Author: Ethan Wilke

When energized equipment needs maintenance, sometimes turning it off is not enough. Lockout/tagout protects maintenance workers against the unexpected release of hazardous energy or asset startup during maintenance activities. This article provides an overview of lockout/tagout and its significance to maintenance.

What is Lockout/Tagout?

Lockout/tagout (LOTO) is a safety procedure related to the control of hazardous energy, as laid out by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) standard Title 29 CFR Part 1910.147. This standard covers “the servicing and maintenance of machines and equipment in which the unexpected energization or start up of the machines or equipment, or release of stored energy could cause injury to employees.” Organizations comply with this regulation by establishing and carrying out procedures that ensure equipment is disconnected from its energy source, and stored energy is released, prior to performing maintenance.

Why Lockout/Tagout is Important

Maintaining and operating energized systems has the potential to expose employees to hazardous energy which, if uncontrolled, can cause serious injury or death. Lockout/tagout procedures were created to protect maintenance technicians, machine operators, and others from such outcomes.

OSHA estimates that 120 fatalities and 50,000 injuries are prevented each year thanks to compliance with the LOTO standard. Despite the importance of lockout/tagout, LOTO compliance is one of the most frequently cited workplace safety standard violations (as of 2021).

What Different Forms can Hazardous Energy Take?

The lockout/tagout standard identifies the following types of hazardous energy:

• Electrical: The primary energy source for most equipment.
• Mechanical: Energy created through motion and moving parts.
• Hydraulic: Energy created through pressurized liquid and especially useful for heavy machinery.
• Pneumatic: Energy created through pressurized air, commonly used in materials handling and packaging applications.
• Chemical: Energy created through chemical reactions.
• Thermal: Energy created through the release of heat from sources including steam, natural gas, oil, nuclear, and biomass.
• Other: Any other types of energy not already covered.

How Lockout/Tagout Works

As its name implies, a lockout/tagout procedure utilizes both locks and tags. Lockout devices, such as padlocks or hasps, physically keep equipment in an “off” or safe state by holding energy-isolating devices in place. Tagout devices provide visible warnings that inform employees of hazards and indicate equipment may not be used.

When Lockout/Tagout Standards Apply

Generally, lockout/tagout applies any time the unexpected release of energy could harm someone. However, OSHA outlines certain exceptions. During normal production operations, LOTO applies only if:

• An employee is required to remove or bypass a guard or other safety device (also refer to the Title 29 CFR Part 1910.212 standard)
• An employee is required to place any part of his or her body into an area on a machine or piece of equipment

The LOTO standard does not apply to:

• Minor tool changes, adjustments, and other minor servicing activities which take place during normal production operations
• “Routine and repetitive” maintenance activities in which employees are not putting their bodies in harm’s way
• Cord and plug-connected electric equipment for which energy is controlled by unplugging the equipment and the plug is in exclusive control of the person performing maintenance
• Hot tap operations involving the transmission and distribution of gas, steam, water, etc, when service is necessary, the system cannot be shutdown, and employees are protected in some other way

In addition, the 1910.147 lockout/tagout standard does not apply to the following industries:

• Construction
• Maritime
• Agriculture
• Oil and gas
• Power and energy

Organizations in each of these industries are required to comply with other industry-specific standards regarding the control of hazardous energy. Refer to the OSHA website for more information.

What are the 6 Steps of Lockout/Tagout?

The OSHA standard provides minimum requirements for controlling hazardous energy, but provides flexibility for organizations to develop their own lockout/tagout procedures. The lockout/tagout steps below are generally applicable regardless of industry. It assumes that the required personnel have been trained in LOTO procedures.

1. Preparation: Have an authorized employee, who has a complete understanding of all types of hazardous energy that must be controlled, identify energy sources and the means to control them. Notify all employees who might be affected by lockout/tagout that the equipment will be shut down for maintenance.
2. Shut Down: Shut down equipment using its normal stopping procedure.
3. Isolation: Isolate equipment from its hazardous energy source.
4. Lockout/Tagout: Have an authorized employee attach locks and tags to each energy-isolating device so that it stays in a “safe” position.
5. Check for Stored Energy: Look for any stored or residual hazardous energy and release, restrain, dissipate, or disconnect it.
6. Verify Isolation: Verify that the equipment is isolated from its energy source, locked and tagged out, and de-energized. The equipment is now ready for servicing or maintenance.

Lockout/Tagout and Maintenance Safety

Lockout/tagout procedures help you meet regulatory requirements and, more importantly, keep maintenance technicians (and others) safe. Maintenance organizations ensure compliance with lockout/tagout standards by tracking LOTO procedures in their computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) software.

CMMS software stores lockout/tagout documentation, making it readily accessible to maintenance employees. LOTO instructions can be included on work orders, reminding technicians of the necessity for lockout/tagout. When maintenance audits  occur, the CMMS provides documentation that LOTO procedures were followed.

Improve Safety with FTMaintenance Select

At times, maintenance technicians are put into potentially dangerous environments. FTMaintenance Select improves workplace safety by storing critical maintenance documentation like lockout/tagout procedures alongside their related asset records and work orders. Request a demo today to learn more about how FTMaintenance Select can help you comply with maintenance safety standards.

Maintenance workers are exposed to safety hazards and harsh workplace conditions on a daily basis. Organizations are legally required to reduce risks to maintenance workers – and other employees – by upholding health and safety standards developed by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). This article explains the impact of OSHA regulations on maintenance operations.

What is OSHA?

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is a United States government agency created by Congress to ensure safe and healthful work conditions by developing and enforcing standards. This includes setting standards for general industry, as well as industry-specific regulations and other rules. To help organizations meet these standards, OSHA provides training, outreach, and educational opportunities, as well as compliance assistance.

How are OSHA Standards Created?

Developing OSHA standards is a multi-step process that can be initiated by OSHA itself, or in response to petitions from third-parties, state and local governments, nationally-recognized standards organizations, employers, labor relations representatives, or any other interested individuals.

At times, presidential executive orders and subsequent actions prompt the need for new OSHA standards. For example, in January 2021, President Joe Biden issued an executive order directing OSHA to take measures related to protecting workers from the COVID-19 virus.

During the initial rulemaking phase, OSHA collects information through symposiums, public discussions, or surveys. Specific committees or organizations may be called upon to help inform recommendations. Once plans are made to propose, amend, or revoke a standard, OSHA invites the public to submit feedback. After reviewing feedback and other data, OSHA creates the final rule that becomes enforceable.

OSHA’s Impact on Maintenance

The primary source of OSHA maintenance regulations falls under the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Title 29, sections 1910 – 1910.1450. Organizations are responsible for putting a system in place that raises awareness of hazards, promotes best practices, and provides a safe and healthful workplace. For maintenance, this can affect what tasks technicians perform; how supplies are stored; and what safety measures must be taken before, during, and after repairs.

While there are many standards that impact maintenance, some of the most frequently cited OSHA safety violations in fiscal year 2021 include: hazard communication, lockout/tagout (LOTO), and machine guarding. Each of these is covered below.

Hazard Communication Regulations

Hazard communication standards (1910.1200) promote chemical safety by requiring that the identities and hazards of chemicals are available and understandable to employees. One form of hazard communication is a material data safety sheet (MSDS).

MSDS documentation tells technicians what to do if chemicals spill, get on their hands, splash in their eyes, or are accidentally ingested. For example, while it may be instinctive to wash an exposed area with water (or drink water if ingested), that’s not always the right thing to do. Safety data sheets also describe the proper way to store and use chemicals.

Lockout/Tagout Regulations

Lockout/tagout (LOTO) regulations (1910.147) cover the service and maintenance of equipment in which unexpected energization, startup, or release of stored energy could harm employees. There are many types of hazardous energy that could be in a machine, including chemical, electrical, hydraulic, mechanical, pneumatic, and thermal.

Therefore, it is vital for employees to complete proper LOTO procedures. These procedures can be documented in a computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) for easy access. Failure to follow LOTO procedures can result in serious injuries such as burns, amputations, crushed limbs, or electrical shock.

Learn about the lockout/tagout process in our blog post What is Lockout/Tagout?

Machine Guarding Standards

Machine guarding standards (1910.212) cover guards that protect operators and other employees from machine hazards. Maintenance teams are responsible for fitting assets with proper safety devices and performing inspections on existing safeguards. Checking machine guards should be a part of standard routine preventive maintenance inspections, if they are not already.

OSHA COVID-19 Guidelines

Unlike the previously mentioned standards, which are mandatory, OSHA’s COVID-19 guidelines are recommendations. This guidance is intended to help organizations identify COVID-19 exposure risks to unvaccinated workers or those that are vaccinated but otherwise at risk, such as those who are immunocompromised.  Guidelines cover screening and monitoring, physical distancing, face coverings and PPE (personal protective equipment), and other measures to keep workers safe.

Visit the OSHA website for more information regarding the latest guidelines for COVID-19.

How OSHA Standards are Enforced

OSHA maintenance standards are enforced through compliance audits. First, compliance officers are required to show their credentials to prove they are legitimate. Then they explain why the organization was chosen for inspection. The officer will go over the process, which includes walking around and visually looking at machines, speaking one on one with an employee who can represent the organization in the process, and interviewing other employees.

After compliance officers inspect the workplace for hazards and talk to the employer about their findings, the inspection ends in one of two ways. If no violations are found, the inspection is now complete. If violations are found, the officer may issue citations or fines. Citations provide organizations with the opportunity to fix any violations by a stated deadline. Fines are high and range in the tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars depending on the severity of the violation.

Read More: Why You Shouldn’t Fear Maintenance Audits

How Maintenance Departments Contribute to OSHA Compliance

Maintenance teams contribute to OSHA compliance by establishing work practices and policies that keep themselves and others safe. For example, completing preventive maintenance activities on time creates a safer work environment by keeping facilities, equipment, and personal protective equipment (PPE) in good condition.

Organizations use a computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) as part of a larger quality management system (QMS) to document OSHA-compliant procedures and store health and safety information. Maintenance managers may also provide ongoing training when new chemicals are inventoried, regulations are updated, or new assets are installed. When a compliance audit takes place, the CMMS provides proof that you said what you did, did what you said, and can prove it.

Using CMMS Software for OSHA Compliance

Using computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) software to document and manage safety information makes it significantly easier to adhere to the OSHA standards that apply to your industry.

CMMS software gives you the tools to implement a safety program based on compliant maintenance operating procedures. Assigning safety-related tasks to work orders provides technicians with step-by-step instructions for completing maintenance jobs in accordance with OSHA standards. Digital maintenance documentation, such as MSDS sheets, images, and videos, can also be attached to maintenance records to provide additional information.

CMMS software preventive maintenance functionality can be used to schedule recurring safety-related tasks such as inspections and calibrations. These activities are especially important for critical fire safety equipment and other emergency systems.

As a maintenance documentation system, a CMMS is a useful tool when preparing for OSHA audits. For example, organizations can store critical health, safety, and certification information with employee records. CMMS software also tracks the completion of tasks such as locktout/tagout procedures, ensuring that you can provide auditors with proof that specific steps were followed and completed.

Finally, CMMS reports provide further evidence that preventive maintenance and critical repairs were completed on time, in a safe manner, and were of high quality.

Prepare for OSHA Inspections with FTMaintenance Select

FTMaintenance Select allows you to easily document, track, and manage maintenance operations. Consistent use of the system automatically generates the documentation required to satisfy compliance officers from OSHA or other regulatory agencies. Request a demo of FTMaintenance Select today to learn more.

Managing maintenance, repair, and operations (MRO) inventory is a balancing act between part availability and inventory costs. Organizations must have parts available for planned maintenance and in case of a breakdown, but not so much stock that it ties up significant money in inventory.

Organizations use various methods of inventory control to optimize the dollar value of their held MRO inventory. This article introduces you to common inventory optimization techniques that can help lower your maintenance inventory management costs.

Methods for MRO Inventory Control

Inventory optimization techniques vary from organization to organization. Methods that work best in one industry or for one type of item might not work well for others. There is no “one size fits all” approach. That being said, organizations often use multiple inventory control techniques at once. In the following sections, we provide an overview of different methods for inventory control.

Just-in-Time (JIT) Inventory Management

Just-in-Time (JIT) inventory management is an inventory control technique typically applied to production inventory in industries that employ lean manufacturing, such as the automotive manufacturing industry. The main goal of JIT is to allow organizations to operate at the minimum amount of inventory possible without disrupting production. Depending on the production schedule, parts are ordered to arrive “just in time” to meet a need.

When used for maintenance purposes, JIT inventory management involves identifying local vendors that carry parts the organization can obtain quickly when needed. This eliminates the need for the organization to keep a large supply of parts in stock themselves, thereby reducing overstock and the amount of resources needed to manage inventory.

JIT applies best to preventive maintenance (PM) tasks because they are scheduled and demand is easier to forecast. For example, an organization might decide that there is little need to order air filters far in advance, because they will sit on a shelf for weeks, take up valuable space, and tie up funds. Instead, the filters can be ordered from a vendor shortly before they are needed. Depending on their proximity, the vendor can ship the filters at a more reasonable rate or maintenance personnel can pick the filters up themselves in a pinch.

Reorder Points, Economic Order Quantities, and Other Factors Impacting JIT

MRO buyers often determine inventory order quantities without any formal analysis, leading to a whole host of issues. Over-ordering items ties up money that could be used elsewhere, in addition to cluttering up the stockroom. Under-ordering runs the risk of stockouts, which results in unnecessary downtime and emergency shipping fees.

To optimize stock levels, organizations must know when to reorder and what quantity to purchase. Organizations consider a number of factors, such as reorder points and order quantities to make appropriate inventory purchases.

Reorder point is the minimum quantity an item reaches that triggers an action to replenish stock. This calculation must take into consideration order lead time, current usage, and safety stock. For example, imagine that an organization is trying to come up with an appropriate reorder point for a bearing. The organization must consider:

• How long will it take to receive a shipment?
• Based on current usage, will the quantity on hand last until a new order arrives?
• How much safety stock is kept on hand to protect against unexpected demand?

Once the reorder point is estimated, there still remains the question of how much to order. To do so, organizations determine the economic order quantity (EOQ), which is the ideal order quantity to minimize inventory costs. EOQ considers a part’s purchase cost, quantity discounts, shipping and handling fees, current usage, and holding costs. Decision-makers must consider questions like:

• Is it worth buying more units than needed now to secure a discount?
• Are units used at a rate where purchasing in bulk makes sense?
• Will ordering in bulk cause units to sit on stockroom shelves for long periods of time?

These are the tough decisions organizations face. Fortunately, some of this decision-making can be handled by vendors through a vendor managed inventory (VMI) strategy, described later.

Risks of JIT

While many organizations use JIT successfully, they also assume some level of risk with this inventory control technique. For example, suppliers may run out of parts just when they are needed for maintenance. Parts may become obsolete between orders. Rising prices may make parts too costly to purchase when needed.

Scenarios like these leave the organization in a bind. Overcoming these events creates costs as a result of sourcing alternative parts, identifying alternative vendors, accepting higher prices, and paying for expedited freight.

Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI) Management

Vendor managed inventory (VMI) management is an inventory control technique that shifts some of the responsibility of managing stocking levels from the user (organization) to the supplier. With this method, the vendor supplies and replenishes MRO items on the organization’s behalf. The stocked items, called consignment inventory, are then paid for only when used. Alternatively, the organization may pre-pay for stock that is replenished by the vendor.

VMI is typically used for low-value, high-volume consumable items such as fasteners, tools, and personal protective equipment (PPE). Stock is made available through industrial vending machines that automatically record usage or cabinets where employees are responsible for logging usage on a pull sheet. Vendors periodically check stock levels to determine whether or not parts need to be restocked.

Maintenance organizations use VMI because it eliminates common inventory management problems. Assuming that the vendor is reliable, organizations no longer have to worry about overstock or out-of-stock occurrences caused by improper inventory adjustments, ineffective ordering, and poor forecasting. A reduction in stockouts also leads to a reduction in unplanned downtime because required parts are always on hand.

Though VMI can be effective in any industry, manufacturers that require many part suppliers and face significant losses during maintenance downtime stand to benefit most. This includes organizations in the automotive, oil and gas, food and beverage, and pharmaceuticals industry.

Risks of VMI

Giving inventory management responsibilities to a vendor comes with some risks. A major risk is reliance on a third party. Organizations that use VMI are at the mercy of the supplier and may be forced to live with higher prices, reduced quality, or other issues.

On the other hand, problems may arise if the vendor cannot handle your orders. Orders that are late or inaccurate puts stress on maintenance operations.

Because of these factors, it is important to find a trustworthy vendor, and trust takes time to build. If the relationship with the vendor goes sour, transitioning to another VMI distributor may be difficult due to their importance to your operations, contract terms, or resources dedicated to vendor management.

MRO Inventory Optimization Strategies and the COVID-19 Pandemic

The goal of the methods for inventory control discussed in this article is to optimize on-hand inventory and minimize its associated costs. However, a downside of operating on minimal inventory has been exposed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Supply chain interruptions have caused organizations to rethink their “lean” inventory strategy. Due to supply disruptions, part availability and lead times are less reliable, leading to stockouts if preventive actions aren’t taken. Many organizations have increased their stock of critical spares and high-volume parts to combat the uncertainty. Even as day-to-day life appears to be slowly moving back to “normal,” organizations should be careful about operating with too low of an MRO inventory.

Regardless of how organizations manage their inventory, inventory management software can be an effective tool for inventory optimization.

MRO Inventory Management Software

Effective inventory control relies on accurate part tracking. Computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) software is designed to help maintenance teams gain control over their MRO inventory management practices.

CMMS software allows organizations to track important inventory data including a part’s specifications, location, criticality, and quantities. Many solutions also integrate vendor management and purchasing capabilities. Additionally, CMMS software provides maintenance reports that track key performance indicators (KPIs) to help you make smarter decisions about your inventory.

Further Reading: 4 Inventory KPIs to Improve MRO Inventory Management

A CMMS can be used to implement JIT by allowing organizations to track part usage, view parts assigned to upcoming planned maintenance work orders, and identify local vendors. Usage data helps determine appropriate reorder points. Visibility of upcoming maintenance makes it easier to forecast demand. Vendor tracking capability allows organizations to make decisions about where and when to place orders.

A CMMS is also useful when a VMI strategy is employed. Even though managed by a vendor, organizations find value in tracking consumable parts used for asset maintenance history purposes. For example, parts are tracked by work orders so that the organization can tell when a component was last repaired or replaced, what parts were used, and how much was spent on the repair. Other organization-managed inventory is still tracked in the CMMS.

Optimize Your MRO Inventory with FTMaintenance

FTMaintenance supports inventory optimization techniques like JIT and VMI. FTMaintenance is a CMMS solution that allows you to easily manage and track maintenance activities and resources, such as spare parts inventory. Combining robust inventory tracking with vendor management, purchasing, and receiving capability, FTMaintenance is an all-in-one MRO inventory management solution. Request a demo of FTMaintenance today.

Key Takeaways

• A documented preventive maintenance program helps optimize maintenance resources, lower maintenance costs, and avoid costly repairs
• It is not necessary to create an entire “master plan” before implementing preventive maintenance practices
• Adapt the process in this article to fit your organization’s requirements
• Preventive maintenance software, like FTMaintenance, allows you to document your preventive maintenance program and communicate to others

Most organizations recognize the importance and benefits of preventive maintenance, but many are stuck in a corrective maintenance rut. Though maintenance managers may like the idea of preventive maintenance, frequent emergency repairs often leave little-to-no time, money, or labor resources available for preventive maintenance activities.

Even when such resources are available, maintenance managers often become frustrated because they do not know where to start with preventive maintenance. In this article, we discuss the basic steps in developing a preventive maintenance program for organizations just getting their feet wet with preventive maintenance.

What is a Preventive Maintenance Program?

Preventive maintenance (PM) is maintenance that is proactively performed on assets in working condition with the goal of lessening the likelihood of failure, reducing unexpected downtime, and prolonging its useful life. A preventive maintenance program or preventive maintenance plan outlines the processes, procedures, tools, and resources required to carry out preventive maintenance.

Why Create a Preventive Maintenance Plan?

Poor preventive maintenance practices negatively impact the organization. Small PM tasks that are missed, skipped, or ignored often result in unexpected downtime and larger, more costly repairs. Performing low-quality preventive maintenance is just as harmful. On the other hand, over-maintaining equipment that doesn’t need it also leads to unnecessary planned downtime, labor costs, and replacement part usage.

A documented preventive maintenance program solves many of these issues. Mainly, the PM plan holds the maintenance team accountable for performing preventive maintenance activities. It ensures that everyone understands how preventive maintenance will be conducted by outlining the work to be done, how it is to be done, who will do it, and when. As the plan is optimized to use maintenance resources more effectively, it frees up money and personnel for other cost-saving improvements.

Read more about the benefits of preventive maintenance

What Does Preventive Maintenance Look Like?

Preventive maintenance takes many forms. Examples of preventive maintenance activities include:

• Inspections that use an employee’s basic senses (i.e., sight, sound, touch), sometimes with the aid of special instruments, to detect problems.
• Adjustments and Calibrations that optimize or correct asset performance.
• Testing that verifies whether assets are running to specification.
• Replacements of disposable components.

How to Create a Preventive Maintenance Plan

The thought of creating a preventive maintenance plan can be daunting. Many maintenance managers believe that they must develop an entire “master plan” before implementing preventive maintenance at all. However, this is not the case. In a moment, you will see just how easy creating a preventive maintenance plan can be.

The following steps outline the general process for creating a preventive maintenance plan. We recognize that each organization has unique goals for their PM program. The process described here serves as a starting point for developing a preventive maintenance plan, and can be adapted to fit an organization’s requirements. In addition, we invite you to download our infographic that simplifies this process in an easy-to-understand, visually appealing format.

Step 1: Refer to or Create an Asset List

An effective preventive maintenance plan starts with a good idea of what needs to be maintained. As a first step, create a list of all assets for which you are responsible if one doesn’t already exist. Capture key details about each asset such as:

• Manufacturer
• Name
• Internal asset code
• Description
• Location
• Make and/or model
• Serial number
• Acquisition date
• Current usage or age
• Current condition
• Original cost
• Criticality
• Last maintenance event
• Next maintenance event
• Other details as necessary

The asset list creates a point of reference for any preventive maintenance work completed on the asset, and should be updated throughout the asset’s life. Some organizations use spreadsheets to build the asset database, while others use specialized asset management software, like a computerized maintenance management system (CMMS).

Step 2: Identify Which Assets to Include in the Preventive Maintenance Program

With a full list of assets available, you must decide which ones are the best candidates for preventive maintenance. Not every asset benefits from preventive maintenance though – sometimes PM costs outweigh the cost to replace the asset. The PM program typically includes an organization’s critical assets, which can be identified in a few ways.

In most organizations, critical assets are well-known. Larger organizations with rigorous asset management practices identify critical assets through formal cost-benefit analyses, criticality analyses, or return-on-investment (ROI) calculations. Others use asset data stored in a CMMS or other system to identify assets with high downtime, high maintenance costs, or frequent repairs that would benefit most from preventive maintenance.

A less formal way of determining which assets to include in the PM program is to consider each asset and ask questions like:

• How important is this asset to production or to the success of the organization?
• How often is maintenance performed on this asset?
• Is this asset performing to specification?
• How much does it cost to repair this asset versus replace it?

The answers to these questions should make it clear whether preventive maintenance is required.

If you are starting to worry that you won’t have time to create a PM plan for each critical asset, relax. You don’t have to create a PM plan for every asset right from the get-go. Start with a subset of assets, like the one or two most critical assets from the list. Easing into a preventive maintenance program in this way gives you and your team time to adjust to a proactive mindset. You can always expand the program later.

Step 3: Identify Preventive Maintenance Tasks

Once you select the initial assets, you must define what preventive maintenance needs to be done to them. Knowing the scope of work to be done helps with scheduling and resource allocation. There are multiple sources of information from which to draw preventive maintenance information:

• Manufacturer recommendations, included in operation and maintenance manuals
• Maintenance history
• Operators, maintenance technicians, and regular asset users
• Previous preventive maintenance schedules, if available
• Recommendations of professional organizations such as:
  • Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
  • Instrument Society of America (ISA)
  • American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME)
• Preventive maintenance activities to meet compliance and regulatory requirements
• General familiarity with the assets or other cues, such as autumnal seasonal maintenance for facility maintenance

Be sure to determine the parts and materials, tools, skill level required, and best practices associated with each task. Safety considerations, such as lockout/tagout procedures, should also be included. A clear idea of the required resources helps you determine time estimates for each task.

Step 4: Determine Maintenance Frequency

With preventive maintenance, each asset needs to be serviced regularly. PM tasks follow time-based or usage-based intervals. Time-based PM tasks may occur daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, semi-annually, or annually. Usage-based frequencies can be based on runtime hours, mileage, units produced, or other runtime measurements. Refer to the resources mentioned in the previous step for information regarding a task’s frequency.

Step 5: Create the Preventive Maintenance Schedule

Now that you know what assets need to be maintained, how to maintain them, and how often they should be maintained, you can create a schedule. While you can use any system you like, it’s best to enter PM program data into a maintenance planning tool like a CMMS.

A CMMS makes it easy to enter task information, including frequencies and time estimates. Then, you can create PM work orders that include details such as the assets and parts, appropriate labor resources, priority, and due date. One major benefit of using a CMMS is the ability for the system to automatically alert the maintenance team when preventive maintenance is needed on a machine, reducing the chances of work being missed, lost, or ignored.

Step 6: Train Your Maintenance Team

A well-designed plan and maintenance management system alone cannot make your preventive maintenance program a success. The “real” work is done by frontline technicians, who must know how to execute the plan. Train technicians on how to perform tasks, as well as how to use the tools, instruments, and technology needed to capture and document information.

In addition, create policies around what to do when a PM task reveals an issue. For example, should technicians contact a supervisor, submit a service request, or create a corrective maintenance work order? Do workers have the freedom to resolve small issues as part of an inspection? Also consider a policy for what to do if a PM task isn’t completed.

Step 7: Monitor and Adjust

Your preventive maintenance plan will not be perfect the first time. That is why it is crucial that your team logs their maintenance activities and asset performance in a CMMS. Use this data to track preventive maintenance key performance indicators (KPIs) and generate maintenance reports that will help you optimize your plan.

An effective preventive maintenance program brings visibility to assets that require more attention and leads to scheduling changes. Don’t panic if, at first, maintenance costs go up. Preventive maintenance activities are likely to reveal hidden issues, especially on assets that have been neglected. Also, you may pay more now to avoid larger, more costly unplanned maintenance events in the future.

Also Read: 12 Tips for Improving Your Preventive Maintenance Plan

Step 8: Expand the Preventive Maintenance Program to Include More Assets

After preventive maintenance is off and running with your first set of assets, expand the program. Repeat the steps provided for each new asset until you cover all assets that will benefit from preventive maintenance.

Final Thoughts about Preventive Maintenance Programs

Creating a preventive maintenance program doesn’t happen overnight. It takes time, money, effort, and in some cases, a change in maintenance culture to transition from a reactive to a proactive mindset. However, once in place, the advantages of a CMMS-supported preventive maintenance program are well worth it.

CMMS software provides many benefits for preventive maintenance activities. The system allows you to create and maintain a list of your assets and related information, making it easy to identify critical assets. PM task functionality allows you to define the steps that make up a preventive maintenance procedure, including how often the task should be completed, how long the task takes, and who should perform it. Automatic work order generation and notification ensures that employees are aware of upcoming preventive maintenance work.

Read also: How to Implement a Proactive Maintenance Strategy

Create Your Preventive Maintenance Program with FTMaintenance

FTMaintenance is preventive maintenance software that provides all the functionality needed to build a robust, automated preventive maintenance program. It provides a single platform for tracking asset and MRO inventory data, generating PM task lists, and creating preventive maintenance work orders. FasTrak also offers consulting services that help organizations identify the best way to get a preventive maintenance program up and running. Request a demo today.

Maintenance teams are made up of multiple roles that contribute to high-quality asset maintenance. Frontline maintenance technicians are perhaps the most important of these roles, as they execute the maintenance work that ensures optimal uptime and reliability. Because of their importance to the organization, it is important that the maintenance team consists of highly skilled, experienced maintenance technicians. This article helps you identify what makes a good maintenance technician.

Maintenance Technician Responsibilities

Maintenance technicians have numerous responsibilities related to installing, troubleshooting, repairing, and maintaining production and facility assets. These responsibilities vary from one organization to the next. Typically, a maintenance technician’s duties and responsibilities include the following:

• Assisting in the installation of new equipment
• Responding to maintenance requests submitted by other departments, tenants, or facilities
• Responding to alerts and breakdown events
• Carrying out corrective maintenance (CM)
• Repairing or replacing broken parts and components
• Performing routine preventive maintenance (PM) work, including inspections, cleaning, lubrication, and testing
• Performing basic diagnostic tests to detect problems
• Investigating the root causes of equipment failure
• Disassembling and reassembling equipment
• Testing equipment and systems to determine whether repairs are successful
• Reading technical manuals and maintenance documentation
• Documenting maintenance work
• Updating computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) software

In larger organizations, the maintenance technician role is more specialized to a specific craft, area, or set of assets. For example, technicians may possess skills related to machining, plumbing, or HVAC. In smaller organizations, the maintenance technician role is more generalized. Technicians are expected to know a little bit about multiple types of systems, tools, devices, and maintenance processes.

Maintenance Technician Skills

Good maintenance technicians possess a range of hard and soft skills that make them successful.

Technical Knowledge

Perhaps the most important skill maintenance technicians can have is technical knowledge.

Good maintenance technicians have knowledge of hydraulic, pneumatic, mechanical, and electrical systems. An awareness of custodial, janitorial, and sanitation service is useful as well. Such knowledge allows technicians to develop a deep understanding of the assets they maintain and more easily tell when something is “off”.

Good maintenance technicians should also have basic knowledge of the hand tools, power tools, and other devices used to complete maintenance work.

Physical Ability

Maintenance work is physically demanding. Technicians must go wherever maintenance work is needed, whether on rooftops or in tiny spaces, or in extremely hot or cold conditions. Going to and from assets, technicians often lift or drag equipment, repeatedly climb up and down stairs or ladders, work in awkward positions, and carry heavy objects.

In addition to strength and endurance, good maintenance technicians also have finesse. They must be good with their hands, handle tools in a skillful way, and manipulate tools and instruments with precision.

Problem Solving

A maintenance technician’s job requires him to resolve complex problems, work with a sense of urgency, and consider many different variables. Good maintenance technicians are natural problem solvers and take a systematic approach to troubleshooting failures. Below is an example troubleshooting process one might follow:

1. Collect information based on direct observation, information reported by requesters, or documentation stored in a CMMS.
2. Consider the evidence and determine the most likely causes of failure first.
3. Implement a solution.
4. Test the solution. If the issue is not resolved, continue collecting data and repeat.
5. Verify that no new problems have been introduced as a result of the repair.

In emergency situations, technicians may need to install a short-term, stopgap solution.

Attention to Detail

Attention to detail goes hand in hand with other skills, such as technical knowledge and problem solving. Any maintenance professional knows that overlooking small issues leads to bigger problems down the road.  Detailed-oriented maintenance technicians can quickly spot abnormal conditions and performance.

Paying attention to minute details also comes in to play when dealing with safety and compliance issues. For example, overlooking a step in lockout/tagout procedures, hazard communication protocols, or asset reassembly can have life-threatening consequences. Good maintenance technicians ensure their work is compliant with OSHA maintenance standards and any other regulatory requirements.

Communication Skills

Verbal communication skills are necessary to help understand maintenance issues that are reported by phone or in person. To fully grasp the issue at hand, good maintenance technicians must ask the right questions in a way that both parties can understand. They may even provide the requester with clear instructions for resolving the issue. At times, maintenance technicians may also provide verbal status updates to requesters. It is important that requesters know what is going on.

Maintenance technicians rely on an assortment of maintenance documentation to inform repairs. To ensure efficient and high-quality results, technicians must be able to accurately read and comprehend user manuals, owner’s guides, schematics, and other maintenance documentation. Good maintenance technicians also create detailed, accurate maintenance records and update existing documentation when necessary.

Basic Computer Skills

In today’s world, it is essential that maintenance technicians have some degree of computer aptitude. Basic computer skills are required for day-to-day productivity, such as checking email and navigating supplier websites. Good maintenance technicians also need to be proficient in using the organization’s CMMS, whether it’s accessed from a desktop computer, tablet computer, or smartphone.

The Evolution of Maintenance Technician Qualifications

Like many roles, the expectations placed on maintenance technicians have evolved over time. Being a good maintenance technician today requires a wider range of skills than ever before.

For example, expectations of basic computing skills have increased with the prevalence of mobile devices in our daily lives. Whereas in years past technicians were tethered to a permanent workstation, mobile CMMS allows work orders and other maintenance documentation to be accessed within apps or via web browsers.

The digitization of assets has also changed the maintenance industry. Machines have become “smarter” and are able to self-report errors and malfunctions. Troubleshooting is commonly based on integrated computers that display fault codes.

To keep pace with changing maintenance demands, organizations place increased educational expectations on prospective candidates. Today, employers prefer that maintenance technicians have a Bachelor’s degree in a valid technical field or an Associate degree with two years of experience. They tend to favor technicians with an advanced diploma, specialized on-site training, extensive work experience, or multiple certifications.

Empower Your Maintenance Technicians with FTMaintenance Select

FTMaintenance Select is a powerful CMMS platform that empowers good maintenance technicians to perform their best. It provides an easy-to-use system for documenting, tracking, and managing maintenance work orders. Putting all maintenance data in one place, FTMaintenance Select makes it easy to access up-to-date, accurate maintenance data that leads to efficient, effective, and high-quality maintenance work. Schedule a demo today to take your maintenance team from good to great.

In many organizations, the word “audit” evokes feelings of annoyance, anxiety, and fear. In reality, audits are not as bad as they are made out to be. By understanding how maintenance audits work, you will see why maintenance audits are nothing to fear, especially if you are using computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) software.

What is a Maintenance Audit?

A maintenance audit is a systematic, comprehensive review of an organization’s maintenance processes and/or systems. It evaluates how well maintenance activities and their related results conform to set standards. Through a review of objective evidence, auditors determine whether maintenance procedures meet requirements, are effectively implemented, and are appropriate to reach desired outcomes.

Maintenance audits are usually conducted as a part of quality or health and safety audits. Quality audits verify an organization’s compliance to industry standard specifications or procedures. Health and safety audits determine whether a product is safe and whether the maintenance process has kept products from being contaminated or damaged.

The Importance of Maintenance Audits

Maintenance audits are an effective business tool. First, they provide a true picture of plant activities that allow the organization to set benchmarks for operations. This baseline data is compared to what should be done. If differences exist, the organization can implement solutions to address them.

Audits also protect an organization from liability. They are an integral part of a well-designed system to ensure end products are safe for consumers. Regulatory and compliance audits compare processes to industry standards. Safety audits help organizations reduce the risk of workplace injuries and health hazards.

A third reason maintenance audits matter is because they hold organizations accountable. Audits are usually conducted by third parties who understand the business or industry standards, and bring an outsider’s perspective to an organization’s operations. Their unbiased, objective approach ensures the integrity of the results.

Types of Maintenance Audits

There are several types of maintenance audits: mandatory, voluntary, and internal. Mandatory audits are required by law and carried out by governmental agencies that oversee an industry. Maintenance processes may be reviewed as a part of these audits. For example, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration audits the pharmaceuticals industry to ensure compliance with manufacturing processes according to their Current Good Manufacturing Practices (CGMP), Title 21 Parts 110, 111, and 211.

Voluntary audits are used to obtain certification that provides an organization with a competitive advantage. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 9001 certification, for example, demonstrates an organization’s commitment to being best in class and providing high quality products and services. Though this certification is voluntary, some organizations require that their business partners also attain certification. Safe Quality Foods (SQF) certification in the food and beverage industry is another example.

A third type of maintenance audit is an internal audit that is part of a continuous improvement plan. Organizations perform regular internal audits to ensure that their maintenance processes remain effective as maintenance operations change over time. Results of these audits are compared against internal company codes and policies, requirements of contractual commitments, and other key performance indicators.

What Happens During a Maintenance Audit?

No matter what format the audit takes, auditors check how well your standard operating procedures (SOPs) adhere to established best practices. They look for evidence that you: 1) say what you do, 2) do what you say, and 3) can prove it. Auditors verify your compliance through fieldwork in the form of observation of maintenance processes, employee interviews, and a review of the documentation system or CMMS.

What Do Auditors Examine?

Maintenance audits cover a wide swath of maintenance functions. According to Manufacturing.net, maintenance audits are broken down into several categories:

• • Maintenance organization
  • Maintenance practices
  • Equipment maintenance
  • Safety
  • Planning and scheduling
  • 5S
  • Cooperative maintenance
  •  Training
  • Document management
  • Maintenance inventory and purchasing

How Often Do Audits Occur?

Whether an organization is audited at all depends on the industry in which the organization operates. Generally, most maintenance audits are conducted in manufacturing or regulated maintenance services, such as airline maintenance. The frequency of audits depends on the auditing agency.

Audits may be scheduled or come as a surprise. For example, the FDA performs both announced and surprise audits. Audits may become more frequent if there have been past shortcomings or failures. Internal audits are conducted at the discretion of the organization and their quality team. In extreme circumstances, audits may be called for as part of an investigation following workplace injuries or when products cause unintentional harm to consumers.

How to Pass a Maintenance Audit

Maintenance audits aren’t something to fear. After all, millions of companies pass audits every year, so there is no reason to stress. Organizations that use a CMMS find that much of what auditors want is readily available.

Furthermore, maintenance audits are actually a good thing. They ensure that the organization is providing safe and effective products and services. Complying with regulations or achieving a certification informs the public that the organization is committed to high-quality standards. Ultimately, these benefits make your organization’s products more attractive and profitable.

Follow the steps below to make your next audit quick and painless.

Read more about how a CMMS prepares you for compliance audits

1. Implement a CMMS

Having a CMMS is a huge advantage when it comes to providing the documentation required by audits. The most important piece of documentation is the work order which tracks maintenance activities from start to finish.

During creation, standard operating procedures are communicated to technicians in the form of tasks. The work order’s task list provides step-by-step instructions for completing the job. When work is executed, technicians can mark tasks as complete, as well as document other information such as how much time was spent and what parts were used. Closed work orders create a history that shows work was completed according to the assigned procedure.

If you do not currently own a CMMS, now is the time to consider getting one. You will need time to identify and purchase a system, train users, and integrate the CMMS into daily maintenance operations. We have created a definitive guide that walks you through the process of CMMS acquisition and implementation.

2. Prepare Your CMMS

Your CMMS must demonstrate and reinforce your maintenance process. In preparation for an audit, make sure that procedures are up-to-date and inclusive of all operations, such as lockout-tagouts and any procedure that proves compliance with quality or health and safety issues.

Further, check that all maintenance work is documented in the system. Basically, if it isn’t documented, it didn’t happen. This includes updating work orders with all tasks that have been performed and marking those tasks as complete.

Some systems include features that automatically track user activity, providing further proof of what was done and who did it. If your organization uses a work order approval process, make sure it is recorded and that employees can find that documentation.

3. Prepare Your Team

As mentioned earlier, maintenance audits involve interviews with employees to make sure that they know how to do their jobs. Therefore, you must prep your team for these interactions.

Coach your team to answer auditors carefully and have them refer to SOPs if needed. This can be as easy as instructing technicians to say, “I do what the work order tells me.” If the auditor requires proof that procedures have been followed, technicians can simply pull up the work order history in the CMMS.

Auditors also verify that employees are properly trained. Expect auditors to ask employees to demonstrate how they use the CMMS to view asset records, access maintenance documentation, and complete work orders.

4. Tidy Up

Audit preparation is the perfect time to make sure everything is in order. That includes ensuring the physical facility is clean, organized, and presentable.

Areas used by the maintenance team, such as offices, repair areas, and inventory storage locations should be neat and well organized. Facilities should be reasonably clean and free of clutter. Address any other safety or housekeeping issues as well.

Fear Not!

By now, you can see why maintenance audits are nothing to fear. Let’s return to an auditor’s criteria to see how a CMMS fits in:

• Say what you do: Document your standard operating procedures and other maintenance policies in the CMMS.
• Do what you say: Train users how to use the CMMS effectively. Ensure that users check off their tasks and record their work. Remember, if it isn’t documented, it didn’t happen.
• Prove it: Close work orders to create a maintenance history.

When it comes down to it, organizations that consistently use a CMMS have an easier time passing maintenance audits.

Prepare for Your Next Audit with FTMaintenance

FTMaintenance is a CMMS that provides a single platform for documenting, tracking, and managing maintenance activities. It allows you to digitally track information about your assets, MRO inventory, work orders, and labor resources in a centralized location. When audits occur, information stored in FTMaintenance is readily available. Request a demo today to see how FTMaintenance can help you pass your next maintenance audit.

Assets are essential to the valuation and operation of a business. Understanding how assets contribute to (or detract from) the bottom line helps organizations make strategic business decisions.

The maintenance team plays an important role in preserving and protecting the assets that enable the business to succeed. This article provides an overview of assets and the role maintenance plays in managing assets that promote positive business growth and performance.

Learn more about maintenance management.

What is an Asset?

In financial accounting, an asset is a resource with economic value that is bought or created to provide value or benefits to an organization. Maintenance management is responsible for what are called tangible assets.

Tangible assets are assets that can be physically touched, such as buildings, machines, and furniture. They are also called “fixed” assets because, in addition to being physical items, they are long-lasting and not consumed in the normal order of business, making them permanent fixtures of the business.

The assets serviced by maintenance are referred to as “property, plant, and equipment” or PP&E. Property refers to land and buildings. Plant describes places in which goods are manufactured. Equipment includes the apparatuses used to produce goods or deliver services. The following section contains examples of these types of assets.

PP&E assets fall under the scope of maintenance management because they must typically be maintained and are, with the exception of land, regularly repaired or replaced. For example, an organization might repair a leaky roof or replace a worn-out conveyor system.

Types of Assets

There are several types of assets that can be categorized as fixed assets. Depending on the industry or organization, maintenance teams are responsible for servicing one or more of the following types of assets.

Land

As an asset, land is an owned, bounded piece of earth. Land includes the animal and plant life, bodies of water, minerals, and other natural resources on it.

Unlike other types of assets, land is considered to have unlimited use and doesn’t require the same type of maintenance as other assets. Maintenance performed on land assets are usually related to cosmetic or environmental concerns. For example, mowing the lawn improves the appearance of land. Landscaping or grading mitigates water drainage issues.

Buildings, Facilities, and Properties

Buildings and facilities include any permanent structure that is part of a business. This ranges from standalone office buildings to manufacturing plants comprised of many buildings. Building and facility assets also include structures like parking lots, garages, pavilions, and so on.

Property is considered land and/or any buildings on it. For example, corporate farms maintain land that does not contain buildings. On the other hand, apartment complexes and college campuses are also examples of property.

Furniture

Furniture generally refers to items used to support human activity. It is movable, meaning it does not have a permanent connection to the building or structure. Examples of furniture include bookshelves, desks, and storage racks.

Fixtures

Fixtures are assets that are physically attached to a property that cannot be removed without causing damage. Lighting, HVAC systems, toilets, and sinks are examples of fixtures.

Equipment and Machinery

This wide-ranging category includes any implements used in business operations. Equipment and machinery assets vary depending on the industry. For example, a manufacturer’s machinery assets may include lathes, presses, and conveyor systems. Facility equipment includes elevators, pumps, cleaning apparatuses, and lab equipment. Service providers use vehicles and specialized tools, which may be considered equipment or machinery assets.

Tools

Tools include items such as manual or powered drivers, saws, and hammers that make tasks easier. Many tools are simply replaced when they break, while expensive or specialized ones might be repaired. Tools are not to be confused with tooling, which are accessories mounted to a machine to make a specific item.

Vehicles

Vehicles transport people, products, materials, and equipment. Company vans, semi-trailer trucks, airplanes, and forklifts may be considered vehicle assets.

Why Do Assets Matter?

People generally get into business to make money; assets enable companies to do so. Companies purchase (or lease) assets at a cost and use them to produce goods or services which, in turn, generate revenue.

Assets are also an indication of a company’s value. Organizations that are earning money continue to grow through the addition of new assets or by optimizing the use of existing assets. A thriving business is an attractive opportunity to investors who may further inject funds into the business to help it grow.

How does maintenance management impact assets? The maintenance team is tasked with maintaining a company’s assets. To do so, the maintenance team must have sufficient information about assets available, such as their location and condition. Using this knowledge, maintenance teams create care plans that ensure assets are kept in optimal working condition.

Asset Management

An organization’s well-being is directly tied to its assets. Therefore, it is essential that organizations understand how much assets cost to purchase and maintain, their condition, and whether they are still working. Based on this information, organizations make decisions about their assets with the end goal of reducing costs and increasing revenue.

Asset management is the process of maximizing the value an asset provides in the most cost-effective manner. Asset management goes beyond just counting assets. It includes capturing data about an asset’s identity, location, specification, condition, maintenance, and cost.

Why is asset management important? Companies use asset data to evaluate whether assets provide value or are a net liability. The better a company manages its assets, the greater return they will receive from their investments. Below are a few ways businesses use data to manage assets.

Asset Tracking

Asset tracking is the process of documenting an organization’s assets. It involves recording information about each asset such as its name, serial number, manufacturer, cost, assigned owner, and other important information.

Asset tracking provides you with a vision of your assets. The process of documenting assets helps you identify the scope of assets you own and may even reveal assets that you either forgot about or never knew you had. Recording location data keeps assets secure by tracking their movement and preventing theft.

During documentation, assets are named according to an asset naming convention. They are given unique alphanumeric names along with brief descriptions. Identifying assets in this way ensures the same asset is not counted twice and that maintenance activities can be linked to a specific asset. This is especially useful when many similar assets exist.

Assets are also tracked via tags physically affixed to the physical asset. Asset tags typically include barcodes or QR codes. Using specialized software, asset tags can be scanned to provide real-time information to the maintenance team. Tags that incorporate Global Positioning System (GPS), Radio-frequency Identification (RFID), and Near Field Communication (NFC) technologies broadcast an asset’s location.

Asset Maintenance

Having comprehensive asset data allows the maintenance team to create appropriate care plans for a company’s assets. Factors such as current condition, criticality, maintenance history, and risk of failure help determine which maintenance strategy is used. Other factors, like downtime, meter readings, part availability, and cost to repair also determine what tasks are performed.

Maintenance strategies are either reactive or proactive in nature. With a reactive strategy, maintenance is performed after a failure has occurred. Proactive maintenance addresses the underlying conditions that lead to failure so that breakdowns can be avoided. For more information on maintenance strategies, read our article about the various types of maintenance.

Asset Depreciation

Depreciation is an accounting convention that allows organizations to more accurately spread out the cost of an asset over its useful life. The useful life is based on information provided by the manufacturer, assigned by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), or approximated by a user.

Tracking depreciation allows the company to track how much assets are worth based on their expected useable life. In reality, an asset’s useable life is longer than what is typically accounted for via depreciation. This allows the company to generate income after the asset has been taken off the books.

Proper maintenance further extends an asset’s useful life. Maintenance management uses asset data to evaluate an asset’s condition and create an appropriate maintenance plan. Using computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) software, maintenance teams can efficiently plan and schedule maintenance activities.

Repair vs. Replace Decisions

Repair vs. replace decisions take into account an asset’s current value, useable life, and repair and replacement costs. Assets generally degrade over time. New assets are more valuable because they have been used less. Older equipment has less value due to extended wear and tear. When assets fail, organizations evaluate whether repairing or replacing the asset is more beneficial and cost effective.

The maintenance team identifies assets that are candidates for replacement. They may alert management of costly repairs and when maintenance costs on a particular asset are steadily rising. Based on the asset’s maintenance history, expected vs. actual usable life, and other asset data, the maintenance team makes a case for replacement or repair.

Further Reading: Asset Management KPIs

Asset Management Software

Manually documented asset data is prone to errors and inaccuracies. Assets are likely to be misidentified, creating duplicates or “ghost” assets that are documented but don’t truly exist. In addition, it takes too much time for employees to sift through asset data by hand.

To resolve these issues, organizations use computer software to track asset data. Spreadsheet software, such as Microsoft Excel, is a popular solution, but lacks the capabilities of dedicated asset management software. Ideally, asset data is documented in a CMMS or enterprise asset management (EAM) software.

CMMS software is specialized for maintenance management while EAM solutions can be used to monitor assets throughout their entire lifecycle. However, the lines between CMMS vs. EAM are becoming fuzzier.

Manage Assets with FTMaintenance

FTMaintenance is a CMMS solution that allows you to easily store, manage, and report on your company’s equipment and facility assets. Providing robust asset tracking and work order management features, FTMaintenance allows you to identify, monitor, and track asset maintenance. Request a demo today to see how FTMaintenance makes it easy to manage your assets.

In industrial environments, critical asset information is often scattered across multiple locations, stored in different systems, and saved in various formats. When maintenance teams lack access to accurate equipment information, it can delay repairs, lead to incorrect part orders, and increase costly downtime.

An equipment bill of materials (EBOM) plays a key role in supporting effective asset management and maintenance. In this article, we provide an overview of equipment bills of materials and how they impact maintenance operations.

What is an Equipment Bill of Materials (EBOM)?

An equipment bill of materials (EBOM) is a list of all components, subassemblies, and materials used to manufacture or assemble a piece of equipment. It reflects the actual configuration of a physical, installed asset, and serves as the technical reference throughout the equipment’s lifecycle.

EBOMs are typically created by the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) or engineering team, and delivered to customers when the equipment is installed. Once installed, it is used by the organization’s engineering, reliability, and asset management teams to support asset lifecycle tracking, root cause analysis (RCA), maintenance management, and MRO (maintenance, repair, and operations) inventory management.

EBOM vs. Maintenance Bill of Materials

Many sources blur the line between an equipment bill of materials and a maintenance bill of materials, though they have different purposes and stakeholders.

An EBOM details out the full design of the equipment, while a maintenance-focused BOM is scoped to day-to-day maintenance activities. Though based on an EBOM, it includes only items that may need to be repaired or replaced, essentially making it the equipment’s spare parts list.

This version may also contain practical, relevant details such as quantity used, storage location, equivalent alternatives, and reorder information. With this narrowed focus, maintenance teams can more easily track, stock, and manage the parts necessary to keep equipment up and running.

How an EBOM Supports Maintenance Operations

An equipment bill of materials plays a vital role in day-to-day maintenance operations. Many maintenance stakeholders either directly or indirectly use the EBOM to inform asset management, inventory decisions, maintenance planning, and troubleshooting. The table below highlights how various stakeholders use the EBOM, or information derived from it, to support maintenance activities.

EBOM Structure

Depending on the level of detail required, an equipment bill of materials may take many forms. Typically, EBOMs follow either a single-level or indented multi-level structure.

Single-level EBOM

A single-level EBOM simply lists all the components, subassemblies, and spare parts used in the equipment, typically showing each part only once along with the total quantity included in the design. It provides a flat, straightforward list without showing hierarchical relationships.

Multi-level EBOM

A multi-level EBOM illustrates the hierarchical structure of equipment by showing assemblies, subassemblies, and individual components in a parent-child relationship. This relationship is often visualized through indentation or levels, showing which parts “belong to” or are organized under others. In this format, parts may appear multiple times if they are used under different parent structures.

EBOM Maintenance

Equipment bills of materials are not “set and forget.” There are a number of events that require EBOMs to be updated:

• Decommissioning and retirement: When assets are taken out of use and/or dismantled, an accurate EBOM identifies which parts are unique and can be sold or scrapped. Parts used elsewhere can be put back into inventory.
• Design changes: Assets that have been redesigned, refurbished, or otherwise modified may use new and different components. These items should be included in the EBOM, along with any alternatives.
• Part substitution: Due to availability issues, there exists a need to identify alternative parts that are viable substitutes. The EBOM or part record in the CMMS can show this relationship.
• Part standardization: To streamline inventory procurement and purchasing, parts may be standardized across similar assets or across plants. Amend the EBOM to show these changes, including effective start and end dates of new parts.
• EBOM review: EBOMs may go through informal or formal review throughout their lifetime. Informal reviews may happen as EBOMs are being used by those with specific knowledge about the asset. More formal reviews may be performed periodically by key maintenance stakeholders.

A well-maintained EBOM tracks changes to a piece of equipment’s design throughout its lifetime, helping maintenance teams stay informed about new inventory needs, avoid using obsolete parts, and perform repairs more accurately and efficiently.

Maintenance teams, while not directly responsible for managing the EBOMs, provide insights from hands-on experience that help keep the EBOM accurate and relevant. They help keep EBOMs up-to-date by providing feedback on part performance, substitutions, and conditions observed during maintenance activities. This communication helps support continuous improvement in asset management.

EBOMs and CMMS Software

Equipment bills of materials contain detailed technical information about assets and their components. Maintenance teams greatly benefit from using EBOM data within their computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) software. Through a CMMS, maintenance teams can harness EBOM data to:

• Associate spare parts to specific assets, ensuring proper part selection.
• Create maintenance BOMs that track repairable and replaceable parts and components.
• Support better inventory management by linking parts with location and vendor information.
• Improve repair efficiency by providing technicians with reference documentation to help them visualize equipment structure and component relationships.
• Analyze part usage and failure trends to improve preventive maintenance planning, procurement, and purchasing activity.
• Enhance inventory accuracy and reordering by identifying obsolete parts, suitable alternatives, and economic order quantities.

By leveraging EBOM information in a CMMS, maintenance teams can make more informed maintenance decisions, reduce unnecessary downtime, and better manage MRO inventory throughout the asset lifecycle.

Leverage Your Asset Data with FTMaintenance Select

EBOMs provide maintenance teams with a wealth of technical data for planning, managing, and executing maintenance activities. FTMaintenance Select CMMS allows you to use EBOM information alongside work orders, preventive maintenance tasks, inventory data, and more within one centralized system. Bringing this information together helps your team make informed decisions, improve efficiency, and strengthen your asset management practices. Request a demo of FTMaintenance Select today to see how you can make the most of your equipment data.

Even though a bill of materials (BOM) makes maintenance operations more efficient and effective, many maintenance teams go without one. Often times, the absence of a BOM comes down to a lack of time, money, patience, expertise, or personnel available to build it.

To compensate, technicians, planners, and other stakeholders must find workaround solutions to complete routine tasks. This leaves organizations with a big decision to make: Should the organization invest the time needed to build a bill of materials for each of their assets or continue to deal with the consequences of poor spare part and asset management?

When you consider the impact of a bill of materials on asset reliability, the advantages are clear. Quicker maintenance and repair times, fewer errors, and simplified parts reordering reduce production downtime and other maintenance costs. Therefore, we strongly recommend that organizations that have no or incomplete BOMs create and/or update them.

This article is intended to help organizations create a bill of materials for maintenance purposes. Organizations engaged in enterprise asset management may require a more comprehensive bill of materials that meets the needs of stakeholders outside of the maintenance department. For details, read our article about how to create an equipment bill of materials (EBOM).

What is a Maintenance Bill of Materials?

Within your organization, there may be a number of bills of materials (BOMs) that serve different purposes and stakeholders, such as engineering, asset management, manufacturing, and materials management. Each of these contains varying levels of details, depending on who will use the information and how it will be used.

Typically, a maintenance bill of materials lists the replacement parts and/or materials that comprise an asset, such as a piece of equipment. These items must be repaired or replaced to keep the asset in working order. In this article, we will refer to this type of bill of materials as a bill of materials or maintenance bill of materials interchangeably.

How to Create a Maintenance Bill of Materials

Compared to other bills of materials, creating a maintenance BOM is quite easy due to its simplicity. For example, an engineering bill of materials may be a comprehensive list of any and all parts and materials that make up an asset, along with other information relevant to other stakeholders. Sifting through this level of detail would surely bog down the maintenance team’s productivity.

In contrast, maintenance BOMs are less formal. Maintenance BOMs can be created according to the following procedure.

1. Consider What Tool Will be Used to Create the BOM

Before you create your maintenance BOM, consider the best way to document the information. Using paper and pencil is not an efficient solution, as handwritten information is not easily edited and will likely need to be entered into an electronic system anyway. Like any other physical documentation, hard copies are prone to get lost.

Spreadsheet programs such as Microsoft Excel are popular and great for simple data collection and organization. However, spreadsheet software has limitations in terms of automation and ease of use. Though the tool is digital, many updates must be made manually, and it takes someone computer-savvy to set up special formatting, equations, and styling. Additionally, information stored in spreadsheets quickly becomes outdated if not consistently updated.

We recommend that you build your bill of materials in a computerized maintenance management system (CMMS). Many CMMS solutions automatically build a BOM when parts are issued against work orders. Automatically generated BOMs provide a base set of information about each part, taking away some of the guesswork and decision–making about what data to include.

As you will see throughout the rest of this process, although not required, a CMMS will provide many advantages as you create your BOM. Whichever program you decide to use, it must be used consistently to reap the full benefits.

2. Decide What Items to Include on the BOM

The needs of the maintenance process determine what items to include on the maintenance BOM. As mentioned earlier, maintenance BOMs often list only a subset of an asset’s parts. This should include all the critical components, asset-specific materials, and components that will reasonably be repaired and/or replaced.

Consumables, such as towels, gloves, and safety equipment, are usually omitted from the BOM, as they are not a part of the asset itself. Even though these items are used to complete maintenance tasks, this information is usually communicated on a work order instead.

Ultimately, a maintenance engineer, maintenance manager, or other relevant employee should determine what types of items are valuable to include on the maintenance BOM.

3. Decide What Data to Include on the BOM

There is a delicate balance between providing enough information to be useful, and providing so much detail that end users cannot find what they need. At a minimum, the maintenance BOM should identify the part or component being used. This usually includes the part’s number and name. Part quantities and usage data are also common data points.

What data is ultimately incorporated will be up to your organization to decide. Based on the system being used to create the BOM, more or less detail may be included.

Manual or spreadsheet-based systems allow you to track an unlimited amount of information. However, too much detail is often included, making BOM creation and updates a burden. For maintenance BOMs, it is often the case that less is more.

CMMS software offer a base set of data fields, which can often be expanded or reduced through configuration or customization. For the most part, the default fields provide enough information for maintenance purposes.

4. Collect Asset Data

Unfortunately, many organizations struggle with their data tracking practices. Valuable maintenance data is often scattered across several locations, and in various electronic and hard copy formats. Luckily, data about what parts are used on an asset can be obtained from multiple sources including:

• Drawings, schematics, and catalogs
• Equipment suppliers and other vendors
• Similar assets and equipment
• Engineering change notices and redesign documentation
• Current or planned preventive maintenance (PM) work orders
• Previous unplanned work orders
• Work order history records
• Personal inventory lists and cheat sheets
• Equipment nameplates
• Physical asset inspections
• Veteran employees and other experienced “go to” workers

Collecting data will be easiest for new assets. Original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) provide comprehensive documentation along with new assets, including an extensive list of spare parts. Data for existing assets can be obtained from one or more of the sources listed above.

During data collection, it is most common to store data in a spreadsheet. Information can easily be transferred into a CMMS when needed. As an added bonus, digital maintenance documentation can be uploaded to the CMMS for easy reference.

5. Review Asset Data

As you collect data, you’re bound to encounter information that is conflicting, out of date, or obsolete. If you encounter discrepancies, cross-check between multiple sources to ensure the most up-to-date information is used. It is imperative that the data you have is accurate. Inaccuracies or working from old information leads to a number of issues. For example, if the wrong part is listed, the correct part will need to be located or ordered. This may result in unnecessary downtime caused by tracking down parts or avoidable emergency shipping charges if a new part must be ordered.

Learn more about MRO inventory management.

6. Enter Data in the CMMS

After gathering all required information, enter part data into the system where the maintenance BOM will exist. If using a spreadsheet, this step will already be complete. If using a CMMS to build the BOM, data entry should be performed by someone proficient with the system that can enter data into required fields.

Once part data is loaded into the system, it must be linked to its specific asset. This is difficult in a spreadsheet; use a CMMS instead. As previously mentioned, many CMMS solutions automatically build BOMs when parts are issued against assets on a work order. Otherwise, you may build BOMs manually.

One advantage of using a CMMS to create your maintenance bill of materials is the ability to view BOMs from a part- or asset-centric view. From an asset record, you can see all the parts included on the BOM. In most cases, the CMMS part record has a “where used” tool, listing all the assets on which that part has been used or assigned.

Read Also: CMMS Data Transfer Best Practices

Maintaining the Bill of Materials

As much as one would prefer them to be, maintenance bills of materials are not “set and forget.” BOM data changes over time, and if changes are not made to an asset’s bill of materials, the wrong parts will be listed. Some reasons BOMs require modification are as follows:

• A supplier provides a new and improved version of a part
• Older parts become obsolete and an alternative is required
• A vendor changes its part catalog name and/or number
• Changes or modifications to an asset’s design require new and different components
• Parts become standardized across similar assets or across plants
• Similar parts are ordered from a new supplier

Managing and tracking changes is a challenge when done in a spreadsheet or other manual system. A CMMS makes maintaining the bill of materials easy. Changes made in a CMMS are only required once and reflected throughout the program. Your team benefits by always using the most-up-to-date information.

Manage Parts with FTMaintenance

FTMaintenance is a CMMS solution that allows you to track maintenance assets and MRO inventory. It offers automated features that allow you to quickly and easily build and manage bills of materials. Along with other powerful CMMS features, FTMaintenance is an all-in-one platform for documenting, managing, and tracking maintenance activities. Schedule a demo of FTMaintenance today.

Work order management is a core function of maintenance management. A successful work order management process depends on how efficiently work orders progress through each stage of their lifecycle. Maintenance professionals use one of many work order management systems today, each with their own benefits and drawbacks.

This article provides an overview of the pros and cons of several common work order management systems in order to help you make the best decision for your organization.

No Work Order Management System

As surprising as it sounds, some organizations do not have a formal work order management system in place. This is typical of small organizations that operate in a completely reactive mode. Depending on the makeup of the maintenance team, veteran technicians determine what maintenance is needed based on their practical knowledge, experience, or “gut feeling.” Employees rely on their memory to know when maintenance is due.

Having no work order management system has no benefits other than cost. Unless maintenance staff has superb memory skills, having any type of organized system is better than having none at all. Without a work order management system, maintenance operations are thrown into chaos. Not only does no one know what work needs to be done and when, it is difficult to hold people accountable. Because of these factors, maintenance costs are high and no useful information is documented to help improve operations.

Paper Work Order Management System

Though using a paper-based work order management system seems outdated, it still thrives in today’s industrial environments. Paper work order management includes communication about maintenance work using non-computerized methods such as paper and pen, sticky notes, bulletin boards, and maintenance tags.

Paper-based work order management has existed seemingly as long as pen and paper has been used. Before computers, many businesses were run on paper-based systems. Their ease of use and familiarity are a large reason why so many organizations still use them today. In fact, operations in many organizations largely rely on printed documentation generated by computerized systems, such as work orders or invoices.

The primary advantage of paper work order management systems is that paper work orders are very portable. Technicians can fold paper work orders, tuck them into a pocket, put them in a folder, or attach them to a clipboard. Paper work orders can also be taken into harsh environments or areas with no internet connection, places where electronic devices may get damaged or become useless. It is also easier for technicians to grip a writing implement with gloves on than to type on a mobile device.

Due to its simplicity, paper-based work order management systems are very limited. Paper work orders are easily misfield, lost, or damaged. It can also be time-consuming to locate, retrieve, and organize them, leading to slower response times. Even if there are only minutes of time wasted, lost maintenance time adds up over time.

In terms of communicating maintenance information, paper work orders are prone to errors. Poor penmanship, misspellings, and misnumberings cause inaccuracies that indirectly impact other aspects of maintenance operations like accurate inventory tracking.

Finally, filing paper work orders requires storage space, which quickly runs out when hundreds of work orders are being processed regularly.

Email Work Order Management System

Another common method of managing work orders is to use email software. Organizations most commonly use Microsoft Outlook, as it comes preinstalled with a Windows operating system. Google’s Gmail is another popular option.

Like paper, email is familiar to everyone, whether used in their business or personal life. Email-based work order management digitizes work orders, making them easier and faster to distribute to employees. Maintenance managers may also attach computer files to emails to provide extra context to work orders. Technicians that desire a hard copy version of a work order have the ability to print them, attachments included.

A big advantage of email systems over others discussed so far is built-in scheduling capability. Organizations use calendar appointments to assign and schedule work orders at a specific date and time. Automatic notifications remind technicians of upcoming appointments.

Email-based work order management is not without its limitations. For one, emails require manual data entry in order to create and update work orders. One person is responsible for generating work orders from scratch, by copying and pasting from previous emails, or through managing templates in the form of email drafts.

Email communication presents additional difficulties. Emails sent to a single person cannot be seen by others; emails sent to groups provide more transparency but can lead to multiple responses for the same job and muddied conversations.

Finally, email software does not provide transparency between users. Technicians do not have access to an asset’s service history unless they have previously performed the work. Even so, workers do not have access to work that others have performed.

Recommended Reading: 10 Reasons to Use CMMS over Email

Spreadsheet Work Order Management System

The next level of functionality is the use of spreadsheet software as a work order management system. Spreadsheets are still used by many maintenance departments today. Microsoft Excel is the most commonly used spreadsheet software, as it is part of the Windows operating system on which most businesses run.

Spreadsheets are a popular way to manage work orders due to their ability to organize information through the use of tabs, columns, and rows. Files contain defined spaces to hold specific information, making it easy for users to know exactly where to find or enter information about maintenance activities. Formatting options like text styles and background colors can draw attention to important information.

Savvy users can use formulas, data validation, and other data management features to provide some level of automation. For example, a field can be set up to automatically calculate labor cost by multiplying labor hours by an employee’s hourly rate. Spreadsheet software also generates basic charts, graphs, and reports.

Despite their advantages, spreadsheets create a shaky foundation for work order history. Spreadsheets require some computer know-how to enter and update data. A non-savvy user could easily mess up columns, rows, and formulas without knowing how to fix it. Data entry in spreadsheets is still very manual and cumbersome.

Another disadvantage of spreadsheets has to do with file access. Some files are locked into a single computer, making it difficult for others to access and see up-to-date maintenance information. Even if files are widely available, only one user can open the file at one time. More worrisome is that users may inadvertently delete or move the file, risking the loss of maintenance data.

Perhaps the biggest drawback of a spreadsheet-based work order management system is the lack of automated work order generation, particularly as it applies to preventive maintenance. Spreadsheet software does not have the ability to automatically generate work order forms based on a schedule. Therefore, work order creation, assignment, scheduling, and distribution remains a very manual process.

In-house Work Order Management System

Organizations that recognize the downfalls of the previous systems mentioned can create their own in-house, “homegrown” work order management systems using database software such as Microsoft Access.

The biggest advantage of a homegrown work order management system is customization. While off-the-shelf work order management software products must be design to appeal to many businesses with many different processes, a homegrown system is tailored to the way you work. Depending on the IT resources available, the potential benefit of homegrown systems is virtually endless.

All that being said, developing a work order management system requires a large time and IT investment. Organizations must be able to: create the database, build the software client, install it on servers, host the data, protect and safeguard the code, understand the organization’s maintenance management needs, upgrade hardware and software to support the system, and continually ensure the integrity of the system. Many small to medium sized-businesses simply do not have the manpower to create a work order management system in house.

Adding to the statements above, many homegrown systems are built without the end user experience in mind. The result is that users often find the system too cumbersome to use and inevitably either abandon it or reluctantly accept that more time and effort needs to be devoted to data entry.

Work Order Management Software

As its name suggests, work order management software is specifically designed for managing maintenance work orders. Because proper work order management relies on information about other maintenance resources, work order management functionality is a central part of computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) software.

CMMS software is the most complete work order management system. The benefits of automated work order software can be felt throughout the entire work order management process.

First, it provides requesters with a channel for requesting maintenance assistance. The system notifies administrators of incoming requests, allowing them to review and approve them. Based on the urgency of requests and other maintenance work, the CMMS makes it easy for administrators to prioritize, assign, and schedule work orders.

The CMMS automatically notifies technicians about assigned maintenance work and distributes it electronically, ensuring that work orders don’t get lost. Technicians are able to use an internet-connected device to update work order details and close out work orders once they are complete. A work order list provides technicians with visibility of “open” work orders.

Finally, a CMMS automatically tracks and stores data collected through work orders so that it is available for analysis. Maintenance reports allow organizations to track work order key performance indicators (KPIs), identify trends in productivity and asset downtime, and adjust maintenance plans accordingly.

One of the primary concerns with work order management software is the cost of software and training. On the plus side, many vendors offer subscription licenses to reduce the upfront costs of getting started. To put things further in perspective, the long-term benefits of CMMS software in terms of cost- and time-saving more than make up for the cost of software. For example, consider how much money is saved by reducing asset downtime, even if only by a few hours per year.

Another potential issue is the need to gain employee buy-in. A CMMS represents a new way of doing things, and it is possible that you may face some resistance to the idea of doing things differently. Our article, How to Increase CMMS User Adoption, provides an overview of user adoption challenges and provides some tips on how to deal with reluctant employees.

Manage Work Orders with FTMaintenance

Choosing the right work order management system is an important decision with many factors to consider. It is clear that a CMMS, like FTMaintenance, is the superior choice when it comes to managing maintenance work orders. However, FTMaintenance is more than a simple work order management system. Our full suite of features provides functionality that makes it easy to track assets, MRO inventory, work requests, preventive maintenance, and more. To learn more about FTMaintenance, request a demo today.

Maintenance storeroom organization greatly influences maintenance operations and the organization’s bottom line. However, maintenance storerooms are commonly disorganized, cluttered, and neglected, creating numerous inefficiencies that drive up MRO inventory costs. Though organizing your maintenance storeroom may be a long process, the benefits of improved asset reliability and productivity are well worth the effort.

Why Maintenance Storeroom Organization Matters

The organization of your maintenance storeroom greatly impacts the productivity of the maintenance team. According to a study conducted by Emerson Reliability Consulting, technicians spend 10% to 25% of their time obtaining parts. Instead of performing maintenance work, maintenance staff is spending up to a quarter of their day trying to identify and locate spare parts! Meanwhile, the organization unnecessarily loses money from lost production, extended asset downtime, and emergency inventory purchases.

An organized maintenance storeroom provides several benefits. First, it allows maintenance staff to get in and out of the storeroom quickly because everything is in its place and is easily found. This shortens the amount of time it takes for technicians to respond to unplanned maintenance events, reducing downtime.

Better part location also reduces the need for workers to create their own “private” inventories in personal toolboxes. As a result, inventory counts become more accurate, reducing duplicate orders for parts that are in stock but cannot be found when needed.

Reduced inventory levels not only mean less inventory spend, but also that less space is needed for storage. Combined with improved storage solutions, more free space is available in the facility for additional production equipment, kitting, or other workspace.

Maintenance storeroom organizations also impacts inventory control. When storeroom clerks are able to plainly see what items are in stock and how much is on hand, they can make better decisions regarding the timing of orders, order frequency, order size, lead time, and available storage space.

Finally, better storeroom organization means that MRO items will be stored properly, protecting them from degradation caused by humidity, temperature, dust, and other environmental factors.

How to Organize Your Maintenance Storeroom

The most tried and true approach to maintenance storeroom organization is 5S, developed as part of lean manufacturing. The philosophy behind 5S is that good results cannot be achieved until a workplace is in a clean and organized state. It is estimated that the effective implementation of 5S improves maintenance efficiency by 10% – 30%. Therefore, this discussion will approach maintenance storeroom organization through the lens of 5S. For those unfamiliar with the concept of 5S, each S is defined below:

• Sort: Examine a set of items and remove those that are unnecessary or unwanted.
• Straighten / Set in Order: Determine a logical way to arrange items.
• Shine: Keep workspaces clean and well-maintained.
• Standardize: Systematize the previous steps and create standard operating procedures that make these activities routine.
• Sustain: Make 5S a part of the company’s culture.

Sort

Over time, storerooms tend to hold MRO items that are obsolete. For example, assets are often replaced or retired, leaving their associated parts behind. Organizations also switch inventory vendors in search of better prices or contract terms, resulting in out-of-date parts. Or possibly, an effort to standardize parts across equipment renders parts useless.

The goal of sort is to get rid of unnecessary items. Ideally, every item left in the storeroom is tied to operating equipment. Also consider stocked items that are not stored in the storeroom, such as spare parts managed through vendor managed inventory (VMI) agreements.

There are many valuable resources that can assist with sorting. MRO inventory management systems, if available, are used to create bills of materials (BOMs), track usage metrics, and analyze other inventory management data for decision making. Technicians and maintenance storeroom staff are also valuable resources. They work directly with the parts themselves, and can offer insight into the purpose of parts, when and how often they are used, and whether the parts are truly needed.

Straighten / Set in Order

After the sort phase, only essential items should remain. Next is to straighten or set items in place. The straighten phase is best summed up by the proverb “A place for everything and everything in its place.” This phase helps organizations locate parts and tools in the most efficient manner.

Parts Organization Methods

There are numerous ways to organize items within the storeroom. Regardless of what method is chosen, parts should be easy to find, easy to use, and easy to put away. Two common ways to organize parts are by asset or by part type and are described below. It should be noted that many organizations use a combination of organization methods.

Organize Parts by Asset

With this method, parts are organized by the asset(s) on which they are used. Organizations choose this method because it makes it easier to find the right parts for an asset, whether for planned or emergency maintenance. It is also useful when many parts are needed for the same asset at once.

A major downside of this approach is duplicity. Parts that are used on more than one piece of equipment, which is often the case, must be stored in multiple locations. Organizing inventory this way requires more precise inventory control and additional storage space.

Organize Parts by Type

This approach organizes similar parts together (i.e., bearings with bearings, fuses with fuses, etc.) and provides numerous advantages. First, it helps with troubleshooting because it makes it easy to find substitute parts if required parts are out of stock. Second, it makes it easier to measure the value of inventory part types – for example, you can see how many motors are in stock at a glance. Finally, grouping inventory parts by type reduces duplication, since parts are only stored in one location.

One potential downside to this method is the opportunity for mistakes. Technicians in a hurry are more prone to grab the wrong part, which delays response times and increases downtime costs. However, a barcoding system reduces this risk. More on this topic is discussed in the Standardization section.

Location

Straighten also means determining the best locations for parts within the maintenance storeroom. For example, commonly used parts may be placed closest to the entrance to reduce unnecessary travel. Alternatively, items commonly used together may be located near one another, like storing personal protective equipment (PPE) near hazardous chemicals.

Storage Solutions

The structures used to hold inventory items should also be considered during this phase. There are many storage solutions available, each with their own pros and cons depending on the type of inventory being held. For some companies, shelves and bins work fine. Storerooms with space limitations may consider high density cabinets.

Also consider storage locations outside of the storeroom, such as lockboxes, cribs, and other areas. These storage locations provide quick access to high volume parts without requiring technicians to travel all the way back to the storeroom, thereby increasing their productivity.

Shine

The shine stage focuses on keeping the storeroom clean and by extension, well maintained. Basic housekeeping improves storeroom safety by removing debris that leads to slips and falls. Cleaning reduces the risk of pathogens and other health hazards.

One must also pay attention to the condition of the storeroom itself. Parts stored in environments that are overly humid, hot, or cold leads to premature part degradation. For example, excess moisture in the air that collects on surfaces causes corrosion and mold. Dusty parts do not perform to specification. When combined with humidity, dust and debris stick to parts and become difficult to remove.

Take note of other storeroom conditions as well. Ensure that storage equipment is in good condition. Fix any holes in the roof, cracked or broken windows, or missing doors. Provide proper lighting and heating and air conditioning. While these tasks sound like common sense, you’d be surprised at how often they are ignored.

Standardize

After sort, straighten, and shine, your maintenance storeroom should be in pretty good shape. The standardize step makes the aforementioned activities routine so that your storeroom doesn’t slowly slip back into a state of disarray. Standardization involves creating standard operating procedures that reinforce 5S principles.

Schedules and Checklists

Create a schedule to make 5S tasks a part of your routine operations. Schedules spell out how frequently tasks like cleaning should be done and who is responsible. Also provide a chart or checklist that communicates what needs to be done. Checklists not only serve as a reminder of what to do, but can also be used to audit whether tasks are completed to satisfaction. Overtime, these tasks will become second nature and will be done automatically.

Naming Conventions

Standardized asset naming conventions help identify parts and their attributes. Technicians can use asset names to quickly locate parts within the storeroom, depending on its organization. For example, if all bearings are stored together, a technician will know which section of the storeroom to look in when a part name that includes “BRNG” appears on a work order.

Further, assign standardized names to the storeroom aisles, racks, shelves, and bins. This information directly tells workers where parts are located, such as aisle 5, rack A, shelf 1, and bin 7.

Standardization also extends to the inventory tracking system or computerized maintenance management system (CMMS). A standardized asset naming convention helps employees easily identify parts in the system, as well as provides a way for new records to be added in the future.

Labeling and Signage

Labels and signs provide employees with a quick reference of 5S expectations. Print and display maps of the storeroom to remind technicians where parts are located so they can be picked or returned. Use labels on aisles, racks, shelves, and bins to direct employees to the exact location of a part. Hang posters that remind workers of the importance of cleaning and so on.

Barcode labels are useful for managing a large number of MRO items. Scanning barcodes is an error-free way of identifying parts and their associated storage locations. Barcoding parts and storage bins ensure that items are easy to find and that everything has a home.

Sustain

Habits take time to form. Organizing the maintenance storeroom – and ensuring it stays organized – takes a department-wide, even company-wide effort. The goal of the sustain step is to form long-lasting habits and continuously improve. Doing so may require a change in maintenance culture. Tools like schedules and checklists, mentioned earlier, help reinforce behaviors that make 5S sustainable. Further, maintenance management should follow up to make sure tasks are being completed.

Safety

Some companies choose to include safety as a sixth “S”. Safety focuses on reducing potential hazards as much as possible. Improving maintenance storeroom safety can take many forms. For example, apply a warning label to cabinets that contain chemicals. Make storage shelves more stable by storing heavier items near the floor and lighter parts higher up. Hang safety-focused signage such as “Watch Your Step” or “Authorized Personnel Only” where applicable.

Maintain an Organized Maintenance Storeroom with FTMaintenance

Properly organized maintenance storerooms lead to many productivity benefits provided that they stay organized. FTMaintenance CMMS software helps organizations manage their maintenance inventory by providing powerful MRO inventory management features. With FTMaintenance, you can track all spare parts (including their stockroom location), ensure storerooms are well maintained, and improve accuracy with barcode scanning. Schedule a demo today to learn more.

Historically, maintenance, repair, and operations (MRO) inventory management has been viewed as a necessary cost of doing business, a cost center, with little thought given into how much money is spent on acquiring and storing spare parts and materials. As a result, money has been tied up in overstuffed MRO stockrooms, emergency inventory purchases, and expedited shipping costs.

Today, organizations recognize maintenance operations as a potential source of cost savings. Upper management pays close attention to whether investments in MRO inventory result in improved asset availability and profitability. Due to the high costs and risks associated with poorly managed MRO inventory, upper management holds maintenance managers responsible for tracking inventory management metrics and KPIs.

What are Inventory Management KPIs?

A key performance indicator (KPI) is a metric, or measured value, which is directly tied to a specific strategic business goal. Inventory management KPIs track how well your organization’s MRO inventory supports your organization’s goals and the return gained on investments in inventory. Over time, KPIs show you whether you are approaching or moving further away from your organization’s goals.

Before we dive into our discussion about inventory management metrics, we must point out the importance of working with reliable data. Whether you already have an inventory management system in place or are just beginning to track MRO inventory data, reliable data is essential.

Many organizations track inventory management activities with computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) software. A CMMS provides accurate data for calculating inventory management KPIs and removes the manual effort of generating maintenance reports.

Inventory Management KPI Examples

Every organization has unique business goals and therefore, uses their own set of inventory KPIs. Nonetheless, some common KPIs serve the needs of organizations in a range of industries. The purpose of this article is to introduce you to these common inventory metrics that can help you meet your maintenance management and MRO inventory management goals. Consider the following common inventory management KPIs.

For you convenience, the KPIs discussed in this article are also available as an infographic. Download the MRO Inventory Management KPIs infographic.

Inventory Accuracy: What’s In Stock?

One of the basic components of MRO inventory management is identifying what items you have and how many. The inventory accuracy KPI is simply a measure of how closely your count of physical inventory matches what is recorded in your CMMS or inventory management system.

To calculate this metric, an employee audits the items on your storeroom shelves and compares them to the database record. A truly accurate inventory will have matching on-hand quantities, storage location(s), and identification tags such as barcodes. Use the following formula to calculate the inventory accuracy KPI:

How to Interpret Inventory Accuracy

It is not realistic, nor practical, that records exactly match for every item that is counted. For example, data entry errors, mislabeled or confusing location codes, and outstanding transactions all impact inventory accuracy. For most organizations, inventory accuracy ratings of 95% or greater are considered acceptable. Sophisticated organizations may adjust this tolerance based on an item’s criticality, but for most, maximum accuracy is the goal.

If your inventory accuracy rating is low, it is imperative that you find out why and, if necessary, implement process improvements. Inaccurate inventory counts can lead to lost production, unnecessary downtime, under- or over-ordering, and costly emergency purchases.

Accuracy may be improved by performing regular physical inventory audits whether by exhaustive or cycle counting. CMMS software is a valuable tool which automatically updates inventory records as parts are updated in the system, via consumption on work orders or as newly purchased parts are received.

Inventory Turnover: How Much Stock Should I Have?

Whereas the inventory accuracy KPI tells you what is in stock, the inventory turnover KPI helps you determine how much inventory you should maintain. Ideally, there will be enough stock to meet demand but not so much that you have significant overstock.

Turnover is the rate at which an inventory item’s stock is used. This KPI measures how quickly you work through the lowest level of stock of an inventory item you desire to keep on hand in a given time period. Knowing an inventory item’s turnover rate is used to help set an appropriate reorder point. Reorder point is the minimum quantity of an item that, when reached, triggers an action to replenish stock. Inventory turnover is determined by the following formula:

How to Interpret Inventory Turnover

Low turnover (values less than 1) is typically associated with infrequent usage and/or overstock. For example, a widget has a reorder point of 10 and 3 were used in a measured timeframe of one year. The widget’s turnover rate is 0.3 (3 ÷ 10 = 0.3). Being less than 1, a turnover of 0.3 means the item is used at a relatively slow pace. Keeping 10 widgets in stock at any given time when only 3 are used per year seems excessive. In this scenario, the reorder point could be lowered.

High turnover (values greater than 1) is typical of frequently-used items, which are more at risk of stockouts. For example, a widget’s reorder point is set to 10, and 30 were used in the measured timeframe. The turnover rate for the widget is 3 (30 ÷ 10 = 3). With a value greater than 1 (3 times greater than 1 in this case), the item is used at a relatively fast pace. The reorder point should be set carefully enough so that stock doesn’t run out.

Be aware that the inventory turnover KPI does not account for the type of inventory being managed, so values derived from this calculation require further investigation. Consider the case of critical spares. Critical spares naturally have low turnover because they are seldom used, but are held as safety stock.  While regular usage is low, it is desirable to keep extra stock on hand as insurance. On the other hand, the turnover rate of often-used consumables and non-critical spares will be naturally high.

Another point that bears discussion is the timeframe in which turnover is calculated. Keep in mind that there is a delay between when orders are placed and when parts arrive. The time period used to determine turnover should be in line with your procurement process and cover the time from the start of the ordering process to the receipt of goods. We recommend the turnover reporting timeframe be no shorter than a week and no longer than a month.

Manually determining the optimal reorder point on tens, hundreds, or thousands of inventory items is nearly impossible. Simply reordering parts when they run out is not a sustainable strategy either. CMMS software contains features such as reorder point notifications, alerting you when parts need to be reordered. Integrated purchasing functionality allows you to automatically generate requisitions and purchase orders.

Stockouts: Are Parts Available When Needed?

The inventory stockouts KPI determines the frequency of out-of-stock occurrences, where stock is not available when needed. A stockout happens every time an employee attempts to retrieve a part and is unable to do so. Determining stockouts is fairly straightforward:

How to Interpret Stockouts

It goes without saying that stockouts should be avoided. In many industries, best practices suggest the value of the inventory stockouts KPI should be less than 1%. However, getting too carried away with eliminating stockouts can lead to overordering, which may result in overstuffed stockrooms and dead money that can’t be recovered.

Risk of stockouts influences reorder points and is typically looked at alongside the inventory turnover KPI. Low stockouts on items with low turnover can be a sign of overstocking. Low stockouts on high-volume items means that demand for the item is being met. Frequent stockout occurrences imply that reorder points may be set too low, though the length of your procurement process could also play a role. CMMS software keeps track of reorder points to help you avoid stockout occurrences.

Supply On Hand: How Long Will Stock Last?

The supply on hand KPI estimates how long your current stock will last based on past usage. It takes into account your past usage and current quantity on hand, and expresses your supply in units of time. Supply on hand is determined by the following formula:

Calculating this metric is a little more involved than it first appears. Let’s walk through an example step by step:

1. Find your usage for the most recent reporting time period. It’s important to select a time period large enough to give you an accurate representation of your usage. Using too short of time period, such as a week or month, may not represent your “typical” usage. In this example, let’s assume 25 widgets were used during a reporting period of one year.
2. Divide your current quantity on hand by the usage during the time period. This gives you the usage for the time period. In this example, supply on hand will be expressed in terms of years since the reporting period is 1 year. We’ll use a quantity of 6 for our current quantity on hand.
3. Convert the time period from the previous step into your desired time period. We’ll choose to express supply on hand in terms of weeks, so we will multiply our supply on hand in years by 52, as there are 52 weeks in a year. Note that the conversion factor used depends on the original reporting time period.In this example, there is approximately 12 weeks’ supply of widgets.

How to Interpret Supply on Hand

Supply on hand reveals how long it would take for the quantity of the item to run down to zero. Of course, it would be wise to reorder before that point is reached. To gather meaning out of this metric, it should be looked at in tandem with other inventory metrics, like turnover and stockouts.

Low supply on hand may mean you have low stock or the reorder point is set too low. For low turnover items with a relatively short reporting timeframe, it may be that the item was recently replaced. Low stock items may be in danger of stockouts. Compare supply on hand with turnover and stockouts to determine whether the item has an appropriate reorder point.

Using the supply on hand calculation for high stock items identifies slow-moving or obsolete inventory. For slow-moving inventory, use the inventory turnover metric to determine a lower reorder point. Obsolete inventory can be set aside for future disposal, thereby clearing space for active inventory items.

Inventory reports available in CMMS software help you monitor your supply on hand and optimize inventory by bringing attention to slow-moving items.

Track Inventory Performance with FTMaintenance

Organizations are paying closer attention to how their investment in inventory is being managed. The inventory metrics provided in this article are intended to help you make smart decisions about your MRO inventory. CMMS software is a necessary tool for maintenance teams looking to track and improve their inventory practices.

FTMaintenance inventory management software provides a centralized system for tracking and managing your spare parts inventory. Quickly identify what’s in stock, automatically update stock levels, and create purchase requisitions in one click. Powerful reporting capability provides you with meaningful, actionable insights into inventory performance. Schedule a demo of FTMaintenance today.

Many maintenance teams tend to follow a reactive maintenance approach due to its low initial costs and low requirement for planning. After all, it’s easier to do nothing than something. Unfortunately, a “fix it when it breaks” approach sends technicians scrambling, and often results in overtime, high repair costs, lost production, and severely reduced asset life. These consequences run counter to an organization’s goals of asset availability and profitability.

Even though many organizations realize that it is better to prevent breakdowns rather than respond to them, they struggle to be proactive about asset maintenance. This article seeks to provide a framework on how to implement a proactive maintenance strategy.

What is Proactive Maintenance?

Proactive maintenance is a maintenance strategy that involves performing maintenance before a failure or breakdown occurs. It seeks to increase asset availability, reduce downtime, and lower maintenance costs by addressing the root causes of asset failure before significant problems occur.

Proactive vs. Reactive Maintenance

Reactive maintenance is a maintenance strategy that involves restoring assets to operating condition after a breakdown (failure to function) has occurred. Compared to proactive maintenance, reactive maintenance requires less planning and upfront costs, at the expense of higher overall maintenance costs, increased downtime, and unpredictability.

A reactive maintenance strategy is designed to treat the symptoms of asset failure to promptly return a failed asset to full working order rather than diagnose and analyze why failures occurred. Generally, reactive maintenance traps maintenance teams in a vicious cycle of constant emergency work due to the nature of unexpected failures, leaving less time and money for maintenance work that could have helped to avoid the same failure in the first place.

By comparison, proactive maintenance works by focusing on the root causes of failures and then taking proactive actions to minimize or eliminate them. Though a proactive maintenance strategy requires more planning and upfront investment than reactive maintenance, it is more targeted, predictable, and cost-effective. In fact, by some estimates, proactive maintenance can lower total maintenance costs by as much as 60%.

It is important to recognize that reactive maintenance will never go away completely. In some cases, it is more economical to let parts fail rather than proactively replace them. Additionally, no maintenance strategy will eliminate unexpected failures. A balanced maintenance plan will include and budget for some reactive maintenance.

Further Reading: Using Root Cause Analysis to Improve Maintenance

Types of Proactive Maintenance

There are many types of proactive maintenance:

• Planned Corrective Maintenance (CM): Maintenance that is required to restore an asset to optimum or operational condition, but does not need to be performed immediately. Planned corrective maintenance occurs when a maintenance need is expected, allowing you to schedule corrective action ahead of time.
• Preventive Maintenance (PM): The most common type of proactive maintenance. Preventive maintenance is scheduled using time-based or usage-based intervals.
• Condition-based Maintenance (CbM): Maintenance carried out when an asset’s monitored condition reaches an unsatisfactory level. Using real-time condition data, maintenance can be performed before failure occurs.
• Predictive Maintenance (PdM): Maintenance scheduled using predictive analysis, based on an asset’s monitored condition, historical performance data, and advanced analytics. Predictive maintenance forecasts when failure is likely to occur, allowing maintenance teams to take preventative action.

Laying the Groundwork for a Proactive Maintenance Strategy

The transition from reactive maintenance to proactive maintenance does not happen overnight. Think of it more as an evolution rather than a flip of the switch. The following sections outline a few key tasks that will help you build a strong foundation for change before you actually begin to implement a proactive maintenance strategy.

Get Ready for Change

The truth is most people don’t like change. Transitioning to a proactive maintenance strategy requires a change in maintenance culture, which can be a challenge. Satisfaction with the status quo and reluctance to change are difficult hurdles for organizations to overcome, but it can be done.

A change in strategy also brings about the use of new technology, additional employee training, and other tools. It is crucial that the maintenance team embraces these opportunities. You will have an easier time implementing a proactive maintenance strategy if everyone is on board.

Invest in Maintenance Management Software

The best way to support a proactive maintenance strategy is with a computerized maintenance management system (CMMS). A CMMS helps you and your team shift to a proactive mindset by allowing you to organize, track, manage, and analyze maintenance data.

As you craft your proactive maintenance plan, a CMMS will allow you to easily establish preventive maintenance procedures, track asset failures and service history, and leverage maintenance reports to optimize proactive maintenance schedules.

Later, when your plan is put into action, a CMMS will keep your team accountable. Team members will use the CMMS to communicate maintenance work, access asset information, and document maintenance activities. If you are not currently using a CMMS, it is time to invest.

Further Reading: Creating a Culture of Accountability with a CMMS

Assess Your Current Maintenance Operation

Evolving maintenance operations must naturally move in a proactive direction. While maintenance teams in many organizations operate in a reactive way, they often quickly realize that this approach is not sustainable or beneficial. Additionally, an organization’s financial goals rely on improved asset reliability and availability, creating a greater demand for a proactive maintenance strategy.

The graphic above depicts the general progression of maintenance operations. Take a moment to identify where your organization currently falls and what’s next. As you progress down the line, consider what other changes are needed to support your operation.

Each level of complexity requires a higher level of skill, increased asset knowledge, and time and effort to plan and schedule maintenance than the last. Consider whether you currently have the technology, staff, and other resources required to move on. If not, work with your organization to determine how each can be acquired.

Understand Your Current Performance

In order to make improvements to your maintenance operations, you must have a solid understanding of your current performance. Performance data should be gathered from multiple sources such as the operations and engineering department, and your maintenance documentation system or CMMS. If you don’t have a maintenance documentation system in place, obtaining some of this information will be very difficult, if it exists at all. Therefore, we strongly recommend implementing and tracking maintenance activities in a CMMS.

Measures of performance include asset availability and the use of maintenance resources. In terms of asset availability, it is important to understand when downtime occurs, how long it lasts, and what causes it. Organizations commonly use asset management key performance indicators (KPIs) such as Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF), Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) , and others to assess availability.

Evaluating maintenance resources involves knowing where time and money are spent. For example, it is important to know asset repair costs, how technicians spend their time, how much money is wasted on avoidable emergency inventory orders, and so on.

How to Implement a Proactive Maintenance Strategy

Once sufficient asset and historical maintenance information is collected, you can proceed with implementing your proactive maintenance strategy. The following steps provide a framework to help your implementation go smoothly.

Select a Project Leader

One of the most important keys to success is selecting an effective team member to spearhead the project. Ideally, the project leader will be someone who has intimate knowledge of maintenance needs, such as a maintenance supervisor, maintenance scheduler/planner, maintenance manager, or inventory clerk.

The project leader is tasked with overseeing the planning and implementation processes and ensuring tasks are completed. Their responsibilities include managing day-to-day operations, gathering information, and eventually creating and managing the maintenance schedule. The project leader also ensures that others are adhering to the proactive maintenance plan and properly using the CMMS.

Involve Key Stakeholders

Asset maintenance affects the entire organization. Therefore, an effective proactive maintenance program is one that receives input from and informs multiple maintenance stakeholders. Stakeholders may include the following:

• Front-line maintenance technicians responsible for performing the actual maintenance tasks who can provide information about ongoing equipment issues and downtime events. Technicians are also responsible for tracking maintenance activities in the CMMS, helping you build valuable data.
• Production operators who are responsible for ensuring that assets are running to specification. These regular equipment users who know what everything looks like when it’s “in place” and act as important allies for detecting issues early. Further down the road, they can assist with simple preventive maintenance activities or minor repairs.
• Operations engineers in charge of purchasing new assets, planning new equipment lines and cells, and performing critical analysis. This group also documents equipment specifications and may provide parts lists to the maintenance department.
• Operations management that communicates concerns about asset availability and scheduling.
• Safety managers who oversee employee health, safety, and environmental risks.
• Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) who design industrial equipment and facility assets. OEMs are a valuable source of information and typically provide performance parameters and recommended maintenance schedules.
• Upper management who commits resources to the project and expect to see results.

Each of these stakeholders plays a role in optimizing and enhancing the proactive maintenance plan.

Create an Asset Registry

An asset registry is a list of all the assets that you are responsible for maintaining. Creating an asset list ensures that records are up to date and that all assets are accounted for when planning maintenance. A CMMS stores important asset information and makes it easy to track maintenance performed on each asset.

Learn more about FTMaintenance Asset Management

Identify Critical Assets

Critical assets are assets that are integral to business operations and result in major consequences should they break down. Determining an asset’s criticality helps you prioritize where to focus proactive maintenance efforts. It makes sense that the more critical the asset is to the organization, the more should be done to protect it.

Typically, critical assets are well-known throughout the organization. Regardless, it is beneficial to cross-check with other stakeholders to ensure that everyone is in agreement as to which assets are considered critical. In larger organizations, critical assets may be formally identified by the operations engineering team through a criticality analysis – a systematic way of evaluating the risk of asset failure.

Determine Effective Maintenance Activities

Once critical assets are identified, determine the best way to keep them running. At this stage you can keep things high level, but should at least determine the type of maintenance to be performed and how often. Later, you can hash out the specifics of what each task entails.

The goal for now is to get a rough sense of how you will care for each asset. An effective proactive maintenance program will leverage numerous resources, including:

• Maintenance history (CMMS or other internal maintenance documentation)
• Input from key stakeholders
• Documentation from criticality analyses
• Maintenance specifications provided by OEMs
• Operational experience

If just getting started with proactive maintenance, your plan will likely consist of planned maintenance, time-based preventive maintenance, and usage-based preventive maintenance. Advanced organizations may utilize condition-based and predictive maintenance.

Create Detailed Instructions

With effective maintenance strategies defined and maintenance activities identified, now you can create documentation about how each activity should be performed. Developing task-specific, step-by-step instructions provides guidance for technicians and ensures proactive maintenance is performed consistently. Be sure to estimate the amount of time needed to complete each task, as it will be important to make sure that your proactive maintenance schedule is realistic. Use your CMMS to create and manage detailed task lists for use on proactive maintenance work orders.

Create the Proactive Maintenance Schedule

The first step to creating the proactive maintenance plan schedule is to decide on the official start date of the program. Then, assign maintenance activities to specific days using the frequencies and estimated duration identified earlier.

A schedule that is mapped out for at least one year should allow you to balance the workload and account for at least one cycle of maintenance activities with less frequent occurrences. Ultimately though, the best duration will depend on your organization.

When scheduling work, consider peak production periods or planned plant shutdowns. These events may require changes to an otherwise rigid maintenance schedule.

Implement the Proactive Maintenance Plan

Now is the time where all the pieces come together. Once the start date arrives, your plan can be put into action. Don’t panic if things don’t go exactly as planned right out of the gate. Proactive maintenance plans will constantly change based on experience, updated recommendations, new technology, and so on.

Remember that implementing a proactive maintenance strategy is an evolution, and will take weeks to months to fully implement. The implementation timeframe depends on the resources at your disposal. Regardless, any step towards proactive maintenance – no matter how small – is beneficial.

Implement Proactive Maintenance with FTMaintenance

As demonstrated many times throughout this article, a CMMS is an essential tool for helping organizations move from a reactive mindset to a proactive maintenance culture. Leveraging CMMS software will make the implementation and tracking of your proactive maintenance plan go smoothly.

FTMaintenance is a powerful CMMS solution that offers robust asset management, preventive maintenance, and maintenance reporting features that allow you to craft an optimized proactive maintenance plan. Schedule a demo of FTMaintenance today!