, MPulse customer and facility manager for an international online retailer. More Automation, More Assets to Maintain Distribution center employees face more pressure than ever to get orders out the door, thanks in part to a surge in online sales over the past decade and high expectations for quick deliveries. Randall’s company has invested heavily in automated material handling systems to meet the growing demand—but more equipment also means more maintenance work for his team. Most distribution centers need CMMS software like MPulse to manage a wide range of equipment, from modern materials handling systems to more typical facility assets such as HVAC systems, dock doors, lighting, and plumbing. “Maintenance teams in distribution centers require diversity in their skillsets, however, some co-workers are becoming more specialized,” Randall explained. “MPulse allows you to assign a person to an asset, and so once the asset is set up, it automatically gets assigned to the proper individual with the right skill set.” And like any maintenance manager, Randall needs to track costs—particularly labor costs—as well as set benchmarks and KPIs. “It is impossible to cut costs if you don’t know where the money goes,” he said. “Uptime, extended life expectancies, and minimal operational impact is what all maintenance department should be striving for—at the lowest cost to the business.” Data Integration Distribution center maintenance teams also have discovered the benefits of CMMS software coupled with Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) technology. The combination enables maintenance teams to gather information directly from multiple devices, which can be almost anything with a sensor—including computers, vehicles, smartphones, appliances, building automation systems, and production equipment. Maintenance teams can use that information to proactively perform maintenance and even predict asset failures—saving both time and money. The rapidly changing technology found in distribution centers means that maintenance software is no longer optional. Contact us to learn how MPulse can improve your maintenance team’s productivity and efficiency.
Give the Maintenance Department Some Credit
The maintenance department hasn’t always gotten the respect it deserves. In the past organizations were more likely to ignore the maintenance department—until something went wrong. Once overlooked, it’s time to give the maintenance department some credit! Our customers have seen it happen—like Henry, the vice president of operations for a manufacturing company. Henry has a vision for his organization. It’s simple—make high-quality products to sell at reasonable prices, and back it all up with strong customer service. Henry realized, much faster than many, that this vision rested on the shoulders of people who often don’t get the credit they deserve—the maintenance team. Maintenance Makes It Happen Henry’s factory has invested in a lot of high-tech equipment. His employees are focused, monitoring the equipment from computer screens throughout the building. His production and maintenance departments work closely together. “Most manufacturers focus on production workers—the people who are turning out the products on the line,” he said. “Not as many see that maintenance is the center of the hub, the place where everything connects. Because your production team is only as efficient as their equipment. And the maintenance crew makes it happen.” Maintenance Makes a Difference Henry’s also invested in his people to keep that equipment running smoothly. He’s had to think outside the box, he explained. “It’s hard to find good people,” Henry said. “We’ve invested in attracting younger people through our in-house training program. We’re creative about how we recruit new employees. We work closely with local high schools and colleges to find people with the right aptitude, even if they don’t have the skills right away.” And he works hard to make his company a place where people feel valued. “It’s not all about the paycheck. Today’s employees are looking for meaningful work where they feel like they make a difference,” he said. So Henry has emphasized the contributions of his maintenance team, making sure everyone understands the important role they play in the company. He believes it has helped his organization survive—and prosper—while others have struggled. Henry was an early adapter. But his perspective about maintenance is spreading—and it will continue to do so as more organizations see the light. “Maintenance keeps our organization moving forward,” he said. “A successful maintenance department contributes to our success as a company.” What’s your experience? Has your organization realized the value of investing in maintenance? Leave a comment or contact us.
Carbon Neutrality for the Maintenance Team
Carbon neutrality is a hot topic, and many organizations are working towards becoming carbon neutral certified. Can carbon neutrality for the maintenance team be a realistic goal? While many consider carbon neutrality an environmental issue, increasing energy efficiency also helps reduce operating costs—an appealing goal for any organization. Achieving carbon neutrality requires… Measuring current energy emissions Finding ways to reduce energy emissions Investing in carbon offsets to counterbalance the emissions that remain Conducting emissions audits annually and adjusting as necessary Given the maintenance team’s responsibilities, you may be asked to help with one or more of these tasks. Let’s talk about what you might expect. Measure Your Carbon Footprint Every organization has a carbon footprint—which is an organization’s energy consumption and the resulting emissions from that consumption. To begin, every organization needs a baseline by gathering energy consumption data on … Utilities Transportation systems Material and inventory usage Waste Here’s where CMMS software comes in handy. All the data you’ve been gathering in your CMMS can help you track and analyze this information, which will become part of the baseline for your organization’s carbon footprint. Reduce Your Carbon Footprint Armed with this data, maintenance managers can help identify areas where organizations can reduce energy consumption or replace fossil fuels with renewable energy where feasible. That may include everything from installing energy efficient lights to replacing key equipment with more energy efficient models to switching to bio or renewable fuels. Invest in Carbon Offsets But, of course, it’s next to impossible to reduce an organization’s carbon footprint to zero by reducing energy emissions. So, organizations balance their remaining carbon emissions by purchasing carbon offsets to achieve a net zero carbon footprint. Carbon offsets are investments in projects outside the organization that reduce emissions, such as forestry, renewable energy, etc. Organizations make up for their emission by investing in programs designed to reduce or reverse carbon emissions elsewhere. It’s a simple math equation: Remaining Carbon Emissions – Carbon Offsets = 0 Repeat Annually Once you’ve achieved carbon neutrality, you’re not done. Things change, so annual audits repeat this process to make sure your organization remains carbon neutral by adjusting as necessary. Here again, your CMMS software is a great resource for measuring key performance indicators and gathering data—making it easier when it’s audit time. Contact us to see how CMMS software can help your maintenance department improve energy efficiency.