Wherever we work, whether it’s a manufacturing facility or a software company – we want to practice continuous improvement. It’s our nature, as human beings, to try and determine the best solutions to our problems. That’s why we’re on top of the food chain! at Ashcom Technologies, we like to practice what we preach. So we put together an article with basic tips on how to improve your manufacturing facility’s preventive maintenance program. Let’s get started!
If you’d like additional expertise in achieving a reliable manufacturing preventive maintenance program, Get in touch today to find out more about our state of the art maintenance management solutions
1. Set Goals
Admittedly, this is not some grand revelation but it’s surprising to discover how many maintenance teams either don’t set goals at all or let them fall by the wayside as time goes on.
Plenty of manufacturing maintenance teams have goals passed down to them from corporate, but if you are part of a smaller maintenance team and in a position to set goals – this could be an incredible opportunity to not only boost your team’s productivity but earn some recognition.
So, the next question is, how to set goals for a preventive maintenance program?
One common technique is S.M.A.R.T goal setting, which stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Timely.
Now, S.M.A.R.T may trigger memories of middle-school teachers desperately attempting to get students to finish their homework but there’s a reason why so many organizations use it: it works. It gives simple guidelines that can be applied to almost any goal-setting scenario.
If you’re reading this article, there’s probably some internal issues that caused you to seek out answers. So, take a moment to think of SMART goals, that could put your team on track. For example, if a certain asset’s PM schedule is being neglected, try giving your team a goal of 95% PM compliance for next year.
2. Set Key Performance Indicators
After you’ve brainstormed a few goals the next step is measuring progress, and that’s when we turn to the ever-reliable Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).
KPI’s can be as simple as keeping track of open, closed, and past-due work orders or they can be as complex as calculating the MTBF or Mean Time Between Failure, they’re simply the statistics that you use to track your performance.
There are a few advantages of using KPI’s. Not only will you be able to track progress towards your team’s goals, but you’ll also be able to identify weaknesses in your preventive maintenance program.
If you’re not using KPIs at all, start with the basics, like tracking work orders in categories illustrated above. After a few month's time, you’ll be able to track trends and analyze team performance, which should give you clues into how to improve productivity and reduce downtime.
3. Talk to Your Maintenance Team!
A lot of maintenance teams are so busy that they don’t have time to reinvent the wheel – maintaining and making sure everything is running smoothly can be a challenge in of itself. So, give your maintenance team an opportunity to air any issues they’ve discovered in their day-to-day tasks.
Talking to your maintenance team can uncover ways to improve your maintenance program and it can also determine if the PM goals you set are realistic.
4. Create Company Specific Best Practices
You’ve established goals for your preventative maintenance team, you’ve established KPIs to measure your progress towards the goals. Now, it’s time to make sure that your organization can replicate those processes moving forward.
As you progress closer to your goals, take the time to create documentation on the practices that helped you achieve those goals. Staff turnover is inevitable, but it’s the conscious effort of creating an organizations’ identity through goals and best practices that separates good companies from great companies.
Hopefully, you can use this article as a guide to begin correcting issues in your preventive maintenance program. For further reading on KPI’s check out this article from Ins Research or for setting PM goals and strategies, check out this article by Plant Engineering.
If you’d like additional expertise in achieving a reliable manufacturing preventive maintenance program, Get in touch today to find out more about our state of the art maintenance management solutions