Month: October 2021

Maintenance tasks provide guidance for how technicians perform maintenance work. However, many organizations do not have dedicated maintenance planning resources available. Instead, task writing falls to others within the maintenance team or administrative staff members who do not necessarily have the expertise to write effective maintenance tasks. This article provides tips for writing effective maintenance tasks for seasoned veterans and inexperienced planners alike.

What is a Maintenance Task?

A maintenance task is a small, identifiable piece of work that indicates the action – or actions – one must take to complete a maintenance work order. Maintenance tasks typically include:

• A description of the work itself
• Instructions for completing the task
• A labor craft that describes the required set of skills
• The estimated time to complete the work

The Importance of Effective Maintenance Tasks

Many maintenance teams do primarily unplanned, corrective maintenance (CM) and scramble to “put out fires” while doing little-to-no preventive maintenance work. In such cases, maintenance tasks are seldom used – instead, technicians are sent directly to failed equipment to diagnose the problem and implement a solution. The specific set of tasks performed is documented after the fact, is usually incomplete, and is done through work order notes instead of through formal tasks.

As maintenance teams tire of the chaos caused by unplanned maintenance and transition towards a proactive maintenance strategy, there is a greater need for planned maintenance guided by detailed maintenance tasks. Instead of vague statements, such as “fix the motor”, maintenance tasks break down work into more manageable, “bite-sized” to-dos. For example, fixing the motor may be comprised of multiple tasks including powering down the motor, turning the shaft by hand to assess the bearings, and inspecting for shorts and opens.

Further, studies show that proper maintenance planning and scheduling can increase wrench time by as much as 65%.

How to Write an Effective Maintenance Task

The steps below describe how to write an effective maintenance task in the context of planned preventive maintenance, where tasks are most often used.

1. Identify the Maintenance Problem

The first step in writing an effective maintenance task is to identify the problem to be solved. For example, does the equipment need inspection or a part replaced

2. Identify the Required Action

After you identify the problem, determine what action is needed to resolve it. Effective maintenance tasks will start with verbs – words that make it easy to understand what “to do”.

Also determine whether the action is a single step or comprised of multiple steps. Single-step tasks make it easy for technicians to picture exactly what to do. For example, actions like “clean”, “remove”, and “verify” are fairly straightforward. Multi-step tasks, such as lockout/tagout, require additional explanation in the task’s details, or may be better if broken down into individual tasks.

3. Describe the Task

Once you’ve identified the required maintenance action, flesh out the details of exactly what technicians must do. The work order will already provide details such as which asset is in need of maintenance and by when the work is to be completed.

Task details describe how to do the work. The level of detail depends on the experience and ability of your team. Less experienced or newer technicians might require more detail, sometimes as granular as spelling out how many turns of the wrench are required to tighten a belt. For these cases, we encourage the use of pictures, graphics – even videos! Experienced, veteran technicians typically need less detail, and will know what procedures to follow.

4. Identify the Required Parts and Tools

Along with what work is needed, you should take time to identify what parts, tools, and other supplies (such as PPE)is required to perform the task. Work orders usually include parts and tools in their own respective sections, although they may be included in task details as well.

5. Determine Task Completion Time

Effective maintenance tasks include deadlines that make clear how long work is expected to take. Not only do time estimates keep technicians productive, they help schedulers determine how long work orders are expected to take and where the work fits into the maintenance schedule.

Many organizations simply estimate task completion time based on experience, maintenance history records, or estimations provided by equipment user manuals. Estimates for new tasks may be based on completion times for similar tasks or educated guesses. Advanced organizations that track maintenance employee performance may have real-world data from which to make task completion time estimations.

6. Review the Maintenance Task

After you’ve finished writing a maintenance task, take a break and come back to it later. Examining tasks with “fresh eyes” and a clear mind can help you notice any errors or shortcomings. It also pays off to mentally walk through the steps, making sure that the task is clearly written and requirements are realistic.

The review should also involve asking questions like:

• Do any technicians require any additional training to complete the task?
• Have all safety warnings and necessary precautions been identified and included in the task?
• Are the steps listed in the most logical order?

The answers to these questions provide guidance on any revisions that should be made.

Create a Task Library with FTMaintenance Select

FTMaintenance Select is a computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) that makes it easy for you to create and manage a library of maintenance tasks. Add tasks to reusable preventive maintenance (PM) work order templates or create one-time tasks for specific maintenance jobs. Request a demo to learn more about how to improve preventive maintenance with FTMaintenance Select.

If you’ve ever lived in an apartment, worked in landscaping, or invested in real estate, you have experienced at least some aspects of property management. Though there are many components to property management, many of them rely on effective maintenance in some way. Read on to learn the importance of property maintenance management and how computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) software makes property maintenance easier.

What is Property Maintenance Management?

Property management is the operation, control, maintenance, and oversight of real estate and physical property, including commercial buildings, residential complexes, and land.

Property maintenance management is defined as any preventive or reactive maintenance action (service, inspection, repair, etc.) taken to keep a property fully functional and in optimal condition. It includes monitoring, caring for, and taking accountability for the upkeep of the interior and exterior elements of the building and the land it sits on. In most cases, property management teams are hired by landlords as a third party to maintain the properties for them.

Property Management and Maintenance

Property managers protect the landlord’s investment, playing an active role in caring for the property while the landlord remains more passive. Their responsibilities include:

• Knowing property management laws
• Screening incoming tenants
• Continually seeking new tenants and processing applications to keep units occupied
• Collecting rent
• Staying informed about up-to-date building codes

Aside from these duties, one of the most important responsibilities of property managers is of course, property maintenance. They have a team of technicians and contractors to carry out work under their direction. Property management and maintenance go hand in hand.

Preventive Property Maintenance

Property maintenance technicians carry out regularly scheduled preventive maintenance. This includes work on the exterior and interior of the property to prevent breakdowns or problems with the land or structures from occurring.

After each tenant moves out and before the new tenant moves in, the property maintenance team does general cleaning and disinfecting of the units before showings and move-ins. They also rekey the locks and touch up cosmetic details such as paint and trim.

There are several preventive maintenance tasks that need to be done outdoors on the property. Maintaining grounds appearance and tending to landscaping elements is part of regular property maintenance management. This includes mowing the lawn, trimming trees and shrubs, and tending to gardens. Property management repairs and maintenance also include swimming pool and hot tub cleaning, if applicable. Garbage and recycling removal, drain and gutter cleaning in common areas, and sidewalk power washing, are often on property maintenance technicians’ lists of tasks.

Finally, preventive property maintenance includes interior and exterior safety inspections or testing for things like fire alarms and extinguishers, updating or changing signs, and checking carbon monoxide detectors.

Corrective Property Maintenance

Regularly scheduled maintenance also includes planned corrective maintenance that isn’t an emergency. Like with preventive maintenance, the following examples are not all inclusive.

Carpeting, flooring, and door repairs are common corrective maintenance tasks in rental units. Appliances must be in good working order and safe to use, so regular repairs and replacements are necessary. Plumbing and electrical repairs can be corrective or emergency tasks depending on their severity. Drywall replacement is another common repair property maintenance technicians need to make.

When it comes to the exterior of the property, seasonal snow and leaf removal as well as grass cutting is usually done by property management. As needed, property maintenance technicians may do parking lot cleaning, storm cleanup, and graffiti removal. They also repair windows, sidewalks, and roofs.

Maintenance Requests and Emergency Maintenance

In addition to regular, scheduled maintenance, property managers must also handle maintenance requests from tenants. A work request system allows tenants to submit requests for repairs or service directly to the maintenance team. Tenants will receive status updates about their requests until the work is completed. Tenants submit requests for non-emergency maintenance work. However, they usually call property management for emergency repairs that can’t wait, such as a gas leak, burst pipe, or rodent removal.

In both non-emergency and urgent, emergency repair scenarios, it is essential that property management responds promptly and appropriately. For large properties it can be challenging to prioritize emergency repairs if a lot of them are needed at once. However, most property managers and technicians are knowledgeable and work to get their tenants back to living comfortably again as soon as possible.

Benefits of Property Maintenance Management

Having a third party perform regular maintenance on properties has many benefits for both the property manager and the tenants, including:

• Reduced emergency repair costs
• Savings on multiple contractor fees and cost of unscheduled repairs’
• Increased property value
• Extended working life of structural assets and appliances
• More control over assets
• Avoidance of floods, fires, and safety issues that could cause tenant injuries or severe property damage

Managing Properties with CMMS Software

In property maintenance management, computerized maintenance management software (CMMS) makes it easier to balance preventive, corrective, and emergency maintenance work. While there is other software property managers need as well, CMMS serves as a valuable addition for the maintenance aspect of managing properties that will integrate with other programs.

Maintenance Service Requests System

A good CMMS system provides tenants access to an online system where they can submit their maintenance requests to the maintenance team directly. Depending on the software product, the request system may be part of the CMMS software itself, or it could be a separate portal.

Asset Tracking & Management

Asset tracking is a feature of CMMS software that is especially beneficial for property maintenance management. It allows maintenance departments or 3^rd party maintenance managers to track work orders for buildings, equipment, fixtures, and furniture, as well as store information about the age, type, and number of assets.  Aside from tracking assets, asset management capabilities include interactive checklists that can be stored in the software, guaranteeing inspection requirements are met.

Tool Management

Tool management is another CMMS software feature that property managers use frequently. It’s important to keep track of where tools are located, how many of each there are, and when rental fees are due or contracts require renewal.

Vendor Management

Vendor management is also a key feature of CMMS software for property managers. It helps them find contractors who can assist with difficult maintenance jobs as needed. Records of local vendors can be maintained so that complex activities can be completed in a prompt manner.

Storage of Technician Credentials

Licenses, certifications, and qualifications can also be stored as part of vendor management to ensure the appropriate technicians are given the jobs they have ample experience doing. These can be easily scanned or uploaded into the software and updated at any time as employees gain new certifications or new employees are hired.

Reporting

Property managers use reporting capabilities in CMMS software to create reports that reflect groups of properties by type or location, and the maintenance data regarding them. There are many different reports that can be used to make well informed maintenance decisions.

Mobile Accessibility

Mobile accessibility is especially valuable in the property management industry. Being able to log into and use CMMS software directly from any Internet-connected mobile device is essential for productivity. Property management companies also integrate their CMMS system with GPS or GIS technology to get their team to the right locations at the right time. Property managers will also have visibility at-a-glance of where their technicians are assigned to be so that they know who is available to respond to urgent calls.

Make Property Maintenance Management Easier with FTMaintenance

FTMaintenance is CMMS software that offers all of the features discussed here and more. Property management companies use our CMMS software to manage their properties in an organized, comprehensive way. Our staff can assist you with data importation for all of your properties and vendors. We also offer implementation assistance. To learn more about how FTMaintenance is a valuable solution for managing maintenance of your commercial or residential properties, request a demo or contact us.

In addition to their standard maintenance work, maintenance teams must also address service requests from other departments, tenants, or customers. Your ability to properly manage service requests impacts your team’s efficiency and other’s satisfaction with the maintenance team. To improve your level of customer service, consider the following service request management best practices.

Why Following Service Request Management Best Practices is Important

It’s fairly common for maintenance service requests to be communicated through phone calls, hand written notes, emails, or text messages. This type of service request management is disorganized, inefficient, and makes it easy for requests to be ignored or forgotten.

Comparing your service request management practices against best practices helps you identify shortcomings and areas for improvement. While the best practices listed in this article may not apply to every organization or industry, they are intended to help guide the continuous improvement of your maintenance management process.

Service Request Management Best Practices

Below are multiple ways you can improve your service request management process.

Implement Service Request Management Software

As you may have already experienced, trying to manage service requests without a formal system in place is challenging, if not impossible. Service request management software provides a single system for submitting and managing service requests, benefitting both requesters and administrators alike. Maintenance teams commonly use the service request management features of computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) software to manage requests.

For requesters, a CMMS provides a direct line of communication with the maintenance team. Requesters submit requests using a simple online form accessed from a web browser or mobile app. Some systems allow requesters to log in to check the status of their requests. Automatic notifications can also be configured to communicate a request’s status to requesters as it changes.

For the maintenance team, CMMS software creates a single channel for receiving service requests, reducing the amount of phone calls, emails, and other interruptions. The request form can be customized to capture the exact information needed to evaluate and prioritize the requested work, reducing the amount of back and forth between the maintenance team and requesters.

By managing service requests within a CMMS along with other maintenance data, you can make better decisions about fulfilling requests including how the work fits in with the rest of the maintenance schedule and who should perform the work. You can also use asset data to see the last time maintenance was performed on the asset, what was done, and decide whether changes are needed to the asset maintenance strategy.

Make Request Submission Easy

Provide requesters with an easy way to submit service requests to the maintenance team. We’ve already discussed using a CMMS for this purpose, but other methods may include using a standalone web form, PDF, or even paper form.

No matter the format, requesters should be able to easily complete the form with ease while also providing you with enough information needed to address the request. This can mean reducing the amount of information the requester has to provide. Some organizations only care to capture contact information and a description of the problem, for instance. Service request management software can automate some data entry based on information such as who is logged in and their location.

Automate Service Request Notifications

Communication is not a strength of many maintenance teams, especially when it comes to following up with requesters. People who need maintenance assistance want their request to be acknowledged and to know how close their request is to being completed. CMMS software automatically sends status update notifications to requesters, providing such transparency. Maintaining good communication builds trust between the maintenance department and requesters.

Notifications are useful for the maintenance team as well. Service request notifications can notify administrators when new service requests have been received, reviewed and approved, or rejected. Many systems automatically route the request to the appropriate administrator based on the asset or location identified in the request. Notifications also alert technicians when they are assigned to service requests (or work orders generated from service requests).

Prioritize Service Requests

Responding to service requests in the order in which they are received is not an effective use of maintenance resources. Managing requests on a “first come, first served” basis causes the maintenance team to focus on minor tasks when more urgent needs exist. Instead, prioritize requests based on their severity. Common priority levels include: emergency, high, medium, and low. Your organization should decide the requirements for each level.

Another way to prioritize requests is by the type of requester. Depending on your industry, you may treat requests from tenants, employees, or customers differently. Similarly, the type of asset may determine a request’s priority. For example, repairing production equipment takes precedence over an HVAC filter change.

Regularly Review Common Service Requests

Reviewing historical service requests in a CMMS makes it possible to look for patterns in what maintenance issues come up again and again. If the same issues arise multiple times, there is an opportunity to reduce them through increased preventive maintenance (PM). Having service request and preventive maintenance data together in a CMMS makes it easy to adjust the maintenance schedule to your needs.

Track Service Request Management KPIs

Maintenance management reports allow you to track key performance indicators (KPIs) related to your service request management process. Each organization may track different metrics related to their service requests. Examples of common service request KPIs are listed below:

• Average service request response time
• Number of service requests in the backlog (i.e., the number of open requests)
• Customer satisfaction rating
• Total number of completed service requests
• Percentage of service requests completed on time

Stay on Top of Service Requests with FTMaintenance Select

Service requests bring visibility to maintenance needs throughout the organization. Without an effective service request management system, it’s easy for requested maintenance work to fall by the wayside. FTMaintenance Select provides a powerful service request management platform for creating, managing, and fulfilling service requests. Schedule a demo to learn more.

Every organization wants to make sure their assets are reliable so that production runs smoothly. There are several approaches to maintenance aimed at maximizing an asset’s ability to perform at optimum levels. One such methodology is called reliability-centered maintenance (RCM).

But first, let’s take a step back and define what it means for an asset to be reliable. In maintenance management, an asset is reliable when it is affordable to run and maintain, and available to perform its desired function during as many working hours as possible. A reliable asset does not fail often and when it does, maintenance work can be done to restore its full function. Finally, reliable assets last a long time, meeting or exceeding the manufacturer’s projected lifespan and Mean Time between Failure ratio (MTBF).

What is Reliability-Centered Maintenance?

What is the reliability-centered maintenance definition? In short, reliability-centered maintenance is a maintenance strategy which identifies the company-wide functions and assets that are most critical to production with the goal of increasing asset reliability and availability by applying cost-effective maintenance methods to each critical machine or building. RCM closely examines assets to determine and categorize their most critical functions, as well as define their role in larger systems of the facility.

For example, breweries use grain storage tanks. These tanks must be airtight to keep the grains fresh until a new batch of beer is ready to be produced. The critical function of the tank is to keep raw materials in optimal storage conditions. If one of the tanks gets corroded and a hole forms in the metal from rust, its critical function has failed. This tank is part of the production line and if it fails, the batch cannot be produced because the raw material has been contaminated.

Similar to risk-based maintenance, reliability-centered maintenance also strives to focus scarce resources on assets that carry the most risk, or cause the most disruption when they are not running without failure.

Questions to Determine Most Critical Functions and Assets

In order to implement a reliability-centered maintenance methodology, an organization’s engineering and maintenance teams need to collaborate to determine which functions and assets are most critical. This can be done by asking a series of questions like the ones below and fully fleshing out the answers.

• What are the desired performance standards for each asset? What are their desired functions?
• In what ways can each asset fail to perform to its set standards?
• What are the causes of each failure?
• What are the failure modes for each failure?
• Why does each failure matter?
• What are the consequences of each failure (for every asset where RCM is being applied)?
• What can or should be done to prevent each failure?
• What can be done to predict each failure?
• If no preventive maintenance can be done in case of a specific failure, what action should be taken to minimize the cost of failure?
• How will each failure affect the end product and overall operational costs?

This series of questions is part of the SAE JA1011 standard. Similar questions may also be asked when a maintenance department decides to implement risk-based maintenance. While reliability-centered maintenance is used to determine which maintenance method is best for a specific asset, risk-based maintenance selects assets that specific maintenance programs should target. However, both of these strategies can be used together.

Applying Information Discovered through RCM Q&As

Of course, these questions do not have short, to-the-point answers, especially when they are applied to more than one critical asset. This exercise takes time, but it is essential for success in applying reliability-centered maintenance. While completing the preparation for using a reliability-centered maintenance method, there are several points to consider.

To begin, start with the absolute most important asset and work down in criticality from there. Identify the possible effects of this machine failing. If an asset is running 24/7, it may be most likely to suffer a failure when it nears the end of its lifecycle. Other failures can derive from harsh environments such as extreme temperatures, excess dust, or high humidity, which can lead to corrosion. While these failures are all too common, design or manufacturing flaws and human errors must also be considered.

When as many potential failures as possible are determined, the costs and effects of failures need to be quantified. Production process delays, employee safety, environmental safety, and the condition of the asset after each failure should be considered. It’s important to keep in mind that in some cases, replacing the asset is the most economical option.

When applying reliability-centered maintenance, the process should follow a cycle of decision, analysis, and action. Decide what assets are to be included in RCM, analyze the failures and effects of each failure, and take preventive action to avoid each failure, or correct them when they happen.

The 7 Steps of Applying Reliability-Centered Maintenance

Reliability-centered maintenance (RCM) follows multiple steps that should be applied to each asset that goes through the process.

Step 1: Select an Asset (or Assets) and Determine Criticality

The first step of following a reliability-centered maintenance methodology is to select an asset or assets and determine how critical they are to production. The purpose of the asset and the standards it needs to meet should be taken into account. Once the most critical asset or assets have been chosen, the next step can be taken.

Step 2: Define What System the Asset Is In

Next, it’s time to define what system the most critical asset is part of and the boundaries of the system which contains that piece of equipment. A critical asset can also be a structural one, such as a shipping warehouse facility. This can be a large or small system, but the inputs and outputs as well as the functions of the system should be well known.

Defining the system an asset is a part of is crucial because nothing exists in a vacuum. Every asset, when functioning properly or failing has a positive or negative impact on other assets, production, and costs. Take an HVAC system for example. If the blower motor for the air conditioner fan is broken, the unit will fail to cool the building. If the temperature in the building rises quickly, it will create humidity, which leads to condensation.

This condensation may form on parts of machinery that are sensitive to moisture, causing water damage. The water damaged machine may be part of the production line, which means production is stopped, delaying the end product from being made on time. This delay would then impact the bottom line. One seemingly unrelated, but essential part malfunctioning can lead to a ripple effect on a much larger scale. Knowing which machines could be affected by this scenario (and others like it) is an important step in the reliability-centered maintenance planning process.

Step 3: Define All Failure Modes

After the maintenance team knows what systems the most critical assets are a part of, the third step is to define all likely failures. This includes a wide range of failures from complete asset breakdown or major malfunction to a small part wearing out and needing to be replaced. Failure modes can result from several factors, including wear and tear of the machine, lack of preventive maintenance or inspections, mistakes in following safety procedures, and environmental factors like dust or moisture to name a few.

The type, amount, and severity of failure modes will largely depend on the industry the organization is in and the number, type, and age of the assets they have. The amount maintenance resources currently available will impact how often and how much preventive maintenance is done on a regular basis.

How Does an Organization Define Asset Failure Modes?

It is essential to discuss how an organization defines failure modes for their assets. Failure mode information is obtained by witnessing failures occurring and finding out what the causes of them are. However, this is not the only or best way to define failures. Many failures can be inferred before they happen. For example, technicians know that when a part wears out or a filter is clogged, machine failure is imminent. The maintenance guide from the manufacturer will help determine expected failures and the maintenance needed to prevent tor correct them.

To determine some failure modes before they occur again, maintenance teams can also look at the asset’s maintenance history, either through paper records, digital files, or by using computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) software. There are many types of failure modes that come about due to end-of-lifecycle failure, extreme operating environments, operator error, or design flaws.

The most systematic way to define failure modes is to carry out Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA). FMEA identifies any plausible issues and concerns that arise, referring to how, and the number of ways, a machine might fail and the potential negative effects of the failures.

Step 4: Identify Root Causes of Failure

Once all failure modes have been defined, the next step is to identify root causes of failure. This is vital for determining an approach to respond to, and solve, failures. Focus is placed on preventing problems rather than resorting to corrective maintenance after a machine failure occurs. It goes a step beyond troubleshooting—finding the root causes of failure is more systematic and organized. These root causes will vary for each critical asset an organization has. The time it takes to complete the process will depend on how many assets are considered in this process. However, RCM can be applied to one asset at a time.

Read More: Using Root Cause Analysis to Improve Maintenance

Step 5: Assess Failure Effects

Perhaps the most important in the process, step five is to assess failure effects. Two popular techniques can be used to make this step more systematic and comprehensive:

• Fault Tree Analysis (FTA)
• Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) (also used to define failure modes)

Regardless of which or how many of these techniques are used, questions should be asked such as:

• Does the failure mode have safety implications?
• Does the failure result in full or partial interruption of operations?
• What happens when each failure occurs?
• Would the failure be difficult to detect during normal maintenance operations?
• How would a failure on the asset impact the maintenance budget?

The answers to these questions look at the effects of failure from the critical assets determined in Step 1.

Step 6: Select Maintenance Tactics

Next, select a maintenance tactic for each failure mode on each asset. These tactics include preventive, corrective, predictive, condition-based, and run-to-failure maintenance. If a failure mode cannot be resolved with a preventive, condition-based, or predictive maintenance tactic, replacement or redesign of the asset should be taken into consideration.

Read More: Keeping Assets Healthy: A Complete Guide to the 4 Types of Maintenance

Step 7: Implement and Review

The last step in applying a reliability-centered maintenance methodology is to implement the selected maintenance tactics. After the maintenance has been carried out, it’s important to review the process and results; then decide if changes to the RCM method need to be made.

RCM Example

A reliability-centered maintenance example would be using predictive maintenance on a laser printer for a packaging and label printing company. Commercial laser printers have a lifespan of approximately five years. Depending on the size of the company, one printer may be required to print hundreds or even thousands of pages per day. While this printer doesn’t fail often, when it does, it leads to significant stoppages in the printing workflow.

Failures other than complete asset breakdown that occur could be the light-sensitive drum surface wearing out, ink running low, or a software glitch. Depending on which of these or other failures occur, the costs of repair can be small to significant, and the breakdown effects minor to major. Since this machine is essential to production and breakdowns or replacements are costly, predictive and preventive maintenance would be the preferable types over corrective or emergency maintenance. Having a backup supply of parts that are likely to fail is the most effective method for avoiding significant downtime.

Benefits of Reliability-Centered Maintenance

There are numerous benefits of implementing a reliability-centered maintenance method, and all of them positively impact the bottom line.

Reliability-centered maintenance reduces equipment failures. When assets fail less, there are fewer defects in the end products and less waste is produced. It also minimizes unplanned downtime, which can be a result of a piece of equipment failing, or simply a machine malfunctioning. Asset overhauls, which include things like engine rebuilds are also minimized with RCM. It refocuses maintenance on ensuring tasks on critical assets are prioritized.

Finally, reliability-centered maintenance contributes to successful lean manufacturing. The tenants of lean manufacturing are zero defects, zero breakdowns, zero accidents, and zero waste. While it’s impossible to adhere to these tenets perfectly, lean manufacturing strives to remain as close to zero problems in those areas as possible. Minimizing waste is especially important—it is the core philosophy behind lean manufacturing. RCM helps to minimize asset downtime, which leads to fewer defects and less waste.

CMMS Software Helps Develop a Reliability-Centered Maintenance Methodology

CMMS software is vital for documenting all types of maintenance work, including preventive, corrective, condition-based, and predictive maintenance. This is essential for applying RCM, which can potentially use all of these work order types. Work order templates can be created in the software and be quickly edited for reoccurring tasks, specific instructions, or other information that is used repeatedly.

Asset service history is also available in CMMS software and that aids in troubleshooting. The ability to look back on maintenance work that was done in the past, how problems were uncovered, and what solutions were implemented can be helpful in solving current maintenance issues.

Assets at multiple locations can be easily managed and tracked. CMMS software stores all asset and equipment information in a single system, allowing technicians to quickly identify what equipment they have and where each asset is located.

Reliability-centered maintenance is all about classifying and tracking maintenance work and CMMS software helps to do just that. Maintenance reports are also useful during the review step in developing an RCM methodology.

Perfect your Reliability-Centered Maintenance with FTMaintenance

Using and perfecting a reliability-centered maintenance method is much easier with CMMS software such as FTMaintenance. Schedule a demo of FTMaintenance to learn more about our work order and asset management features which can help you develop your ideal maintenance strategy.

The overarching goal of maintenance management is to minimize unexpected equipment failures in a cost-effective manner. Risk-based maintenance (RbM) is an approach that uses an asset’s risk of failure to allocate maintenance resources. This article provides an overview of risk-based maintenance.

What is Risk-based Maintenance?

Risk-based maintenance (RbM) is a maintenance methodology that uses risk assessment principles to optimize maintenance tasks and the allocation of resources. It involves systematically identifying an asset’s criticality, failure modes, and risk of failure to create a maintenance plan that minimizes the risk of failure.

Using a risk-based maintenance approach, maintenance efforts are redirected from assets with the lowest risk of failure to those assets with the greatest failure risk. High-risk assets vary by industry and organization. Examples include:

• Major systems (e.g., electrical, plumbing, HVAC, etc.) in buildings and facilities
• Vital production lines in manufacturing plants
• Heavy equipment used in infrastructure construction and maintenance
• Fleet vehicles used to transport goods

Why Risk-based Maintenance is Important

Unplanned downtime is a major cost for businesses. In fact, studies have found that unplanned downtime events cost as much as $250,000 per hour and reduce productivity by as much as 20%!

To minimize such losses, maintenance teams employ a variety of maintenance strategies and techniques, but are pressured to do so at a low cost. This prompts organizations to evolve their maintenance strategies beyond traditional corrective maintenance (CM), time-based maintenance (TbM), and preventive maintenance (PM).

Risk-based maintenance provides organizations with a systematic way to determine the type and frequency of maintenance each asset receives. Instead of wasting time and energy maintaining equipment that doesn’t need it (which can actually do more harm than good), organizations can allocate sufficient maintenance resources to assets whose failures have the most impact on the organization.

Other Ways to Improve Reliability

There are many ways that organizations can improve reliability while also lowering maintenance costs. Risk-based maintenance is just one such approach. Others include:

• Condition-based maintenance (CbM)
• Predictive maintenance (PdM)
• Reliability-centered maintenance (RCM)
• Total productive maintenance (TPM)
• Performing Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA)

Is Risk-based Maintenance Right for Me?

A risk-based maintenance approach might be a fit for your organization if it:

• Relies on highly expensive equipment that is difficult to replace
• Manages a tight maintenance budget or limited maintenance resources
• Owns remote assets that make regular maintenance difficult due to travel requirements
• Runs mission critical equipment where there are no viable alternatives or substitutes
• Wants to improve return on investment (ROI) by optimizing its current maintenance plan

How to Implement Risk-Based Maintenance

Conducting a risk-based maintenance assessment is a systematic process, meaning that there is a generally accepted sequence of steps to follow. The two main parts of this process are: 1) performing a criticality analysis, and 2) performing a risk assessment.

Before we start, it is important to note that implementing risk-based maintenance is a technical process that involves getting input from a cross-functional team including operations, maintenance, engineering, safety, and others.

The following steps outline a simplified version of a risk-based maintenance methodology. Readers seeking a more robust, thorough explanation should refer to the ISO 31000 standard on risk management or the United States Department of Defense standard MIL-STD-1629A.

Step 1: Gather Maintenance Data

 In order to implement risk-based maintenance, you need to gather asset data such as:

• Identity (i.e., asset name and number)
• Acquisition cost
• Age
• Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF) history
• Mean Time to Repair(MTTR) history
• Cost of unplanned downtime
• Frequency of maintenance

This information is readily available in most computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) software. If you are not familiar with what a CMMS is, read our What is a CMMS? article or view our handy infographic.

Step 2: Determine Asset Criticality

Risk-based maintenance prioritizes maintenance work to critical assets. Criticality is a measure of an asset’s importance to the organization. Critical assets generally affect an organization broadly or represent a single point of critical failure. For example, a boiler is critical to the operations of a facility.

Organizations use a criticality analysis to evaluate the severity asset failure has on the organization. A common tool for performing a criticality analysis is a criticality matrix, like the one shown below. Failure events are ranked on the matrix by severity in multiple categories such as safety, production, and cost.

Since there are multiple ways an asset can fail, each carrying a different amount of risk, you need to set a baseline. Choose one failure event that you deem plausible to occur and that has the most severe consequences. Use the matrix to rate the failure on each category.

(Click to enlarge)

These ratings are used to generate an asset criticality rating (ACR). The ACR can be calculated by multiplying the ranking in each category together, adding the scores together, or simply taking the highest score in any category.  For example, suppose the severity of a failure is rated as follows:

• Safety = 2
• Environmental = 1
• Production = 3
• Equipment = 1
• Cost = 1

Therefore, the ACR would be:

• 6, if multiplying (2 x 1 x 3 x 1 x 1 = 6)
• 8, if adding (2 + 1 + 3 + 1 + 1 = 8)
• 3, if taking the highest categorical rating (Production, in this example)

Whichever way you choose, a higher score means the asset is more critical, relative to the others you’ve analyzed. Record this score, as it will be used in a later step.

Step 3: Determine the Likelihood of Failure

Once criticality is known, you determine the probability of failure. As with criticality, rate the likelihood of failure on a scale of 1 to 5 (or use a larger scale if you prefer). The example below uses a 5-point scale, where:

• 1 = Very unlikely to fail (Expected to fail less than once every 2 years, on average)
• 2 = Unlikely to fail (Expected to fail less than once per year, on average)
• 3 = Occasional failure (Expected to fail 1 – 2 times per year, on average)
• 4 = Likely to fail (Expected to fail more than twice per year, on average)
• 5 = Fails frequently (Expected to fail frequently)

Record this score.

Step 4: Calculate the Risk Priority Number

A risk priority number (RPN) is a numerical value that quantifies an asset’s risk of failure. It is calculated by multiplying the asset criticality rating by the probability of failure rating. More advanced calculations also factor in a detection rating, which quantifies the likelihood of detecting an imminent failure before it occurs. For our purposes, we will ignore detection.

The table below shows the calculated risk priority number for 3 different assets.

In this example, the severity of failure was determined by using the highest severity rating score in any given category from the criticality matrix shown earlier. The probability of failure follows the 5-point scale from the previous step.

Step 5: Analyze Your Findings

 Based on the RPN calculations above, we can draw the following conclusions:

• Asset 1 is the most likely to fail, but the consequences are relatively minor. It is possible that reliability issues are due to aging equipment or inadequate preventive maintenance, but further investigation is needed.
• Based on its RPN, Asset 2 carries the least amount of risk. However, while the probability is low, the severity is high. In this case, the failure is worth preventing.
• Asset 3 carries the most risk, according to its RPN. Failure happens on a regular basis and leads to relatively severe consequences. You should prioritize this asset.

Step 6: Prioritize Asset Failures

Risk priority numbers make it easy to compare the risks that failures pose, relative to one another – but which failures require action? One tool that can be used is a risk matrix, like the one shown below.

This grid shows all possible risk priority number scores using a 5-point scale, color-coded by risk level. Find where your severity and probability ratings intersect to determine the RPN and observe the color code.

In this grid, scores in green represent assets with the lowest amount of risk and of low priority. Yellow and orange scores represent assets that are low to medium risk and medium to high risk, respectively. A score in red indicates that asset failure carries high risk and should be a priority for the maintenance team to address.

While the matrix is a useful decision-making tool, it should not replace other evaluation. Recall the RPN for Asset 2 from earlier. Asset 2 has an RPN rating of 5 which, according to the matrix, makes it low priority. However, its severity is rated as a 5. Even if you do not expect this failure to occur, it is still worth trying to prevent, especially if it may cause fatal injuries, destroy the equipment, or create an environmental crisis.

Step 7: Create a Risk Mitigation Plan

Now that you’ve identified which asset failures pose the biggest threat to the organization, it’s time to create a maintenance plan to prevent future failures. The most common maintenance techniques are:

• Corrective maintenance (CM)
• Preventive maintenance (PM)
• Condition-based Maintenance (CbM)
• Predictive Maintenance (PdM)

When deciding which technique to use, consider the following questions:

• What maintenance resources do I currently have?
• What are the manufacturer’s maintenance recommendations?
• How old is the asset and what is its life expectancy?
• What is the cost to replace the asset?
• Is it cost-effective to prevent the failure?
• What is the risk of not preventing this failure?
• What other changes do I need to make to support this strategy?

Read also: Keeping Assets Healthy: A Complete Guide to 4 Types of Maintenance

Step 8: Continuously Improve

Optimizing your maintenance program following a risk-based approach is not a one-time event. You should update criticality and risk ratings as your key asset management metrics improve. After you address assets with the highest risk, you’ll be able to turn your focus to new assets and repeat the process over and over again. This process can also be used to prioritize specific failure events within the same asset group.

Risk-based Maintenance and CMMS

CMMS software enables you to easily collect, store, and track maintenance data required to perform a risk-based maintenance assessment.

In terms of criticality, a CMMS provides access to asset service history, work orders, and historical performance data which help you select assets for analysis. Downtime tracking and maintenance reports provide further insight into the effects of failure. CMMS software also provides useful asset data including:

• The number of failures an asset has experienced
• The amount of unplanned downtime attributed to an asset
• Key performance indicators such as Mean Time to Repair (MTTR), preventive maintenance effectiveness, and work order performance
• Asset maintenance costs

In terms of risk, or the probability of failure, a CMMS provides useful information including historical asset data and measures of reliability such as Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF) calculations.

Lower the Impact of Asset Failure with FTMaintenance Select

Risk-based maintenance provides a structured process for allocating maintenance resources to the failures that most threaten your organization. FTMaintenance Select provides a powerful platform for planning, managing, and tracking your maintenance program, enabling you to make data-driven decisions that lower the risk and reduce the consequences of asset failure. Request a demo today to learn more about how to get started with FTMaintenance Select.

Businesses of every size rely on fleet vehicles to conduct business. Whether they’re large semi-trucks or boats that deliver goods, buses and taxis that transport people, or farming equipment that harvests crops, the condition of fleet vehicles greatly impacts the bottom line. Without the right technology in place, fleet maintenance is challenging. This article provides an overview of fleet maintenance management and how it is made easier with computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) software.

What is Fleet Maintenance Management?

Before launching into a discussion about fleet maintenance management, let’s first examine the broader scope of fleet management. Fleet management consists of actions taken to remove or minimize risks associated with fleet vehicle investment, improve efficiency and productivity, and reduce overall transportation costs. In general, any activity that relates to the value or use of vehicles can be considered fleet management. These activities include managing:

• Vehicle acquisition, sales, leasing and financing, and remarketing
• Maintenance and repair
• Fuel consumption and fuel costs
• Vehicle titles, licenses, and registration
• Electronic Logging Device (ELD) and Hours of Service (HOS) compliance
• Insurance and protection
• Driver safety and retention
• Fleet data collected through telematics systems
• Dispatching and route optimization

Fleet maintenance management is the process of maintaining and repairing vehicles in order to maximize availability, improve performance, and minimize costs. While the primary goal of fleet maintenance is to improve the effectiveness and safety of vehicles, it also has far-reaching effects in other aspects of fleet management. For example, well-maintained vehicles use fuel more efficiently, thereby reducing fuel consumption and costs.

Learn more about the benefits of using CMMS for fleet maintenance management

Importance of Fleet Maintenance Management

Today’s fleet management organizations face many challenges, including an increased focus on driver safety, the digitization of vehicles, fuel price volatility, and tightening regulatory requirements. Meeting these challenges requires

Keeping Drivers (and Others) Safe

A properly maintained vehicle is safer for drivers as well as others with whom they share the road. Drivers feel more comfortable and confident knowing their vehicle has been inspected and will work predictably (barring any unexpected events).

A well-thought-out fleet maintenance schedule reduces the likelihood of breakdowns and accidents. Many common causes of vehicle crashes, such as blown tires, can be prevented through proper fleet maintenance.

Fleet maintenance also helps organizations comply with regulatory requirements from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Department of Transportation related to pollution, greenhouse gas emissions, and air quality among other safety issues. These standards help ensure a safe and clean environment for current and future generations.

Lowering Operational Costs

When vehicles aren’t on the road, the organization isn’t making money. Vehicles that experience downtime due to unscheduled repairs, emergency service, or accidents cannot service the organization. This leads to the risk of late deliveries and tarnishes the reputation of the business. Frequent, unplanned maintenance issues also affect the longevity of vehicles, which may require them to be replaced sooner than expected.

Scheduled maintenance activities reduce operational costs by helping organizations avoid more costly repairs. Regular preventive maintenance (PM) is much easier to carry out, cheaper in the long run, and can help catch small issues before they evolve into more serious problems. Further, well-maintained vehicles will have a longer life span, spend more time on the road, and increase fuel economy.

In addition, vehicles that undergo regular maintenance have a better chance of getting good results and safety approvals following inspections and testing, shielding the organization from compliance issues.

Boosting Profitability

Any number of variables can affect the bottom line, but many of them lead back to the quality of fleet maintenance. Managing a fleet of reliable, well-looked-after vehicles helps you maximize productivity and profitability.

Organizations that deliver goods on time and dispatch service quickly, while keeping their employees and others safe, build better reputations and trust with their business partners and consumers. Maximal operations combined with lowered operational costs leads to higher profit overall.

What Industries Practice Fleet Maintenance Management?

Any organization that relies on vehicles to do business engages in some sort of fleet maintenance management. Examples include:

• Trucking companies
• Car rental services
• Construction companies
• Specialty vehicle and equipment contractors
• Farmers
• Home repair and maintenance service providers
• Government and public works
• Mining and natural resources harvesters

Fleet Maintenance Management Roles and Responsibilities

There are many stakeholders who contribute to successful fleet maintenance: fleet managers, drivers, and maintenance technicians/mechanics.

Fleet Managers

Among their many responsibilities, fleet managers are responsible for developing maintenance plans for fleet vehicles such as trucks, boats, and buses. Each type of vehicle requires unique maintenance tasks on specific schedules. The maintenance plan must also be flexible to account for maintenance needs discovered by drivers, through telematics systems, or through other planned maintenance activities.

Drivers

Because drivers spend most of their time in the vehicle, they are the most familiar with how it should function. They are best equipped to notify the fleet manager or maintenance team of any abnormalities, warnings, or signs of wear. Drivers also assist with identifying maintenance needs by performing frequent visual inspections and reporting any issues they discover. If not done automatically, drivers may record mileage for runtime-based preventive maintenance.

Maintenance Technicians/Mechanics

The most prominent role in fleet maintenance management is of course, the fleet mechanic or maintenance technician. People in this role are responsible for performing repairs and maintenance on fleet vehicles.

Mechanics may be internal or external to the organization. Larger organizations may benefit from having one or more dedicated fleet maintenance personnel on staff. On the other hand, fleet maintenance functions may be outsourced to another organization that specializes in fleet maintenance or the maintenance of certain vehicle types or manufacturers.

Fleet Maintenance Management Software

Computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) software is one tool fleet maintenance organizations use to manage fleet maintenance. Using CMMS for fleet maintenance management provides many benefits.

Improve Maintenance Planning and Scheduling

CMMS software stores critical information about vehicle assets, including their related parts and maintenance tasks. With all information together in a single platform, fleet managers can easily view what assets are available for maintenance, which required parts are in stock, and who is qualified to perform the job. Technicians also have access to maintenance history to troubleshoot non-standard maintenance issues.

Scheduling functionality allows you to view upcoming maintenance activities, and decide when work should be done and who will do it. Many systems allow maintenance to be scheduled based on calendar date, runtime (or mileage), or a combination of both.

Streamline Preventive Maintenance Procedures

CMMS software for fleet maintenance management allows for the creation of reusable preventive maintenance (PM) work order templates. These templates allow you to enter the work order details once, and automatically generate future work orders complete with all relevant information. This is especially helpful when creating work orders for recurring maintenance tasks such as inspections.

Reusable tasks also make it easy to create and update maintenance procedures. Providing technicians with step-by-step instructions for performing fleet maintenance ensures that work is performed the same way each time, no matter who is doing it. If changes are needed, updates can be made once and applied system-wide.

Simplify Spare Parts Management

Effective MRO inventory management is a key element of a cost effective fleet maintenance program. A CMMS automates inventory counts, helping fleet managers forecast demand and ensure parts are in stock when needed. The system also stores information about parts suppliers and service providers, making it quick and easy to reorder parts when needed.

Track Employee Qualifications

CMMS software tracks valuable data about your biggest assets – your people! Fleet managers can track auto mechanic certification levels, ensuring that technicians are qualified to perform required maintenance work. In addition, organizations can store employee pay rate information, useful when billing clients for fleet management services.

Quickly Access Maintenance Documentation

Vehicles are complex machinery. Being able to access owner’s manuals and maintenance documentation is a boon to mechanics. A CMMS allows you to create a digital maintenance library containing quick access to important maintenance and safety documentation. In addition, technicians are able to add images and videos to supplement text-based work order or asset documentation.

Make Better Repair vs. Replace Decisions

Fleet maintenance software such as a CMMS system helps fleet managers gain visibility into vehicle condition operations through data analysis and reporting. The software leverages comprehensive data on assets to generate maintenance reports that allow you to assess vehicle condition, justify replacement, or modify the maintenance schedule.

Keep Vehicles Ready for the Road with FTMaintenance Select

Proper fleet maintenance management is necessary for any organization that relies on vehicles, from a small business with a handful of delivery vehicles to large corporations that maintain an entire fleet. CMMS software like FTMaintenance Select is an essential tool for tracking, documenting, and managing fleet maintenance. Schedule a demo today to learn more about how FTMaintenance Select makes fleet maintenance more efficient and effective.