Author: Ethan Wilke

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!

Mobile computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) software is becoming a critical tool for today’s maintenance teams, enabling technicians to manage their daily tasks from virtually anywhere. While it might be tempting to rely on personal smartphones, tablets, or laptops to access maintenance data, many organizations quickly discover that consumer-grade devices can’t survive harsh industrial environments.

To address this, many technology manufacturers offer rugged mobile devices designed specifically for maintenance and industrial use. These devices withstand drops, moisture, extreme temperatures, and other conditions that can damage standard hardware. This article explores what to look for when selecting mobile devices so that your organization can choose hardware that will support your mobile CMMS and provide long-term benefits to your maintenance team.

Why Durability Matters: Consumer-Grade vs. Rugged Mobile Devices

Not all mobile devices are built for industrial environments. While consumer-grade smartphones, tablets, and laptops are convenient and familiar, they aren’t designed to withstand the wear and tear of maintenance work. Drops, dust, moisture, extreme temperatures, and exposure to chemicals can easily damage standard devices, leading to lost productivity and downtime.

Rugged devices, on the other hand, are specifically built for demanding environments. They feature reinforced casings, drop protection, water and dust resistance, and other protective measures to ensure reliable performance. Investing in rugged hardware helps maintenance teams maintain consistent access to mobile CMMS software, even in harsh conditions.

By understanding the differences between consumer and rugged devices, organizations can make informed decisions that protect both their technology investment and the efficiency of their maintenance operations.

 Rugged vs. “Ruggedized” Mobile Devices

As a cost-saving measure, some organizations opt to install tough outer cases on standard devices instead of purchasing rugged hardware. While this solution may be acceptable in some environments, beware that these “ruggedized” devices still have sensitive internal components and are not the same as rugged devices. Rugged devices are specially designed, inside and out, to withstand harsh conditions, though they come at a higher cost.

Hardware Device Standards and Compliance

When evaluating rugged mobile devices, it’s important to understand the standards and certifications that ensure durability and reliability. Compliance with industry benchmarks indicates that a device has been tested to withstand harsh environmental conditions, such as water, vibrations, and extreme temperatures. Familiarity with these standards can help you make informed decisions about the hardware you give to your team. Below are some durability standards to be aware of.

Ingress Protection (IP) Rating

Ingress Protection (IP) rating is an international standard, developed by the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), to grade the degree of protection against intrusion of dust or liquids. IP ratings are expressed as two digits:

• The first numeral indicates protection against solid objects on a scale from 0 to 6, with 0 being no protection and 6 being no ingress of dust.
• The second numeral is the level of protection against liquids on a scale of 0 to 9, with 0 being no protection and 9 being protected against high pressure and temperature water jets.

For example, an IP rating of IP65 means the device is dust tight and protected against water jets. Refer to the IEC’s Ingress Protection Ratings Guide for more information.

MIL-STD-810 Compliance

MIL-STD-810 is a standard used by the United States Department of Defense (DoD) to ensure equipment functions reliably while under real-world stress caused by vibration, shock, extreme temperature ranges, and other conditions. While this standard was developed specifically for military purposes, it is often used for testing rugged technology products as well.

To be MIL-STD-810 compliant, manufacturers must meet several guidelines, including sending devices to external testing laboratories. Because external testing can be expensive, some manufacturers choose to do in-house testing according to the official standards documentation.

Be warned that many manufacturers claim their products are MIL-STD-810 compliant even though they are not! Sometimes, products have not even been tested. Therefore, be sure to investigate any claims of compliance and ask about what standards the device passed, what test methods and parameters were used, and what the test results concluded.

Common Environmental Tests

To verify an IP rating, demonstrate compliance with MIL-STD-810, or meet other durability standards, manufacturers perform a variety of environmental tests on rugged devices. These tests simulate real-world conditions common in industrial environments. Types of durability tests include:

• Drop and shock testing: Requires devices to withstand multiple drops from specified heights.
• Temperature testing: Tests a device under normal operating conditions in extreme temperatures.
• Liquid-resistance testing: Measures a device’s water resistance.
• Vibration testing: Shakes the device to simulate movement from being carried by vehicles or people.
• Sand and dust testing: Tests the ingress of small particles and foreign bodies.
• Humidity testing: Exposes a device to high heat and humidity to test liquid resistance.

Key Hardware Features to Support Mobile Maintenance Management

When evaluating mobile devices for your maintenance team, it’s important to consider not just the hardware itself, but also how it enables software features critical to field work. Many mobile CMMS capabilities leverage the device’s built-in features to increase effectiveness. Listed below are common industrial hardware features that support mobile CMMS features that you should also consider when evaluating rugged mobile devices.

Camera

Integrated cameras make it easy to add visual context to maintenance documentation. Technicians can take photos or capture video of maintenance tasks for training or documentation purposes. They may also be used to show supervisors or other approvers how tasks were performed for verification. Before-and-after pictures also help demonstrate correct disassembly and reassembly.

Some organizations take photos of their assets to aid in identification. These pictures can be stored with asset records in a CMMS to help users accurately identify which asset requires maintenance.

Finally, organizations with photo editing talent may use software to modify images in order to create custom diagrams or highlight specific components, assets, or facility locations.

Voice Recognition

Rugged CMMS devices with voice recognition features, also called speech-to-text, enable you to enter work order details while reducing typed data entry. Simply activate the speech-to-text feature, and the device will transpose any verbal input into text. This feature comes in handy when traveling between locations or when devices may not pick up touch input due to gloves, grease, or water.

Barcode Scanning

Barcode reading capability converts mobile devices into barcode scanners. Barcode scanning uses the device’s integrated camera to quickly read barcodes. Applications of barcodes in maintenance management include:

• Tracking assets via asset tags
• Looking up assets and inventory using a barcode scan
• Checking tools in and out
• Identifying the storage locations of MRO inventory items
• Looking up purchase orders
• Receiving inventory purchases into the system
• Adding assets, parts, and tools to work orders
• Increasing the accuracy of data entry

Learn more about barcode systems.

Flashlights

Flashlights allow technicians to see in low light areas, such as dark work areas or machine interiors. Using certain apps, flashlights can also function as strobe lights to inspect rotating, oscillating, or vibrating equipment.

GPS and Location Tracking

Global Positioning System (GPS) hardware and mapping applications work together to improve field operations. Technicians can use GPS-enabled devices to identify the exact location of assets, navigate to remote sites, and record where maintenance activities take place. Meanwhile, managers can use GPS tracking data to monitor technician locations in real time.

Condition Monitoring Apps and Hardware

Mobile devices find additional utility in maintenance environments by using existing hardware features in new ways or extending functionality through apps. A few examples include:

• Using the built-in accelerometer or gyroscope with an app to measure acceleration and vibration.
• Installing magnetic field detector apps to check for electromagnetic fields and power lines.
• Leveraging sound level detector apps to measure sound pressure levels and detect frequencies that are too high to hear with the human ear.
• Using a metal detector app to locate metal such as pipes.

While these apps are useful for non-critical measurements, the appropriate meters and instruments should be used when exact measurements are required.

Comparing Device Types for Maintenance Teams

Selecting the right mobile device for your maintenance team requires balancing portability, screen size, battery life, and durability. Different device types offer unique advantages depending on the tasks your team performs and the environments they work in.

Smartphones vs. Tablets vs. Phablets

When selecting mobile hardware for maintenance teams, device size and type matter. Common devices include:

• Smartphones are compact, easy to carry, and ideal for quick tasks such as scanning barcodes or checking work orders.
• Tablets provide larger screens that are useful for reviewing schematics, viewing detailed asset information, and completing complex work orders.
• Phablets, which are mid-sized devices, balance between portability and screen real estate.

Consider the types of tasks your team performs and the environments they work in to determine the best hardware device.

Battery Life, Charging, and Connectivity

Maintenance teams often rely on mobile devices throughout long shifts, sometimes in remote areas. Devices should have long-lasting batteries, support fast charging, and maintain reliable internet connection via Wi-Fi or cellular data. Extended battery life reduces downtime caused by frequent recharging and ensures the mobile CMMS is always accessible when technicians need it.

Durability Considerations

Even the most capable device is only useful if it survives the maintenance environment. As mentioned earlier, look for hardware that meets rugged standards, including IP ratings and MIL-STD-810 compliance. Also, consider whether your team needs fully rugged devices or if ruggedized options are sufficient for your environment. Choosing durable, industry-tested hardware minimizes repair costs, prevents lost data, and ensures technicians can rely on their devices in harsh conditions no matter where they go.

Ensuring Compatibility with Your CMMS

When selecting mobile devices for your maintenance team, it’s essential to ensure they are fully compatible with your CMMS software. Check that the device’s operating system, screen resolution, processing power, and connectivity options meet the software’s system requirements.

Verifying compatibility ahead of time helps prevent workflow interruptions, reduces IT troubleshooting, and ensures technicians can efficiently complete work orders from anywhere in your facility or field locations. For a deeper dive into choosing the right mobile CMMS, training your team, and encouraging adoption, read our article, Mobile CMMS Software Best Practices for Selection, Training, and Adoption.

Go Mobile with FTMaintenance Select

Investing in rugged hardware protects your CMMS investment, reduces downtime, and keeps your maintenance team productive anywhere on site or in the field. FTMaintenance Select includes a mobile CMMS app that provides maintenance technicians with essential work order management functionality needed to document day-to-day maintenance activities. Request a demo today to learn more about our mobile maintenance management solutions.

Preventive maintenance (PM) is a critical part of any maintenance strategy. No matter the industry, the ability to preempt failures and breakdowns can lead to a wide array of benefits. However, effective preventive maintenance requires ample time, money, and effort.

With so many resources dedicated to preventive maintenance, you – as well as other management – will want to know: Is your preventive maintenance program working? In this article, we explore a number of key metrics to help you measure your preventive maintenance effectiveness.

Measuring Preventive Maintenance Effectiveness

In order to understand whether your preventive maintenance program is meeting or falling short of expectations, you must measure it. Measuring preventive maintenance effectiveness requires solid and consistent documentation. Organizations using paper-based or spreadsheet-based maintenance tracking systems may find it difficult to do proper analysis, due to unreliable or incomplete data. Generating reports or making calculations will be time-consuming. That’s why documenting maintenance activities is best done with computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) software.

Download Ebook: 10 Reasons to Use a CMMS over Maintenance Spreadsheets

Preventive maintenance software like a CMMS is an invaluable tool for measuring and improving preventive maintenance effectiveness. It provides tools you need to automatically schedule, manage, and track preventive maintenance activities. CMMS software stores preventive maintenance data so it can be used for robust analytics and reporting. Powerful maintenance reporting features, allow you to generate insightful PM reports that will help you improve the effectiveness of your preventive maintenance program.

Preventive Maintenance Metrics

There are a number of ways to measure preventive maintenance effectiveness and each organization may do so differently. Furthermore, what key performance indicators (KPIs) are used depends on your organization’s goals. The following sections provide an overview of common preventive maintenance metrics you can use to help you reach your maintenance management goals.

For your convenience, a quick reference sheet of the KPIs discussed in this article are available in our Common Preventive Maintenance KPIs infographic.

Planned Maintenance Percentage

Planned Maintenance Percentage (PMP) measures how much time is spent on planned versus unplanned maintenance in a given timeframe. This simple metric allows you to quickly see how maintenance time is being spent.

Make special note of the word planned in this equation. While preventive maintenance will likely make up most, if not all, of your planned maintenance, other types of proactive maintenance, such as predictive maintenance, should also be included here.

To calculate Planned Maintenance Percentage, divide the total number of planned maintenance hours by the total number of maintenance hours (both planned and unplanned). Then multiply by 100 to get the percentage.

How to Interpret Planned Maintenance Percentage

PMP tells you how much of your maintenance activities are scheduled in advance, compared to how much time was spent reacting to asset breakdowns.  Typically, a low PMP – meaning little time is spent on planned maintenance – shows that assets may be unreliable and more susceptible to unplanned downtime. It is assumed that assets with a high PMP will generally face fewer unexpected issues. Note that a low PMP is not necessarily bad, as we will explain shortly.

When measured for a specific asset, PMP indicates the proportion of work performed as part of a preventive maintenance plan. PMP can be looked at together with other asset management KPIs, such as Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF), to identify areas of improvement to the asset’s preventive maintenance plan. A centralized maintenance tracking system, like a CMMS, makes generating these reports quick and easy.

So, what is considered a “good” PMP value? While there is an often stated target of 80% of work being planned versus 20% reactive, the ideal PMP will differ by organization.

For example, planned maintenance activities for facility assets are generally more spread out (and therefore occur less often) compared to planned maintenance in manufacturing. Seasonal preventive maintenance, like furnace tune-ups, or assets designed to run-to-fail, like light bulbs, also influence PMP. Tracking PMP over time helps you understand where you are now and set improvement goals for the future.

Preventive Maintenance Compliance

Having a preventive maintenance plan is useless if it’s not followed. That’s where this next preventive maintenance effectiveness metric comes in. Preventive Maintenance Compliance (PMC) is a measure of how many scheduled preventive maintenance work orders are completed within a set amount of time. It can be an indicator of whether PM schedules are being adhered to and how well your PM program is working.

Preventive Maintenance Compliance is determined by dividing the number of completed PM work orders by the number of scheduled work orders within the timeframe, then multiplying by 100 to get a percentage. Note that scheduled and completed should only count those work orders that were originally scheduled to be completed in this timeframe.

How to Interpret Preventive Maintenance Compliance

Preventive Maintenance Compliance tracks whether preventive maintenance is being performed and can help keep your team accountable. Low PMC signals that PM work is planned but isn’t being completed and that further investigation is needed. There could be many reasons for low PMC, such as the following:

• Work orders are being lost or ignored due to an inefficient work order management process.
• Assets may not be available for maintenance when scheduled.
• Irrelevant tasks are purposely being skipped.
• Not enough maintenance resources are available to complete the work.
• Tasks are not being communicated to maintenance staff.

Related Reading: Creating a Culture of Accountability with a CMMS

One shortcoming of PMC is that it doesn’t tell you how many work orders were completed late or how far past their due date they were completed. To overcome this, it is important to look for how many PM work orders are completed by their due date. This is easily done in a CMMS.

Skipped PM Percentage

Somewhat related to Preventive Maintenance Compliance is a measure of how many PM work orders were not completed because they were skipped, aka skipped preventive maintenance percentage. Skipped work orders are different than those that are simply postponed or completed late – they are intentionally disregarded.

For example, a preventive maintenance work order might be skipped because tasks were completed during a recent corrective maintenance event. A frequently occurring PM might be skipped because the asset was unavailable at the time the work was to be performed. Depending on your available labor resources, you might choose to skip a PM because no one was available to do the work.

Skipped PM percentage can be calculated by dividing the number of skipped PMs by the number of scheduled PM work orders within the time frame, then multiplying by 100 to get a percentage.

How to Interpret Skipped PMs

A high Skipped PM value (meaning many PMs are skipped) indicates there are underlying issues that warrant investigation. First, it can be an indicator of the level of communication between the maintenance team and the party that requires maintenance. For instance, an asset may be inaccessible for maintenance due to a scheduling conflict with the production team or a tenant. A CMMS makes it easier to share and communicate the maintenance schedule with other departments or people.

Another reason the Skipped PM value could be high is that preventive maintenance is being done too often. Performing preventive maintenance on assets that don’t need it leads to unnecessary downtime, labor costs, and parts usage. It also increases the risk of reducing reliability caused by incorrect re-assembly or other errors. Preventive maintenance software makes it easy to change and fine-tune PM schedules.

A third reason that preventive maintenance might be skipped is a lack of adequate labor resources. Perhaps there are simply not enough technicians available to complete the work on time. Maintenance reports provided by a CMMS can help balance the workload, reprioritize tasks, and build a case for additional staff.

Scheduled Maintenance Critical Percentage

Scheduled Maintenance Critical Percentage (SMCP) measures the impact of late planned maintenance work. This metric quantifies the risk associated with overdue preventive maintenance work orders relative to their work order cycle, making it easier for you to prioritize which PM jobs to complete first. For example, a weekly PM work order that is 5 days late impacts an asset’s longevity and likelihood of failure more than an annual work order that is overdue by 5 days.

To calculate SMCP, you must know the PM work order’s recurrence and the number of days the procedure is late. Once you have that information, you can use the following formula:

How to Interpret Scheduled Maintenance Critical Percentage

Falling behind on preventive maintenance increases the risk of downtime, the severity of breakdowns, and the amount of backlogged maintenance work. When you are behind on preventive maintenance, it can be difficult to know which tasks to perform first. SMCP compares the criticality between jobs in order to make this decision easier.

Typically, the higher the SMCP, the longer overdue (and therefore more critical) it is to complete the task. To illustrate, let’s compare two tasks on a CNC lathe: greasing the chip conveyor and cleaning the coolant tank. The chain on the chip conveyor should be greased quarterly (every 90 days), but you’re 9 days behind. The coolant tank is to be cleaned semi-annually (every 180 days). This work order is also 9 days late. Let’s calculate the SMCP, using the formula presented above:

Conveyor: ((9 + 90) ÷90) x 100 = 110%

Coolant Tank: ((9+180) ÷ 180) x 100 = 105%

In this example, greasing the chip conveyor should be prioritized over cleaning the coolant tank. Notice how the work order’s recurrence impacts the severity of the job. The SMCP demonstrates that it is more critical to complete the overdue quarterly work order first before addressing the overdue semi-annual work order.

Be aware that, while SMCP is useful, it doesn’t account for the types or significance of failures that the PM work order is intended to prevent. Look back at our example: a poorly greased chain might slightly slow down the chip conveyor whereas poor coolant quality can affect tool and machine life. Therefore, it is important to “look beyond the numbers” with SMCP – or any preventive maintenance KPI, for that matter.

Aside from measuring criticality, SMCP can bring attention to reasons why work orders are late. For example, perhaps tasks are held up because there aren’t enough technicians scheduled to keep up with the workload. It’s also possible that you underestimated how long it takes to complete the work. You might even have to reprioritize tasks so that habitually late tasks can be completed on time.

Track Your Preventive Maintenance with FTMaintenance

Effective preventive maintenance is the hallmark of any maintenance strategy. The preventive maintenance metrics provided in this article help you make smarter management decisions regarding maintenance operations. Tracking preventive maintenance data is best done in a CMMS, like FTMaintenance.

FTMaintenance allows you to craft and execute a master preventive maintenance plan for all of your assets. Additionally, FTMaintenance tracks the data you need for generating crucial maintenance management reports. Schedule a demo of FTMaintenance today to learn more.

For tips on how to improve your preventive maintenance plan, check out our blog post 12 Tips for Improving Your Preventive Maintenance Plan.

An inevitable result of the manufacturing process is the creation of waste, and it comes in many forms. Implementing lean manufacturing techniques enables organizations to target and eliminate waste, leading to more productivity and ultimately, higher profits.

Because the maintenance team is responsible for equipment maintenance, it must also eliminate waste in maintenance processes that threaten efficient production. This article provides an introduction to lean management and discusses how the maintenance team contributes to a lean manufacturing system.

What is Lean Manufacturing?

According to the American Society for Quality (ASQ), “lean manufacturing is a system of techniques and activities for running a manufacturing or service operation” with the goal of maximizing the value delivered to customers. This is done by eliminating waste (i.e., non-value-adding activities) at each stage of the production process.

Origins of Lean Manufacturing

Lean manufacturing originates in the automotive industry, starting with the founder of Ford Motor Company, Henry Ford. Ford’s moving assembly line process cut out much inefficiency from manual processing to make mass production possible. Over time, the Toyota Motor Corporation continued to improve upon Ford’s idea to create the Toyota Production System, which focuses on “the complete elimination of all waste in pursuit of the most efficient methods.”

Today, lean manufacturing concepts are used in many industries including:

• Automotive manufacturing
• Footwear and apparel manufacturing
• Textile manufacturing
• Healthcare
• Food and beverage
• Construction
• Government
• Hospitality

Principles of Lean Manufacturing

Image derived from Lean Enterprise Institute at https://www.lean.org/lexicon-terms/lean-thinking-and-practice/

There are 5 main lean manufacturing principles that guide organizations on how to optimize their production process:

1. Identify value: Understand the value customers place on your products (i.e., what problems they need to solve).
2. Map the value stream: Visualize every step of your manufacturing process, from raw materials to delivery, to identify which activities add value versus create waste.
3. Create flow: Optimize your manufacturing process by eliminating bottlenecks, reducing changeover time, and leveling production.
4. Establish pull: Manufacture product only when there is demand.
5. Seek perfection: Strive towards excellence by making ongoing, incremental changes towards your goal.

8 Wastes of Lean Manufacturing

If waste is to be eliminated, one must know what types of waste exist. As mentioned earlier, waste is any activity that does not add value to the customer. Lean manufacturing identifies several types of waste within the manufacturing process.

1. Transportation: Unnecessary transportation of employees, tools, inventory, or equipment
2. Inventory: Producing quantities of inventory that exceed demand
3. Motion: Unnecessary movement of people or equipment
4. Waiting: Idle time, such as waiting for materials to arrive or for equipment maintenance to be complete
5. Overproduction: Manufacturing product before it is truly needed
6. Over-processing: Adding features to a product that are not required by the customer
7. Defects: Producing products that are not fit for use, resulting in rework or scrap
8. Unused talent: Not taking worker’s ideas and input into account when making decisions

The Toyota Production System further organizes waste into the following three categories:

• Muda (wastefulness): Waste that is produce by unnecessary, non-value-adding activities, materials, and other work.
• Mura (unevenness): Waste due to fluctuations in demand, resulting in an uneven work pace.
• Muri (overburden): Waste caused by overworking people or machines; working in an unsustainable way.

Lean Manufacturing and Maintenance Management

Lean manufacturing focuses on production – so what does it mean for maintenance organizations? Since maintenance and production are so closely related, one could justify that adequate maintenance enables lean manufacturing. Therefore, any changes to the production process also require changes to the maintenance process.

For example, problems encountered in a continuous flow process shut down the entire production line, requiring maintenance to either respond quicker to downtime or implement proactive maintenance techniques that prevent such problems from occurring. Each of these solutions requires changes to maintenance operations, techniques, tools, and management.

Keep in mind that the lean philosophy applies to any process or function, including maintenance. “Lean maintenance” aims to optimize maintenance and asset management activities, which is commonly plagued with waste caused by excessive MRO inventory, over- or under-maintaining equipment, and inefficient maintenance tracking.

Implementing lean maintenance can improve productivity, reduce maintenance costs, increase asset reliability and longevity, and make the maintenance team look more competent. Additionally, lean maintenance gives you the ability to do more maintenance work with the same or fewer resources. Given the maintenance technician shortage, finding ways to reduce maintenance costs without losing employees is especially important.

Lean Tools and Techniques Used by Maintenance Organizations

Given its scope, lean manufacturing utilizes multiple tools and techniques to eliminate waste and improve efficiency. We have highlighted the lean tools most relevant to maintenance management in this article. A more comprehensive list is provided on LeanProduction.com.

Lean Tools

The following tools are part of the lean methodology in general, though we discuss how they can be applied to maintenance management.

5S

5S is an organization system that aims to create efficient, effective, and safe work environments. Also part of the Toyota Production System, 5S seeks to reduce waste in employee workspaces. 5S gets its name from the 5 steps it includes:

• Sort (seiri): Remove any unnecessary or unwanted items from the workspace.
• Set in Order (seiton): Arrange items in a logical, organized manner.
• Shine (seiso): Clean the workspace.
• Standardize (seiketsu): Make sorting, setting in order, and shining routine activities.
• Sustain (shitsuke): Form long-lasting habits and update as necessary.

One of the most common workspaces to improve through 5S is the maintenance storeroom. Storerooms in many organizations are messy, cluttered, and create several inefficiencies that lead to higher MRO inventory costs. However, an organized storeroom can improve efficiency by 10% to 30%. More on this topic can be found in our article, How to Organize Your Maintenance Storeroom.

Just-In-Time Inventory Management

Just-in-Time (JIT) inventory management is an inventory management technique that enables organizations to meet demand while working with minimal inventory. For production, this means only producing enough goods to satisfy customer orders. Materials are ordered to arrive “just in time” to fulfill the order.

In a maintenance context, demand is typically driven by preventive maintenance (PM) because tasks are scheduled and the required part quantities are known. Organizations may also refer to maintenance reports that show historical part usage trends to estimate demand for corrective maintenance (CM).

Using JIT inventory management for MRO items, organizations may opt not to stock particular items that can be sourced locally and obtained quickly when needed. Doing so saves storeroom space and inventory management effort. Just-in-Time inventory management is discussed further in our article, MRO Inventory Optimization Techniques.

Poka-yoke (Mistake-proofing)

Poka-yoke, or mistake-proofing, means to minimize the number of mistakes employees make in order to avoid defects, rework, or scrap. Maintenance managers can limit employee errors by:

• Improving the accuracy of data entry through barcode scanning
• Providing step-by-step instructions for routine maintenance tasks
• Developing and communicating clear policies and procedures
• Clearly labeling equipment, storerooms, stocking locations, and tools for easy identification
• Providing ongoing training opportunities
• Holding employees accountable for performing quality maintenance work
• Implementing a work order approvals process to ensure work is done correctly
• Providing quick access to a digital library of maintenance documentation

Putting measures in place to prevent common errors leads to vast improvements in the quality and consistency of maintenance work. This translates to improved asset reliability, extended asset life, and lower maintenance costs.

Kaizen (Continuous Improvement)

One of, if not the most important, element of lean is kaizen, meaning “change for the better”. The idea behind kaizen is to examine inefficient processes or recurring tasks and make small, incremental improvements over time. An important aspect of kaizen is to document your process and measure it over time to see if changes achieve the intended result.

Lean Maintenance Tools and Techniques

There are several tools and techniques maintenance teams utilize to support a lean manufacturing approach.

Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS) Software

Many maintenance organizations still rely on manual maintenance tracking systems to manage their maintenance operations. These outdated systems are simply too cumbersome and ineffective for managing today’s complex maintenance needs.

A computerized maintenance management system (CMMS)  is a centralized platform for documenting, managing, and tracking maintenance activities. It provides you with real-time access to important maintenance information, allowing you to increase your productivity and efficiency. Automated features reduce the burden of managing day-to-day administrative tasks related to work order management, maintenance planning and scheduling, asset management, and other aspects of your maintenance operation.

Total Productive Maintenance (TPM)

Total productive maintenance (TPM) is a system of maximizing asset availability by taking an organization-wide approach to maintenance. One of the main pillars of TPM is autonomous maintenance, which places the responsibility of performing simple preventive maintenance tasks on machine operators. Doing so increases the operator’s knowledge of their equipment, allowing them to spot and address small issues before they become big problems that cause downtime.

Failure Analysis

Unexpected asset failures result in lost production time. While many organizations simply treat the symptoms of failure in order to return machines to operation, others perform failure analysis to determine how to avoid future failures. There are many methods of failure analysis including:

• Failure, Cause, and Remedy Codes: the process of using a CMMS to codify and standardize documentation of the type of failure, its cause, and its solution.
• Root Cause Analysis (RCA): the process of identifying the origins of an asset failure and developing an approach to resolve it.
• Five Whys: a method of executing root cause analysis by asking “why” five times.
• Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA): a systematic way of determining all possible ways assets can fail, their potential causes, and risk to the organization.

Though each of these methods varies in complexity, all aim to prevent or mitigate the effects of failure, thereby minimizing interruptions to production.

Reliability-Centered Maintenance (RCM)

Reliability-centered maintenance (RCM) is a corporate-level, proactive maintenance strategy that determines the most cost-effective maintenance techniques to maximize asset reliability. It considers the inherent design of equipment, taking into account: equipment function and performance standards, functional failures, failure modes, and failure effects. Based on this analysis, organizations then determine the appropriate tasks to eliminate, detect, reduce the frequency of occurrence of, or reduce the impact of each failure.

As its name suggests, RCM is focused on reliability, or reducing the frequency of asset failure. Reliable assets perform their intended function for longer periods of time without failure (so long as they are used under their stated operating conditions). RCM reduces lost production time caused by unexpected failures and waiting for maintenance to make repairs.

Predictive Maintenance (PdM)

Predictive maintenance (PdM) is a maintenance technique that forecasts when assets will fail by analyzing real-time and historical asset performance data. Compared to preventive maintenance, which is performed according to set intervals, predictive maintenance allows maintenance to be scheduled and performed only when it is truly needed. As a result, the maintenance team can sharply reduce unscheduled downtime and the severity of failures, when they do occur. This leads to optimal availability, reliability, and production capacity.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

Tracking key performance indicators (KPIs) helps you determine whether changes to your maintenance process are having the desired impact. The metrics you track depend largely on what’s important to your organization, the process you are trying to optimize, and the type of waste you seek to eliminate. Common lean maintenance KPIs include:

• Mean Time to Repair (MTTR)
• Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF)
• Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE)

Maximize the Efficiency of Your Maintenance Process with FTMaintenance Select

The main goal of lean manufacturing is to eliminate waste from the production process, which relies on the competence of the maintenance team. Using a CMMS like FTMaintenance Select is one of the best ways to create an efficient, mobilized, and connected maintenance team that supports lean initiatives. By automating essential tasks related to work order management, asset management, inventory management, and more, FTMaintenance Select empowers you to eliminate waste and make maintenance management easy. Request a demo today to learn more.

Key Takeaways:

• MRO inventory is critical to maintenance operations, yet not managed as closely as other inventory, leading to direct and indirect maintenance costs
• MRO inventory management requires the identification, specification, location, procurement, and control of inventoried items
• Computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) software, like FTMaintenance, is designed to help you effectively manage your maintenance inventory

Maintenance teams depend on hundreds to thousands of different materials and supplies to keep assets running. This type of inventory, known as maintenance, repair, and operations (MRO) inventory, includes spare parts, lubricants, tools, safety gear, and other consumables that do not make it into the final product (or service).

Yet, while 94% of industry professionals view MRO inventory as being extremely or somewhat important, it is typically not managed as closely as production inventory. As one can imagine, poorly managed inventory is a real headache for the maintenance department. This article explains MRO inventory management and how it impacts the maintenance process – and ultimately an organization’s bottom line.

What is MRO Inventory Management?

MRO inventory management, or maintenance inventory management, is the process of procuring, storing, using, and replenishing the materials and supplies used for maintaining assets at the lowest possible cost. This process involves ensuring you have stock on hand while factoring in available storage space and budget. To put it simply, the goal of MRO inventory management is to have the right stock at the right time and place, and at the right cost.

Why MRO Inventory Management is Important

The importance of a properly managed maintenance inventory is fairly clear when you consider all the direct and indirect costs. Consider the following common scenarios:

Production Stoppages

If MRO inventory keeps assets running, what happens when materials and supplies run out? Production screeches to a halt! Meanwhile, you pay a premium for expedited shipping while operators and technicians are on standby, waiting for parts to arrive. This major increase in downtime makes the total repair cost skyrocket. If you simply cannot wait to restore assets, you must use risky stopgap measures that could endanger product quality or safety.

Overstock

Having too much inventory can also be a problem. Perhaps you attempt to avoid stockouts by ordering extra parts, only to find that they are seldom used. Alternatively, maybe you panic-purchased a part you knew you had, but just couldn’t find at the time you needed it. In either case, excess inventory sits on a shelf, further cluttering your stockroom. Even worse, you cannot reclaim the money spent.

Losses in Productivity

Finally, let’s not forget how poor MRO inventory management affects day-to-day operations. By some estimates, technicians spend as much as 25% of their time trying to secure parts. While this may only increase downtime a little bit each time, it quickly adds up. Not to mention, there’s also a fair amount of frustration that goes along with not being able to find a part you need.

To remedy this problem, some technicians create their own “private” inventories of materials in their toolboxes or in desk drawers. Though it may be convenient for the individual, this inventory is not available for other technicians when needed. Due to the inaccurate stock counts, the organization may face production stoppages, overstock, duplicated orders, and other bottlenecks in the maintenance process.

Components of MRO Inventory Management

The core components of MRO inventory management are identification, location, procurement, and inventory control, described below. As you read each section, think about how each resolves the problems stated above.

Identification

Swift, effective maintenance relies on knowing exactly what MRO items are kept in stock in your maintenance inventory. Maintenance teams are often judged based on response time, so being able to quickly identify the materials you need for a job is crucial.

Consider that manufacturers may use different parts in their designs, even for similar types of equipment. It is possible that no two machines may share the same parts or require the same supplies. This reality is even more visible when looking at a supplier’s parts catalog. For example, hardware supplier McMaster-Carr lists over 56,000 different types of fasteners!

Maintenance inventory management can be improved simply by identifying what items are stocked. To further assist with identification on an asset level, maintenance teams reference an equipment bill of materials.

Specification

Related to identification is specification. The specification provides the requirements of the spare parts or supplies to ensure an asset’s proper operation. For example, a standard screw has the following attributes, each of which is considered during an asset’s design:

• Thread size
• Length
• Diameter
• Head type (e.g., socket, rounded, flat, hex, etc.)
• Material (e.g., brass, lead, steel, zinc, etc.)
• Drive style (e.g., Phillips, square, slotted, etc.)

How does this affect maintenance? Part specifications define exactly what is needed for optimal asset performance and dictate the tools used to install or utilize the part. In the case of the screw, it’s more efficient for a technician to know which wrench or drill bit will be needed ahead of time. For items that require specialized tools, technicians benefit by ensuring they are available to be checked out ahead of time.

Specifications are also useful when alternative parts or supplies are needed. Tracking specification helps you identify similar, interchangeable parts. In terms of purchasing and reordering, specifications are used to identify vendors that carry the part.

A third way that specification affects maintenance is organization. A stockroom employee may arrange inventory items by their characteristics, such as size, weight, material, shape, and so on. As you’ll read in the next section, an organized stockroom makes MRO items easier to find for technicians.

Location

Once you know what MRO inventory items you have in stock, you must be able to locate them. As mentioned earlier, poor organization leads to unnecessary costs related to expedited orders or losses in productivity. Knowing exactly where MRO inventory items are stored helps improve responsiveness and allows you to fulfill maintenance work orders more efficiently. Locating inventory comes down to creating an organization system and communicating that system with others.

Organization

Depending on the size of your organization, MRO inventory may be spread out across multiple stockrooms or contained within a single storage location. Within those locations, there may be multiple aisles, racks, shelves, and bins. Technicians may keep a personal stock of items in tool chests or service vehicles. Because there are so many places MRO inventory might be stored, you must have a system for organizing the items.

In a grocery store, for example, aisles are numbered, and related items are typically located together. Ask any store clerk about the location of an item, and they can surely tell you what section and aisle to look in. They may even be able to tell you a more precise location, such as “about halfway down, at eye level,” if not the exact shelf.

Similarly, stockrooms and storage locations ordinarily use a letter or number scheme to organize their aisles, racks, shelves, and bins. Like a grocery store, physical labels are affixed to the location, making inventory items easy to find.

Communication

Once items are organized, you must communicate the organization system to others. Appropriate stakeholders should know exactly how things are organized and understand how to interpret naming or numbering conventions. Locations can also be communicated through a maintenance inventory management system such as computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) software.

Procurement

Procurement is the process of obtaining goods or services, such as MRO inventory items, in a cost-effective and time efficient manner. It includes all the activities that take place from the initial requisition to final payment and receipt of goods. In simple terms, the procurement process is how you acquire the MRO inventory items needed for maintenance jobs.

The level of authority given to the maintenance team to make purchases differs from organization to organization. In general, the procurement process will look similar to the following:

1. Identify MRO Inventory Items Needed: Determine what materials and supplies – and stocking levels – are needed for efficient maintenance activities.
2. Generate Purchase Requisition: Create a purchase requisition that includes details such as what items are needed, the recommended vendor, and the date the items are required. Submit the requisition to for approval.
3. Get Purchase Approval: Submit the requisition for review. The purchaser will assess the requisition for completeness and priority. Assuming that the requisition is approved, proceed with the purchase.
4. Select Vendor(s): Identify the best vendor to fulfill the order requirements. Vendor selection criteria may include price, quantity ordered, speed of delivery, customer service, and prior relationships.
5. Create and Issue Purchase Order: Create a purchase order (PO) and issue to the vendor.
6. Receive Order: When the shipment is received, review the delivery, record the items in the inventory tracking system, and stock the items in the appropriate location(s).

Inventory Control

Inventory control ensures the right amount of stock available to the organization so that maintenance can be performed efficiently. It involves knowing what you have, where it is located, and how much of it is on hand. When combined, this information helps those who manage MRO inventory avoid stockouts and ultimately, costly asset downtime.

On the surface, it may sound like inventory control simply means reordering supplies when quantities are low. However, this is only one aspect of inventory control. Proper inventory control also includes regularly counting stock, tracking usage and movement, and anticipating future demand. When it comes to replenishing stock, you must also think about when to place orders, delivery lead times, available storage space, and ways to minimize ordering costs.

MRO Inventory Management Tools

Due to the relatively lax requirements of managing maintenance inventory (compared to other inventory), MRO management tools are typically less robust. In fact, it is not unusual for small businesses to have administrative staff manually track MRO inventory in spreadsheets. Large organizations use enterprise resource planning (ERP) software, though the MRO inventory management capability is often lacking.

Effective maintenance teams benefit from using computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) software for inventory management. With a CMMS, you can leverage functionality designed specifically to help you manage your maintenance inventory. A good CMMS provides the following:

• Comprehensive inventory records
• Automatic MRO inventory count updates
• Reorder point notifications
• Inventory cost tracking
• Vendor and supplier management
• Purchasing capability
• Inventory-focused maintenance reports

Read Cadeco Industries Case Study

Manage MRO Inventory with FTMaintenance

The disorganization of MRO inventory management means there’s ample opportunity for improvement. In fact, some organizations estimate that proper MRO inventory management reduced their inventory spending by as much as 25%!

With FTMaintenance, you can take advantage of these cost savings while increasing your asset’s availability. FTMaintenance CMMS software helps organizations improve their MRO inventory management processes and procedures. Learn more about FTMaintenance inventory management system software.

Organizations that practice lean manufacturing seek to maximize output and work as efficiently as possible. However, manufacturing is a complex process that has many sources of waste, including equipment, machine operators, and production processes. In order to identify and reduce losses, organizations must be able to measure the efficiency of their manufacturing process. That’s where overall equipment effectiveness comes in. This article explores overall equipment effectiveness and its relation to maintenance.

What is Overall Equipment Effectiveness?

Overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) is a business metric that compares your equipment’s ideal performance to its actual performance. “Ideal performance” is considered to be a manufacturing process in which productivity is 100% – meaning that only good parts are produced, as fast as possible, without stopping. However, this level of perfection is impossible. In the real world, equipment fails, employees require breaks, and production processes are imperfect. Therefore, OEE measures how close your “actual” production process is to an ideal one.

What does OEE Mean for Maintenance?

As its name states, OEE is a measure of equipment effectiveness, not maintenance effectiveness. So, why then, should the maintenance team care about OEE? Maintenance activities influence an asset’s availability and reliability, which affect its OEE rating. Conversely, an asset’s OEE rating may change the way you schedule, manage, and carry out maintenance tasks.

Calculating overall equipment effectiveness may not be maintenance’s responsibility, but it is still valuable to learn how OEE is calculated and its significance. As you continue through this article, keep in mind that tracking and monitoring OEE is a company-wide effort, and that the activities of other non-maintenance departments factor into the OEE calculation.

Download our Common Asset Management KPIs Infographic for a quick reference to OEE.

How is OEE Calculated?

Before we jump into OEE calculations, we have a few words of caution. In order to calculate OEE, your organization should have the following in place:

• Well-defined standard operating procedures
• A positive relationship between all associated departments including the maintenance, reliability, and production departments, as well as management
• The ability to track and monitor asset and production data over time
• A computerized maintenance management system (CMMS)
• A well-run preventive maintenance program

OEE calculations require that you track and monitor certain data related to your manufacturing process and equipment. Each of these data points is outlined in its corresponding section below. If you are not currently tracking these values, you will need to collect this data before calculating your OEE. Once you have this information available, you may proceed.

OEE Formula

Overall equipment effectiveness is the product of three factors: availability, performance, and quality.  Therefore, the OEE formula is availability multiplied by performance multiplied by quality. Each of these factors is explored below.

When performing the calculations listed, use the smallest unit of measurement you can and apply it consistently throughout. For example, if time is measured in seconds, every other time measurement should also be measured in seconds. Some time conversion may be required. Failing to use the same units of measure throughout will lead to inaccurate and useless results.

Availability

Availability is a measure of an asset’s actual runtime compared to its planned production time. To calculate availability, divide the runtime (i.e., uptime) by the planned production time (i.e., sum of uptime plus downtime).

In this formula, runtime is the amount of time when the asset is actually running and not experiencing downtime, also called uptime. Planned production time covers the entire time period the asset was expected to run, even if it did not. Therefore, planned production time is the sum of uptime plus downtime.

Asset availability takes into consideration any events that cause downtime and stop planned production for a significant amount of time. How “significant” downtime is defined depends on your organization, but it is commonly any stops that are several minutes long or long enough to warrant the tracking of the downtime event.

Downtime includes both planned and unplanned downtime. Planned downtime includes events such as setup, changeovers, adjustments, cleaning, and planned maintenance. Unplanned downtime is caused by equipment failures leading to unplanned maintenance.

Performance

Performance is a measure of how long it takes to complete a process, such as producing a single unit of a product, compared to the ideal time. To calculate performance, multiply the ideal cycle time by the total count of product, then divide by the runtime. The ideal cycle time is the theoretical maximum speed at which a single unit can be produced.

The performance metric takes into consideration anything that causes production to run at less than maximum speed, such as small stops and reduced operating speed. Small stops are caused by events such as misfeeds, jams, or misaligned sensors, and typically do not require maintenance to intervene. Organizations that employ autonomous maintenance as part of a total productive maintenance (TPM) program are able to greatly reduce small stops. Slow cycles are caused by normal wear and tear, poor lubrication, dirt and debris, and other factors that account for a less-than-ideal cycle time.

Quality

Quality is a measure of how many good units are produced compared to the total number of units produced. “Good” units are considered those that meet quality standards. It excludes scrap, defects, and units that require rework. Total count includes all units produced, regardless of quality.

Poor quality occurs when imperfect units are produced during startup or stable production. During startup, equipment may run through a warm-up cycle where non-usable units are produced. Additionally, human error can lead to incorrect equipment settings or problems during a changeover, which also affect quality. During stable production, incorrect settings and operator error can be responsible for scrap or rework.

Putting It All Together: Calculating OEE

Let’s calculate OEE for a fictional production asset using the following information:

• Planned production time was an 8 hour shift (28,800 seconds).
• An asset experienced 1 hour (3,600 seconds) of downtime.
• The fastest a good unit can be produced is 3 seconds.
• Out of 7,000 units produced, only 6,500 met quality standards.

Availability

To find the runtime, subtract the downtime from the planned production time. In 8 hours of planned production time (28,800 seconds), there was one hour (3,600 seconds) of downtime. Therefore, there were 7 hours (25,200 seconds) of runtime.

Availability = 25,200 seconds / (25,200 seconds + 3,600 seconds) = 0.875

Performance

Under ideal conditions, it takes 3 seconds to produce a single unit. 7,000 units are required. As established in the availability calculation, runtime is 7 hours (25,200 seconds).

Performance = (3 seconds/unit * 7,000 units) / 25,200 seconds = 0.833

Quality

Of the 7,000 units produced, 500 were considered defective.

Quality = 6,500 units / 7,000 units = 0.928

Overall Equipment Effectiveness

With values for availability, performance, and quality, you can now calculate OEE by multiplying the values together.

OEE = 0.875 * 0.833 * 0.928 = 0.676

Multiply the result by 100 to express OEE as a percentage. In this example, the OEE rating is 67.6%

How to Interpret OEE Rating

Your first OEE calculation provides a benchmark against which to compare future OEE ratings. Since the rating is broken down into three parts (i.e., availability, performance, and quality) you can focus on factors that are lagging. After changes have been in place for some time, calculate OEE again and compare the results. Try not to get too hung up on the number itself – what’s important is that the number improves over time.

World-Class OEE

When reading about overall equipment effectiveness, you will often see a cited world-class OEE rating of 85%. While it is tempting to compare your OEE to this number, keep a few things in mind.

First, it is very challenging to achieve a high OEE rating. Consider a production line whose availability, performance, and quality are all 90%. Sounds pretty good, right?  Based on the formula used earlier, the OEE rating for this production line is 72.9% – well below the 85% world-class rating.

Second, the development of world-class OEE was based on experience working in plants that had successfully implemented total productive maintenance (TPM). Organizations that have not done so are unlikely to come close to 85% OEE. In reality, the OEE in most organizations is closer to the 45% – 60% range.

Last, OEE ratings are only true for the exact assets or production processes being measured. OEE ratings should not be compared asset-to-asset or process-to-process unless they are identical. You should not compare OEE between dissimilar assets, processes, organizations, or industries given their numerous differences.

How Maintenance Can Improve Overall Equipment Effectiveness

One of the most important ways the maintenance team can improve OEE is to use a computerized maintenance management system (CMMS). CMMS software tracks critical data about your assets and maintenance process, helping you better manage, organize, and document maintenance activities. Leveraging a CMMS enables you to easily make changes to maintenance operations that contribute to OEE improvements.

A CMMS can be used to collect data about asset failures, maintenance history, and unplanned downtime, useful for improving availability and performance. In terms of performance, organizations can use CMMS software to optimize preventive maintenance schedules, provide technicians with checklists for completing maintenance tasks, and track failure trends.

Proactive maintenance activities planned and managed through a CMMS keeps equipment in optimal condition, thereby impacting quality. In addition, CMMS software functions as a maintenance request system that allows machine operators or others to submit service requests directly to the maintenance department, increasing the awareness of maintenance needs.

Improve Equipment Maintenance with FTMaintenance Select

Though effectively utilizing overall equipment effectiveness is a company-wide effort, the maintenance team has a big role to play in improving asset availability and performance. FTMaintenance Select computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) software provides a single platform for documenting, managing, and tracking maintenance activities, and can be useful tool for OEE calculations. Schedule a demo today to learn more about FTMaintenance Select.

Asset naming conventions can take many forms. Our previous article, 3 Asset Naming Convention Designs to Consider, provides an overview of possible naming conventions that you could use to name assets in your CMMS. Listed among those options is the opportunity to create your own naming system, which is what will be covered in this article.

How to Create Your Own Asset Naming Convention

Asset naming conventions help identify assets throughout your facility.

The following information can assist you in developing your own asset naming convention for your organization. Keep in mind that there is no single, best way to do this, as each organization has different needs. At the very least, we can offer some food for thought and best practices to help you create an effective asset naming convention.

Asset Naming Convention Components

Asset naming conventions consist of two components: 1) a unique asset number and 2) a descriptive name. The asset number is a way to uniquely identify an asset within a CMMS or other computerized maintenance tracking system. Numbers must be unique so that duplicate records do not exist and that maintenance activities can be traced back to specific individual assets. A descriptive name further helps identify assets and ensures that all stakeholders are speaking in common terms when discussing maintenance needs.

Naming Assets

Organizations that create their own asset naming convention should decide what components work best for their stakeholders. For example, organizations that do fleet maintenance may embed manufacturer – but not location information – into the asset name, as vehicles are constantly on the move. Facilities management organizations may use location information, such as an address, as a part of the asset name. Below is a list of potential components that you may embed in your asset number:

• Asset Type: Motor, HVAC unit, press, boiler, etc.
• Characteristic: Make, manufacturer, model, revision, color, size, etc.
• Location: Country, state, site, address, building, floor, room, factory line number, etc.
• Numbers: Manufacturer serial number, VIN number, equipment code, etc.

Describing Assets

As for the descriptive asset name, that part is up to you. It is recommended that you only include enough information as necessary. In fact, a CMMS may limit you as to how many characters (i.e., letters and numbers) can be stored within a field. Asset descriptions may include:

• The asset type
• A description of the sub-type of that asset
• A defining characteristic

For example, a light bulb may be described as “Lamp, Fluorescent, 40 Watt.”

Asset Naming Convention Examples

The following are two examples intended to help you visualize how an asset naming convention might be structured.

Scenario 1

An organization operates out of a single building with a moderate number of assets. A possible naming convention may look something like AAA-###, where:

• AAA represents a three-character code identifying the type of asset (e.g. AHU = “Air Handling Unit”, Chiller = “CHL”, CNC lathe = “CNC”, etc.)
• ### represents the unique identifier, such as a number (e.g., 001, 002, 100, etc.)

Example: CNC-001.

This example refers to one of the CNC lathes located at the facility. The description might be “CNC, 2-Axis, 4500 RPM”.

Scenario 2

An organization has plants in multiple locations across the United States. Each plant has multiple buildings that house several assets of the same type, such as air handling units. The asset naming convention for this organization may be of a form AA-BB-CCC-###, where:

• AA represents the state postal code abbreviation (e.g., AZ, CA, WI, etc.)
• BB represents the building number (e.g., B1, B2, B3, etc.)
• CCC represents a three-character code identifying the type of asset (e.g. AHU = “Air Handling Unit”, Chiller = “CHL”, CNC lathe = “CNC”, etc.)
• ### represents the unique identifier, such as a number (e.g., 001, 002, 100, etc.)

Example: WI-B2-AHU-003.

This example refers to one of the air handling units in building 2 at a Wisconsin-based facility. The description might be “Chiller, Reciprocating, 150 TR”.

Of course, the examples in this article represent naming conventions with varying degrees of depth and do not represent all possible naming structures. It is up to your organization to determine the format, structure, and depth of your naming convention.

Asset Naming Best Practices

Asset naming conventions do not need to be complex in order to be effective. The goal of developing a standardized naming system is for users of your CMMS and other employees to be able to recognize an asset, its location, or its purpose at-a-glance. Keep the following best practices in mind when crafting your asset naming convention:

• Be Logical: Maintenance technicians should be able to draw meaning from asset names. Do not label boilers as “XYZ.” Instead, use a more logical code such as “BOIL” or “BLR”.
• Be Consistent: Terminology, abbreviations, and numbering schemes should not vary. For example, all chillers could be abbreviated as “CHLR”. All numbering should use the same number of digits. For example, the first record created under a number scheme that uses three digits will be “001” instead of “1” or “01”.
• Be Unique: Each asset name should be unique to prevent confusion.
• Avoid Duplicate Data: Asset names do not need to include information that is defined elsewhere (although, they can). Search capabilities in a CMMS make this information easy to find.
• Leave Room for Growth: Naming conventions should leave room to easily add new asset records – which may be subsets of existing records. For example, separate asset numbers by 100, 500, or 1,000 for major subgroups.
• Prioritize the Use of Letters: Numbers, when used alone, hold little meaning. Letters can be much more informative and make asset names easier for employees to interpret.
• Use a “Drill Down” Approach: Employ a hierarchical structure that allows users to “drill down” to relevant, granular data.

Set Yourself Up for Success with FasTrak Consulting Services

Creating an asset naming convention can be a challenge for first-time CMMS users. At FasTrak, we offer CMMS consulting services that will help you and your team maximize your use of FTMaintenance. An FTMaintenance consultant will work with you to understand your current asset environment and develop an effective asset naming convention for your organization. Contact us today to learn more about FasTrak’s FTMaintenance consulting services.

Why Create an Asset Naming Convention?

Naming is a key component of managing assets in a computerized maintenance management system (CMMS). Using consistent asset names in a CMMS, you can identify assets more easily, search and query data more effectively, and make valuable data more readily available.

However, CMMS software limits the number of characters allowed in a given data field, making it necessary to rethink how assets will be named in the system. Now, you may be asking what the best way is to design your naming scheme. In truth, you can format asset names any way you wish…although there are some generally accepted best practices which we encourage you to follow. These practices are outlined in our article, How to Create Your Own Asset Naming Convention.

Asset naming conventions vary from organization to organization. The naming scheme your company uses is entirely up to you! The purpose of this article is to provide you with a few options to consider when crafting your asset naming convention: 1) using an existing internal naming convention, 2) using a tried-and-true system, and 3) creating your own naming convention.

3 Asset Naming Convention Designs to Consider

Follow an Existing Internal Asset Naming Convention

Remember, it is not only the maintenance team that needs to track maintenance assets. The accounting department is also responsible for tracking all assets and their costs, such as original purchase price, depreciation, and maintenance expenses. It should be no surprise that the accounting team also values a good naming convention.

Making use of an existing internal naming convention can be beneficial, as it allows for better cross-department communication about maintenance assets. Look to see how your organization’s accounting department names assets and consider if it will work for you. If you are unsatisfied with their naming system, you should still track the number in your CMMS. Doing so ensures that both departments have a common reference when referring to the same asset.

Below are some advantages and disadvantages of this asset naming convention option:

Advantages:

• Easy to Implement or Adopt: Asset names and numbers have already been assigned by an internal resource. All you must do is match names and numbers to the asset records in your CMMS.
• Improved Communication: A single naming system leads to better cross-departmental communication between maintenance, accounting, purchasing, and others.

Disadvantages:

• May Not Meet Requirements: The naming convention may not meet your maintenance management requirements if it was developed with a different purpose in mind.
• Possibility of Change: It is possible that the base naming convention may change, creating a mismatch between your asset records and data in other systems.

Rely on Tried-and-True Asset Naming Systems

There’s no need to reinvent the wheel. There are already a number of tried-and-true naming conventions out there. For instance, your vendors may already use a naming system that you can easily adopt. Employees may also offer ideas of what worked well based on their previous work experience.

A well-vetted, proven asset naming system is the United States Department of Defense’s National Stock Number (NSN) system. Regarded as the gold standard in asset naming, domestic and foreign governments across the world use the NSN system because it provides a standardized asset naming system for a large number of items – as many as 6 million items (and counting)!

National Stock Number Anatomy. Image derived from Wikipedia – click image to visit page.

The National Stock Number itself is made up of smaller subgroups, each with their own coding system. The 4-digit Federal Supply Classification Group (FSCG) number is comprised of the Federal Supply Group (FSG) and Federal Supply Class (FSC) numbers.

The next portion is the 9-digit National Item Identification Number (NIIN). The first two digits are the National Codification Bureau (NCB) number, a “country code” or “nation code” that represents the nation assigning the item number. For example, the United States is represented by “00” or “01”; Canada’s code is “20” or “21”. The remaining 7 digits are sequentially assigned, unique numbers.

Aside from the asset number itself, the NSN system also seeks to establish a simple, common description for each tracked asset. For example, a CNC lathe might be described as “CNC, 4-axis, 3000 RPM.” This link provides a thorough explanation of the National Stock Number (NSN) system and can be a good research document for those interested in studying further.

Of course, even widely used naming systems aren’t “one size fits all” solutions. Just because you are basing your asset naming convention on a tried-and-true system doesn’t mean that you can’t make changes. You can take the elements that apply most and modify it for what makes the most sense for your organization.

Below are some advantages and disadvantages of this asset naming convention option:

Advantages:

• Trustworthy: Other organizations have used the naming system with great success, giving you the confidence that your asset naming convention will also be successful.
• Easy to Use: Well-established naming systems provide a template from which you can easily assign names and numbers to your assets.
• Best Practices: Tried-and-true naming conventions are regarded as best practice, which may not necessarily be true with internal or custom naming systems.

Disadvantages:

• Complexity: Some naming conventions consist of many separate coding systems, making it tedious to follow or apply.
• Too Large of a Scope: Naming systems such as the NSN tracks millions of assets. You may not require the same level of detail if managing a small number of assets. A simpler naming strategy may be more appropriate.

Create Your Own Asset Naming Convention

While it is convenient to base your asset naming convention off of an existing one, other schemes are not always easily adapted to your needs. Instead, you can create your own naming system. Custom-made naming systems provide the flexibility to make asset numbers and names more meaningful for your team.

For example, you can build meaning into asset numbers by incorporating information such as asset type, manufacturer, model, building number, and more. For more detail, read our article How to Create Your Own Asset Naming Convention. Below are some advantages and disadvantages of this asset naming convention option:

Advantages:

• Flexibility: Since you are not locked in to a previously-defined set of naming rules, you can incorporate any information of your choosing to make names and numbers more meaningful to your team.
• Meets Your Specific Requirements: You know your maintenance needs the best. A custom naming convention gives you the exact information your organization requires.

Disadvantages:

• Time to Develop: It takes careful planning, time, and effort to devise the rules and requirements that must be adhered to when naming assets.
• Longevity: Custom naming conventions that aren’t built with enough flexibility break down over time, creating the need to change the system.

Manage Your Assets with FTMaintenance

FTMaintenance asset management software allows organizations of all sizes to effectively track their maintenance assets. To help you use FTMaintenance most efficiently, we offer CMMS consulting services that can be used to help your team evaluate and develop asset naming conventions. We draw on over 30 years of experience in industrial automation to make maintenance management easy for our customers. Contact us to learn more about FasTrak’s FTMaintenance consulting services.

Unfortunately, not much attention is given to the process of naming assets. Can you imagine identifying tens to thousands of assets based solely on a description? Not only would it be exhausting and confusing, it would be highly inefficient. In this article, we cover the basics of asset naming conventions.

What is an Asset Naming Convention?

Asset naming conventions make asset identification easy, both in real life and in your CMMS.

In relation to implementing computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) software, an asset naming convention defines how your assets will be referenced in the system. As mentioned in our article, What is Asset Management?, identification plays an important role in asset management. Asset naming conventions are developed to remove any vagueness and ambiguity when communicating about maintenance assets.

Why Naming Assets Matters

By looking at the name alone, stakeholders should be able to tell what an asset is and where it belongs. While you could name assets willy-nilly, if you want to meet the goals of efficient communication and analysis, asset names must be standardized.

Naming Convention Example: Corporate Email Addresses

To demonstrate, let’s look at a naming convention for corporate email addresses:

A very common way to assign email addresses to employees is to use some combination of their first and last name. For example, John Doe’s email address might be jdoe@example.com, john.doe@example.com, or something similar. The next email assigned would follow the same structure – James Smith’s email would start with jsmith or james.smith.

The pattern then continues for each employee – using the first convention, Derek Johnson’s email address starts with djohnson, Alice Matthews’ starts with amatthews, Mike Williams’ mwilliams, and so on.

Based on this naming convention, it is very easy for an employee to determine the email address for Mark Jacobs without knowing it beforehand. Also, there is no confusion as to whom the address belongs. Now, imagine how difficult it would be if employee email addresses did not follow such a structure – it would be very easy to make mistakes and become confused. The same concept applies to the naming of industrial assets.

Importance of Asset Naming Conventions in Maintenance Management

From the corporate email address example, hopefully you’ve identified why standardized asset naming is important. The same benefits apply to maintenance management as well. Here are a few ways asset naming conventions can improve maintenance management:

• Quicker Onboarding of New Employees: You cannot assume that new employees have experience with the types of assets used in your organization. While over time technicians will be able to easily identify assets, it will be difficult for someone new to know the differences between them.
• Brevity: Though manual maintenance management systems allow you to be more verbose and wordy, lengthy descriptions take more time for technicians to decipher. Maintenance software limits the amount of characters that can be used, making it necessary to be short and to the point when describing assets.
• Consistent Data Entry: A clear naming convention makes it easy for users to name new assets during data entry.
• Efficient Use of CMMS: A standardized asset naming convention allows CMMS users to quickly locate existing assets in the system. Additionally, finding and sorting assets becomes easier because data is grouped together in a more logical manner

Further Reading: What is Asset Management?

Track Assets with FTMaintenance

Asset naming conventions are important, but there is more to asset management than naming and numbering. With a proper maintenance management system like FTMaintenance in place, you can identify, locate, track, and report on your maintenance assets. Learn more about FTMaintenance asset management software.

Key Takeaways

• Condition-based maintenance (CbM) is a proactive maintenance technique that focuses on real-time asset performance
• CbM alerts employees when equipment is performing outside of its specified range, prompting maintenance intervention
• Assets with high repair and replacement costs are good candidates for condition-based maintenance
•  Computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) software, like FTMaintenance, tracks maintenance activities related to condition-based maintenance

What is Condition-based Maintenance?

Condition-based maintenance (CbM) is a proactive maintenance technique that uses real-time data (collected through sensors) to identify when an asset’s performance or condition reaches an unsatisfactory level. By observing the state of an asset, a practice known as condition monitoring, maintenance professionals can identify when an asset is about to fail or has failed. With CbM, maintenance work is performed only when needed in response to the asset’s real condition, preventing unnecessary maintenance tasks.

Condition-based Maintenance (CbM) vs. Predictive Maintenance (PdM)

Though condition-based maintenance and predictive maintenance (PdM) have some overlap and are often used interchangeably, they are not technically the same. CbM focuses on real-time asset performance and conditions, and alerts you the exact moment monitored parameters are out of bounds. For example, a sensor reading taken from an oil pump may show a major drop in pressure, indicating that a component has failed.

Predictive maintenance utilizes real-time asset data, like CbM, in addition to predictive analysis to determine when an asset will fail in the future. To continue our previous example, sensor readings from an oil pump may be used to forecast when an issue will occur or is beginning to form. As you can see, while both CbM and PdM use condition monitoring, the key difference is timing – what is the condition of an asset right now (CbM) versus what might the condition of the asset be in the future (PdM).

How Condition-based Maintenance Works

Condition-based maintenance consists of three steps: 1) capturing sensor data, 2) communicating data, and 3) performing maintenance work.

Capturing Sensor Data

Condition-based maintenance monitors asset performance through non-destructive testing carried out by condition-monitoring sensors. These sensors check conditions, such as vibration, temperature, and pressure, while assets are in operation. They may be provided by the original equipment manufacturer (OEM), be integral to the equipment, or purchased and retrofitted after initial installation. Common condition-monitoring sensors include:

• Accelerometers: Measure vibration, velocity, and displacement.
• Infrared Cameras: Detect heat and displays results on a thermal image.
• Fluid Condition Sensors: Observe the condition of a fluid such as oil.
• Tank Level Sensors: Monitor the level of fluid in a tank.
• Pressure Transducers: Measure the pressure of liquids and gases.
• Ammeters: Gauge the current running through a circuit.

Communicating Data

Trained maintenance technicians can view data captured by sensors to better understand an asset’s current condition before performing maintenance work.

Once a sensor has found that a monitored parameter is out of its normal operating range, it must communicate that information to a human employee who can provide a remedy. Notifications can take many forms. A programmable logic controller (PLC) that runs a machine may notify a technician that service is required in a variety of ways like, for example, turning on a stack light. A human-machine interface (HMI) or SCADA system may turn on a warning light, sound an alarm, display a message, or send a text or email notification. Computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) software may auto-generate a work order.

Performing Maintenance Work

When a monitored condition creates an alarm or notification, the maintenance team is dispatched to fix the problem. Based on the resolution, the maintenance team will create Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) that provide technicians with step-by-step instructions on how to solve the issue. SOPs are then included on maintenance work orders generated by CMMS software, enabling technicians to respond faster and perform repairs with higher quality and consistency. Maintenance personnel also document their work in the CMMS once work is complete.

Advantages of Condition-based Maintenance

As part of an overall maintenance management strategy, condition-based maintenance provides the following advantages:

• Optimized Time Spent on Maintenance: Condition-based maintenance is performed as needed, maintenance teams can optimize the use of their time.
• Less Disruption of Production: Some issues identified by CbM can be corrected without shutting down equipment, ensuring higher availability for production.
• Lowered Chance of Catastrophic Failure: Condition-monitoring sensors catch problems the moment they happen, allowing technicians to respond quickly before more serious problems develop.
• Reduced Asset Downtime: When properly configured, CbM can be associated with specific failure modes. This allows the maintenance team to quickly diagnose possible causes, thereby increasing the speed of response times and reducing downtime.

Disadvantages of Condition-based Maintenance

Every maintenance approach has drawbacks. The following list outlines some of the challenges with CbM:

• High Sensor Costs: Cost of purchasing, installing, and maintaining condition-monitoring sensors and related software can exceed the total benefit of reduction on failures and downtime.
• Unpredictable Peak Times: Condition-based maintenance events are unplanned and may result in periods where multiple assets need attention at the same time.
• Difficulty in Choosing Sensors: Sensors come in many different types, sizes, and shapes, making it a challenge to select the right one.
• Reliability of Sensors: Sensors installed and used in harsh locations have the potential to become damaged, perform incorrectly, and provide faulty readings. Wireless sensors rely on the strength of the company’s Wi-Fi signal to consistently communicate data.
• Required Expertise: A high level of technical knowledge by staff is necessary to implement and maintain sensors, use related software, and interpret sensor data.

When to Use Condition-based Maintenance

The decision whether to use condition-based maintenance depends on the expected return on investment (ROI). Organizations must assess the amount of risk involved if an asset fails by asking questions like:

• How critical are potential failures?
• What does it cost to resolve failures?
• Are those failures likely to recur?

Highly critical production assets with high repair and replacement costs are usually the best candidates for a condition-based maintenance program. Typically, CbM is used in large, asset-intensive organizations including automotive suppliers, oil and gas, facilities with complex building automation systems, utilities, and organizations that rely on fleet vehicles.

Read On: Explore our Industries page to see how FTMaintenance supports your industry.

FTMaintenance Supports Condition-based Maintenance

Maintenance professionals track condition-based maintenance activities in CMMS software like FTMaintenance. FTMaintenance provides a single platform for documenting, managing, and tracking CbM work orders and maintenance resources. Schedule a demo today to discover how FTMaintenance can support your condition-based maintenance operation.

Assets that fail unexpectedly result in costly downtime, lost productivity, and safety risks. While preventive maintenance can reduce the likelihood of failures, it doesn’t account for an asset’s actual condition and often leads to over-maintenance.

Predictive maintenance (PdM) helps organizations anticipate equipment failures by leveraging real-time data, allowing them to perform maintenance only when truly necessary. In this article, we explore how predictive maintenance enables a more proactive, data-driven approach to failure prevention.

What is Predictive Maintenance?

Predictive maintenance (PdM) is a proactive maintenance technique that uses real-time asset data (collected through sensors), historical performance data, and advanced analytics to forecast when an asset failure will occur.

Using data collected by condition-monitoring devices during normal operation, predictive maintenance software uses advanced formulas (called algorithms) to compare real-time data against known measurements and accurately predict asset failure. This data is often integrated and managed within a computerized maintenance management system (CMMS), which helps track asset data and schedule work orders based on these predictions.

Advanced PdM techniques may incorporate cutting-edge technologies such as machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI). The result of PdM is that maintenance work can be scheduled and performed before an asset is expected to fail, thereby helping minimize downtime.

Preventive Maintenance vs. Predictive Maintenance

Preventive maintenance (PM) and predictive maintenance share a common goal – to stop asset failures before they happen. However, they differ in their approach.

In a typical PM program, maintenance activities are commonly scheduled according to strict time-based or usage-based intervals, manufacturer recommendations, or as a result of inspections. While useful, these methods only detect obvious problems based on one’s sense of sight, sound, touch, and smell.

Predictive maintenance relies on data gathered through condition-monitoring sensors that can detect internal wear that cannot be directly observed, is too dangerous for humans to inspect, or would otherwise require equipment to be shut down and opened up. Maintenance events are then scheduled based on an asset’s real condition and performance, and performed only when needed.

Condition-based Maintenance vs. Predictive Maintenance

Condition-based maintenance (CbM) and predictive maintenance are closely related strategies, but differ in how and when they trigger maintenance tasks.

CbM involves monitoring equipment in real time or at set intervals to measure whether equipment performance exceeds predefined thresholds. For example, a work order may be triggered if a vibration reading goes beyond an acceptable limit. While this approach prevents some failures, it is still largely reactive – maintenance is only performed when warning signs are already present.

Predictive maintenance takes condition monitoring a step further by using advanced analytics and machine learning to detect subtle patterns in sensor data that indicate future failure. This proactive approach gives maintenance teams more time to act or schedule maintenance well-before failure occurs.

How Predictive Maintenance Works

Predictive maintenance involves three main components:

1. Capturing sensor data
2. Communicating data
3. Making predictions via data analysis.

Let’s use an analogy to explain: think of the weather forecast provided by your local TV news station. To provide an accurate weather forecast, meteorologists collect and analyze weather data obtained from multiple sources, such as Doppler Radars, satellites, and surface-level weather stations. These devices measure conditions such as air temperature, wind speed, and barometric pressure, and send the data to a database.

With the assistance of computer-based modeling and analytics tools, meteorologists are able to turn the stored data into a weather forecast presented to viewers. Based on the forecast, viewers can prepare for the days ahead, including how to dress, what road conditions are expected, and how travel times may be affected. Predictive maintenance works in a similar way.

Although you cannot control all events, with an accurate prediction you can often prevent asset failure. Just as meteorologists rely on specialized tools to measure weather patterns, predictive maintenance depends on multiple technologies to monitor asset health.

Capturing Sensor Data

Predictive maintenance utilizes sensors and nondestructive testing to evaluate an asset’s performance and condition. Condition-monitoring sensors can perform spot checks at regular intervals or continuously monitor assets while they are in normal operation. Common condition-monitoring technologies include:

• Infrared thermography: Detects temperature using infrared imaging.
• Acoustic monitoring: “Listens” for sonic and ultrasonic frequencies.
• Current analysis: Measures voltage and electrical current.
• Corona detection: Identifies electrical discharge.
• Vibration analysis: Monitors displacement, velocity, or acceleration to identify vibration patterns.
• Oil analysis: Checks lubrication of machinery and assesses oil condition.

Communicating Data

Once sensors have captured equipment condition and performance data, it must be stored and analyzed. One advanced communication technology is called the Internet of Things (IoT), where equipment sensors send and share information via a wired or wireless internet connection. Data is sent to, and stored in, a database where it awaits analysis.

Making Predictions

The defining function of predictive maintenance is the ability to forecast when an asset will fail. This capability is what sets PdM apart from condition-based maintenance. Data is collected and analyzed using algorithms to compare an asset’s current performance against its expected performance, determine the level of deterioration, and estimate when maintenance will be needed.

More advanced PdM programs apply machine learning to historical failure patterns, using sophisticated models to more accurately predict remaining useful life (RUL). These models improve over time as they learn from additional data, making predictions increasingly more accurate and reliable.

However, the accuracy of predictive maintenance depends heavily on the quality of the data collected. If sensors are improperly calibrated, data is incomplete, or CMMS records are outdated, the predictions generated by PdM algorithms may be unreliable. Therefore, in addition to their regular maintenance work, maintenance teams must regularly verify that sensors are functioning properly.

CMMS software supports predictive maintenance by providing historical equipment data for use in predictive algorithms. It also contributes to maintenance planning by generating, scheduling and tracking work orders based on predictive analysis.

Advantages of Predictive Maintenance

The U.S. Department of Energy’s Operations and Maintenance Best Practices Guide reports that predictive maintenance can reduce maintenance costs by up to 30%, eliminate breakdowns by up to 70%, and increase equipment uptime by as much as 35%. In addition, predictive maintenance offers these additional benefits:

• Improved Ease of Maintenance Scheduling: Since the need for service is known well-before work is actually required, activities can be scheduled when equipment is available for maintenance.
• Increased Asset Uptime: Assets can remain in operation until maintenance is truly warranted. Other strategies may cause excessive downtime due to over-maintaining, under-maintaining, or unexpected breakdowns. By relying on actual equipment condition, PdM minimizes unnecessary downtime.
• Combined Benefits of Other Maintenance Techniques: PdM combines the proactive nature of preventive maintenance with the real-time monitoring of CbM to deliver optimal timing and resource use.
• Lower MRO Inventory Costs: Predictive maintenance helps maintenance teams better forecast inventory demand, reducing last-minute purchases, expedited shipping costs, and excess MRO inventory.
• Improved Safety: PdM helps identify and address potential failures before they become more severe, helping to reduce the risk of equipment-related damage and accidents.

Disadvantages of Predictive Maintenance

Even with all its benefits, be aware of some of the potential drawbacks of predictive maintenance.

• Large Upfront Cost: A predictive maintenance program requires a large investment in condition monitoring hardware, advanced analytical software, employee training, and man-hours to purchase and install. These costs can be a barrier to smaller organizations or those with limited budgets.
• Required Expertise: PdM requires staff with specialized knowledge in sensor technology, data interpretation, and software tools. These technical skills may not be readily available in every organization.
• Not Cost-Effective for All Assets: PdM is best applied to mission critical, high-value assets. Simpler maintenance strategies may offer a better return on investment for low cost, non-critical equipment.

When to Use Predictive Maintenance

Deciding whether to use predictive maintenance depends largely on its return on investment (ROI). That is, whether the cost savings from avoiding unplanned downtime and extending asset life will outweigh the costs of implementation. Organizations should also consider an asset’s criticality and repair vs. replacement cost. PdM is most valuable for high-value, production-critical assets whose failure significantly disrupts operations.

Industries with remote or mobile assets – such as oil and gas, utilities, and fleet maintenance – also benefit from predictive maintenance, as it reduces the need for frequent site visits and allows maintenance to be scheduled only when necessary.

Additionally, compliance with industry standards or contractual obligations may require adopting predictive maintenance practices. For example, international standards such as ISO 17359 provide best practices for condition monitoring and diagnostics, which some organizations adopt to meet customer expectations, regulatory oversight, or quality certifications.

However, predictive maintenance is not the right fit for all assets. For example, using sensors to monitor a facility’s roof for leaks would require numerous sensors, without a guarantee they’d be placed in areas where issues actually occur. In such cases, preventive maintenance tasks, such as regular inspections, are more practical and cost-effective. Similarly, for assets that are inexpensive or easily replaced, setting up a PdM program may outweigh any potential savings.

It is important to understand that implementing a predictive maintenance program is not immediate. Organizations may spend several months collecting baseline performance data, fine-tuning predictive algorithms, and integrating their CMMS. While the long-term payoff can be substantial, it requires careful planning, consistent data input, and ongoing evaluation to achieve ROI.

Anticipate Equipment Failures with FTMaintenance Select

Predictive maintenance is an advanced maintenance strategy that helps you avoid unnecessary downtime and maintenance intervention. While implementing PdM is a large undertaking, it is more manageable with the right tools in place.

FTMaintenance Select is a comprehensive CMMS solution that helps you document, manage, and track maintenance activities from a single platform, regardless of which maintenance strategies you use. Our work order software automates work order creation, notification, distribution, and completion to help you stay ahead of issues and keep operations running smoothly. Mobile CMMS extends your CMMS to technicians in the field, allowing real-time work order management while on the go. Request a demo today to see how FTMaintenance Select empowers you to become more proactive about failure prevention.

Key Takeaways:

• Facility management encompasses the management of physical workplaces, people, and support services
• Maintenance functions support the day-to-day and long-term operational goals of facilities
• Facilities maintenance teams greatly benefit from using computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) software, like FTMaintenance

Whether it is a manufacturing plant, a hospital, or an apartment complex, all types of facilities must be properly managed to stay functional. Though the concept of facility management is not new, its meaning has evolved as buildings have become more complex. This article provides a brief introduction to facility management.

What is Facility Management?

First, let’s define what is meant by “facility.” While many people associate the word facility with industrial buildings and factories, a facility can be simply defined as “a place for doing something.” Therefore, facilities include schools, hotels, hospitals, offices, and other spaces.

Now, we can define facility management. There are many definitions out there, including the following:

• From the International Facility Management Association (IFMA): “A profession that encompasses multiple disciplines to ensure functionality, comfort, safety, and efficiency of the built environment by integrating people, place, process, and technology.”
• From the International Standards Organization (ISO): “An organizational function which integrates people, place, and process within the built environment with the purpose of improving the quality of life of people and the productivity of the core business.”

While each of these definitions is correct, they are a bit technical. For this article, facility management (FM) is defined as the coordination of physical workplaces (facilities), people, and support services in order to support a business’s goals in the most cost effective way possible.

Why Facility Management is Important

Simply put, facility management adds value to a business by addressing many of its immediate and long-term needs. When properly done, facility management activities reduce maintenance costs, ensure the well-being of employees, and protect the business from liability. Continuity planning helps organizations prepare for growth and develop contingency plans for emergencies. Ultimately, facility management creates a productive environment that allows the organization to focus on its core mission and goals.

Components of Facility Management

The components of facility management are commonly divided into two groups, hard services and soft services, which are described in the following sections. Keep in mind that the scope of facility management covers a broad range of functions and activities. The mixture of responsibilities is unique to each organization, and not every one performs each function.

Hard Facilities Management Services

Hard services relate to the maintenance and management of any physical part of a building, including assets, space, and infrastructure. These services are typically required by law and are essential to the workplace. Hard facilities management services include:

• Management of planning, construction, design, and relocation projects
• Management of building systems including HVAC, electrical, and plumbing
• Real estate management and leasing
• Preventive maintenance (PM) on buildings, interiors, and assets
• Managing and responding to maintenance requests
• Other capital improvements

Soft Facilities Management Services

Soft services are services related to people, whether they are employees, customers, or tenants. These services make facilities more comfortable, satisfying, and secure. Soft facilities management services include:

• Building security
• Space planning
• Responding to environmental, health, and safety issues, including emergency planning and preparedness
• Catering and food services
• Cleaning, sanitation, and janitorial services
• Groundskeeping, landscaping, and pest control
• Educating others about regulations and compliancy requirements
• Mail management
• Waste management

Facilities Management Operations and Maintenance

With the countless number of assets to maintain throughout an facility, there’s no question that maintenance plays a key role in the facility management. Maintenance ensures that all moving parts of a facility’s operations are well-kept and remain functional. Not only that, but operations and maintenance work together to provide an engaging, productive environment.

Maintenance functions assist with both day-to-day and long-term facilities operations. During everyday operations, the maintenance team resolves unexpected issues, such as repairing a roof leak or fixing a jammed machine. Ideally, facility managers will be alerted of maintenance needs via a maintenance request system.

Facility management also considers long-term maintenance needs. Building systems, such as HVAC, electrical and lighting, plumbing, and security services are monitored through regular preventive maintenance. Repairs can be anticipated through predictive maintenance (PdM), although this type of maintenance is typically only possible in very large organizations.

Aside from maintaining and repairing assets, maintenance inspections are vital to facility operations. Through inspections, facility managers confirm that a workplace is up-to-code and meets regulatory requirements. Doing so keeps people and the environment healthy and safe.

Given all that goes in to facility maintenance, one can imagine the difficulty of tracking maintenance activities by hand. Many organizations track their maintenance activities in computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) software.

CMMS for Facility Maintenance Management

Facility management professionals can greatly benefit from using CMMS software. A good CMMS stores all information about your equipment and facility assets, MRO inventory, and employees in one place. Listed below are other features and functionality that make CMMS an essential tool for managing facilities:

Automated Preventive Maintenance Scheduling

Though regular preventive maintenance is a high priority, it’s easy for work orders to fall through the cracks. CMMS software organizes and automates your master preventive maintenance plan. Automated work order scheduling and activation ensures that preventive maintenance activities are performed right on time, every time.

Maintenance Request System

It is important to keep an eye on the maintenance needs across the facility. A maintenance request system allows non-maintenance employees, tenants, and customers to submit requests directly to the maintenance department. Instead of inundating maintenance staff with emails, phone calls, and pages, users submit requests through a simple, online form. By using a single channel to receive requests, unexpected maintenance needs become much easier to manage.

Vendor and Contractor Management

Commonly, organizations outsource some aspect of their facilities management operations. For example, it may be more economical for an HVAC service provider to fix rooftop units instead of hiring a specialist full time. A CMMS tracks vendors that provide maintenance supplies, parts, and services. Some solutions even provide invoicing, inventory purchasing, and receiving functionality.

Mobile Access

Today’s maintenance technician is constantly on the go. It is inefficient, inconvenient, and at times, impossible for technicians to be tethered to a standard, desktop computer. Modern CMMS systems provide mobile accessibility that allows staff to access work orders and maintenance data on location from internet-connected devices.

Manage Your Facility with FTMaintenance

FTMaintenance CMMS software supports all industries that perform facility maintenance, such as manufacturing plants, government, hospitals, and property management. Learn more about how FTMaintenance facility maintenance software improves facility management.

Read Case Study: Greater Hickory Cooperative Christian Ministry

Total productive maintenance (TPM) is a high-level maintenance philosophy that has spawned much research and analysis from academics. Instead of doing a deep dive into all the tools, techniques, and methodologies involved in TPM, our goal is to introduce the main ideas of total productive maintenance in a simple, straightforward way.

What is Total Productive Maintenance?

Let’s start with a definition of total productive maintenance. Total productive maintenance (TPM) is a system of maintaining and improving the effectiveness of production through assets, employees, and processes that maximize equipment availability. To truly appreciate why TPM was developed, let’s add some context to our TPM definition.

TPM in Manufacturing

Manufacturing and other asset-centric organizations are highly dependent on equipment. In an ideal world, production would be perfect – you would produce high-quality, non-defective goods, as fast as possible, with zero downtime. In reality, there are production losses throughout the manufacturing process. Manufacturers want to reduce and control these losses as much as possible to achieve near-perfect production. (For organizations tracking Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE), this means achieving an OEE value that is as close to 100% as possible.)

In order to achieve optimal production, assets must be available when needed for production. Whether automated and run continuously or manually operated and run periodically, money is lost when equipment is stopped. At first, you might think it makes sense to hire additional maintenance staff that can be ready at a moment’s notice. However, overstaffing or idling employees can be very costly as well. Now what?

What if everyone, not just the maintenance team, was responsible for the upkeep and maintenance of production equipment? For instance, what if operators were trained to perform simple preventive maintenance activities on their equipment so the maintenance team could focus on more critical maintenance projects? Taking this idea a step further, what if engineers and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) modified their designs to make them easier to use and maintain? These questions led to the invention of the concept of total productive maintenance.

Who Invented Total Productive Maintenance?

The idea of total productive maintenance was first developed in the 1950’s by Seiichi Nakajima, although the phrase wasn’t widely used until years later. Nakajima, a Japanese engineer, served as an interpreter for presentations on preventive maintenance given by American George Smith, someone at the forefront of maintenance improvement philosophy.

Inspired by Smith, Nakajima combined concepts from American preventive maintenance with other maintenance practices such as reliability engineering, quality management, and operator-assisted maintenance into a new process called total productive maintenance (TPM). This early version of TPM was founded on 5S, a workplace organization methodology which includes the following steps: 1) sort, 2) set in order, 3) shine (clean and organize), 4) standardize, and 5) sustain.

The 8 Pillars of TPM

Going beyond the 5S framework set by Nakajima, the Japanese Institute of Plant Maintenance (JIPM) further enhanced his idea by incorporating lessons from lean manufacturing. This led to the development of the 8 pillars of TPM, focusing on proactive and preventive maintenance techniques. Let’s briefly describe each pillar:

1. Autonomous maintenance: The responsibility for simple preventive maintenance tasks is placed in the hands of equipment operators.
2. Focused improvement: Small groups work together to identify and eliminate equipment-related losses.
3. Planned maintenance: Scheduled preventive maintenance is based on predicted or measured failure rates.
4. Quality maintenance: Spot checks, inspections, and root cause analysis (RCA) are used to identify and eliminate the causes of defective products.
5. Early equipment management: Changes to equipment design are informed by the knowledge and experience of the people most familiar with it.
6. Training and education: Operators, maintenance staff, and managers are cross-trained in order to fill in knowledge gaps between departments.
7. Safety, health, and environment: Safety-oriented tasks are performed in order to maintain a safe and healthy work environment.
8. Administrative TPM: Improvements are made to administrative functions and office spaces to reduce process losses and eliminate waste.

Who Uses Total Productive Maintenance?

In the 1960’s, Japanese automotive parts supplier Nippondenso (now Denso) was one of the first organizations recognized for employing total productive maintenance, although the components of TPM have changed over time. Today, TPM strategies are still primarily used in the automotive production and supply industry, although elements of total productive maintenance may be used elsewhere in manufacturing and beyond.

Benefits of TPM

Less Unplanned Downtime

As machine operators become more familiar with their equipment, they can more easily recognize when things seem out of the ordinary. Because they are on the front lines and able to spot problems sooner, operators can alert the maintenance team before equipment breaks down. Maintenance can then be planned for a time when it will not interrupt production.

Acknowledges the Importance of Maintenance to the Organization

For too long, maintenance has been viewed as a cost center that does not provide value to the organization. Thankfully, times are changing. With approaches like TPM and reliability centered maintenance (RCM), maintenance is now viewed as vitally important to the business. TPM’s maintenance-oriented approach helps to reinforce the perception that maintenance is something that adds value to the organization.

Safer Work Environment

TPM also brings focus to workplace safety. Introducing or improving safety-related maintenance tasks means that employees are able to work in low-risk environments. When accidents are reduced and potentially dangerous situations are avoided, employees’ attitudes become more positive, which can improve job satisfaction and productivity.

Reduced Backlog

With everyone contributing to maintenance, less pressure is placed on the maintenance team. Over time, the backlog of preventive maintenance jobs and maintenance requests will shrink, freeing up the maintenance team to work on capital improvements and other projects.

Lower Maintenance Costs

Unplanned downtime is costly. TPM’s focus on proactive and preventive maintenance reduces maintenance costs in many ways. For example, equipment that is regularly cleaned, lubricated, and inspected should experience fewer unexpected breakdowns, requiring less maintenance resources.

Predictable maintenance activities allow for better control over MRO inventory stocking levels, ensuring less overstock or expedited inventory purchases. Operators can identify emerging problems with their equipment before they become major failures, resulting in potentially low-cost, less significant repairs.

TPM can also help lower production costs. When equipment is not available, there is a domino effect that can result in stopped production, defective product, idle employees, and employee overtime, not to mention the increased stress of “catching up” when the problem is fixed. When maintenance is viewed as a team effort, production losses due to poor maintenance can be minimized.

Learn more about the advantages of preventive maintenance.

FTMaintenance Supports Total Productive Maintenance

In order for TPM to be successful, you must have a system for tracking maintenance activities. FTMaintenance is a computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) that supports any maintenance strategy by providing a single platform for documenting and tracking maintenance activities. See how FTMaintenance can help you improve your maintenance operations by scheduling your demo today.