FasTrak SoftWorks, Inc. is pleased to announce the release of FTMaintenance Select v.3.74.0.0, which incorporates the following:
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Maintenance management professionals constantly face the critical question of whether to repair or replace an asset. This decision isn’t a simple routine task; each situation presents a unique case that requires careful consideration of the costs and benefits of each option. Making this decision without thorough analysis can lead to significant financial and operational risks.
In this article, we’ll explore what to consider when making repair vs. replace decisions, walk through a typical analysis, and discuss how a computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) can help you make an informed, data-driven decision.
At its core, the goal of a repair vs. replace decision is to minimize an asset’s total cost of ownership to your organization. Rushing into a decision without proper evaluation can be costly and have other long-term effects. Each option – repair or replace – comes with its own benefits and drawbacks, which makes the decision challenging.
Repairing equipment is often a short-term, cost-effective option. Repairs are typically less expensive than purchasing new equipment, can be completed more quickly than sourcing and installing new equipment, and when done correctly, may extend the life of the asset. However, if you don’t address the underlying causes of failure, ongoing repairs will inevitably increase maintenance costs, lower productivity, and cause costly unplanned downtime.
On the other hand, replacing problematic equipment can prove to be more beneficial in the long run. New equipment typically needs less maintenance in the early stages of life, offers new features that enhance productivity, and is more reliable, but requires a significant upfront investment.
Beyond the direct costs to repair or replace, one must also consider factors including:
As you can see, balancing the costs and benefits of equipment repair versus replacement is a strategic choice requiring thorough analysis. By evaluating these factors, you can make informed asset management decisions.
Let’s conduct a basic repair vs. replace cost analysis of a forklift that experiences a transmission failure. Assume the following:
In this scenario, the forklift’s current value is relatively low, and the cost to repair is a significant portion of that remaining value. Let’s explore the business case for both the repair and replace options. To summarize, the forklift is worth $6,000 and has an estimated 3 years of useful life remaining. A transmission rebuild is quoted at $4,000 and the forklift costs $35,000 to replace.
Many sources encourage you to start your repair vs. replace analysis using depreciation, specifically straight-line depreciation, as a rule of thumb. Straight-line depreciation spreads the cost of an asset evenly over its estimated useful life.
Suppose the original forklift truck costed $30,000 and was expected to last 15 years. It depreciated in value by $2,000 every year ($30,000 ÷ 15 years = $2,000 per year). Based on this approach, the forklift’s current value is $6,000 ($30,000 original cost – (12 years × $2,000 of value lost per year) = $30,000 original cost – $24,000 depreciation = $6,000 remaining value).
While straight-line depreciation is a simple way to valuate assets, it’s primary purpose is for tax and financial reporting, as outlined by Internal Revenue Service (IRS) guidelines. These guidelines are meant to standardize how assets are depreciated for tax compliance purposes, but do not necessarily reflect actual equipment performance. As a result, accounting depreciation and the depreciation estimated by the maintenance team may not match.
Depending on the nature of a given repair, you must determine whether value will be added back to the asset in terms of performance and useful life. In this case, we must determine whether the repair will extend the forklift’s useful life.
For example, suppose you determine that rebuilding the transmission allows the forklift to fulfill its remaining 3 years of useful life. Your $4,000 in maintenance costs allows you to maintain the forklift’s operation, but does not add any new value or increase performance.
Alternatively, if you estimate that the transmission rebuild will enhance performance and extend the forklift’s useful life by an additional 3 years, the situation changes. The $4,000 repair allows the forklift to operate for another 6 years total (3 remaining useful years + 3 extended years) and you avoid the significant cost of replacement.
A common rule of thumb in repair vs. replace decisions is the “50% rule.” This guideline suggests that if a repair costs more than 50% of the cost of replacement, it is more cost-effective to replace the asset. Some organizations use a different threshold, such as the United States Marine Corps, which uses a threshold of 65%. In our example, 50% of the cost of replacement is $17,500. The repair cost is only $4,000, suggesting that repair might be a good option.
Replacing the forklift requires an upfront capital investment of $35,000, which is more than 8 times as much as the repair. However, the new forklift is expected to last for 15 years, which is an additional 9 – 12 years compared to the repaired one. Newer equipment typically has lower maintenance costs in their first few years, leading to lower maintenance costs. Additionally, any new technology, improved design, and advanced capabilities may make the new lift more productive compared to the current one.
It is important to recognize that the forklift may require other significant repairs (and as a result, downtime) as it approaches the end of its lifecycle. Future maintenance and operational costs will impact your total cost of ownership and should be factored into your repair vs. replace cost analysis.
For example, assume that the forklift’s annual maintenance cost under normal operation is $800, and costs are expected to increase by 10% each year. By the end of its 3 remaining years of useful life, you’ll incur another $2,648 in routine maintenance costs ($800 in the third-to-last year + $880 in the second-to-last year + $968 in the last year = $2,648), barring any additional major repairs. These standard repairs do not add new value to the forklift truck, and now the remaining total cost of maintenance over the 3 years is $6,648 ($4,000 + $2,648 = $6,648), compared to its current value of $6,000.
If the lifespan is extended to 6 years, the ongoing maintenance cost becomes $6,172 ($800 + $880 + $968 + $1,064 + $1,171 + $1,288 = $6,172), again barring any major repairs. Add this to the cost of the transmission rebuild, and you’re in for $10,172 ($4,000 + $6,172 = $10,172), which is about 30% of the cost to replace.
| Option | Cost | Expected Years of Service |
| Repair | $6,648 (includes repair + routine maintenance) | 3 years |
| Replace | $35,000 | 15 years, potentially more with adequate maintenance and care |
Let’s recap each scenario. Repair costs $6,648 ($4,000 repair + $2,648 ongoing maintenance costs) for an additional 3 years of service. Replacement costs $35,000, but is expected to last for 15 years with low early maintenance costs. So, is it better to repair or replace? Ultimately, the decision depends on your organization’s budget, operational priorities, and whether the long-term benefits of replacement outweigh the upfront cost. A CMMS can provide the historical maintenance data and asset performance insights needed to make this decision with confidence.
Gaining buy-in for your repair vs. replacement recommendation can be challenging without solid evidence to back you up. A CMMS provides you with the data you need to build a strong business case and justify your decision. Here’s how a CMMS can help:
The decision to repair or replace an asset directly impacts your organization’s operational efficiency and financial performance. Making these decisions without a thorough analysis can lead to costly mistakes that strain your budget and jeopardize plant productivity. A CMMS solution, like FTMaintenance Select, provides you with critical maintenance data needed to make these decisions with confidence.
FTMaintenance Select is a centralized platform for managing all aspects of your maintenance operations including work orders, equipment and facility assets, spare parts and inventory, preventive maintenance, and more. Request a demo today to learn more.
FasTrak SoftWorks, Inc. is pleased to announce the release of FTMaintenance Select v.3.73.0.0, which incorporates the following:
Features
FasTrak SoftWorks, Inc. is pleased to announce the release of FTMaintenance Select v.3.72.0.0, which incorporates the following:
Features
FasTrak SoftWorks, Inc. is pleased to announce the release of FTMaintenance Select v3.70.3.0, which incorporates the following:
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FasTrak SoftWorks, Inc. is pleased to announce the release of FTMaintenance Select v3.70.2.0, which incorporates the following:
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Key Takeaways
Plastic products play a critical role in our daily lives, ranging from simple household items like toothbrushes and combs, to cutting-edge technology like 3D printing. With an estimated global market value of $712 billion (USD), the high demand for plastic products highlights their importance across various consumer and industrial markets.
To keep pace with current demand and expected growth, plastics manufacturers must invest in effective maintenance strategies and technologies such as computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) software. In this article, we will explore maintenance management challenges in the plastics industry and how a CMMS helps ensure efficient maintenance operations.
Maintenance management is a critical component of plastics manufacturing, ensuring that equipment remains productive and profitable. However, there are several maintenance challenges that characterize the plastics industry. The sections below discuss some of the most common.
Maintaining injection molds is challenging due to their strict durability requirements and the precision of care needed to manage them effectively. These molds can be incredibly costly, often $80,000 or more, in addition to the cost of the injection molding machines themselves. Organizations must minimize mold wear and tear through targeted maintenance while working within the constraints of the production schedule and tool and die team.
Coordination with the tool and die team adds another layer of complexity to maintenance in plastics manufacturing. The tool and die team is responsible for designing, building, and repairing the molds, and has specialized knowledge and skills critical for maintaining production quality. The overlap in responsibilities between the general maintenance team and tool and die team often leads to challenges in balancing competing priorities and coordinating access to maintenance resources.
Further, miscommunication between maintenance and the tool and die teams may influence the production team’s operations. If maintenance tasks are scheduled during critical production runs or repairs aren’t completed on time, there may be unnecessary downtime, higher maintenance costs, or quality issues.
Given the high volume of products produced in plastics manufacturing, even minor equipment issues can lead to significant quality control issues. The maintenance team plays a critical role in ensuring plastic products meet stringent requirements and customer expectations.
Equipment must be kept in good working condition to eliminate defects such as surface imperfections, warping, cracking, or other inaccuracies. This requires the maintenance team to implement process control measures that include regular calibrations, condition monitoring, and preventive maintenance, which is challenging with limited resources.
Maintaining consistent quality control also becomes difficult when investigating the origin of product defects. Conducting thorough root cause analysis (RCA) is essential, but can be complex, time-consuming, and must be balanced against other immediate needs.
Environmental conditions within the plastics manufacturing facility also pose significant maintenance challenges. The high temperatures and pressures from plastic molding and extrusion processes put considerable wear on equipment, increasing the risk of failure. Avoiding these outcomes requires tight control of asset lifecycles and maintenance practices to ensure optimal performance.
Depending on your geographic location, humidity may also play a role in equipment maintenance. Excessive moisture can be absorbed by plastic materials and result in defects. Moisture that sits on equipment surfaces can corrode molds and metal components, compromising their integrity. Maintenance teams must take measures to control the temperature and humidity levels in manufacturing spaces.
Additionally, equipment is vulnerable to damage from fine plastic particles created during production. These particulates can enter machinery, causing abrasions and damaging sensitive components. While machine operators typically handle routine cleanings, maintenance teams are responsible for disassembly and deep cleaning during scheduled downtime periods.
Just as in other manufacturing environments, the degree of communication between maintenance and production teams can present considerable challenges. Production teams expect equipment to run at peak performance and support smooth, continuous operation in order to meet production goals and deadlines. The maintenance team is often blamed if equipment fails or experiences unplanned downtime.
On the other hand, maintenance teams can struggle to gain access to equipment for repairs. Tight production schedules leave small windows open for maintenance, and any downtime can be seen as jeopardizing production quotas. This lack of access makes it difficult to perform necessary preventive maintenance, leading to the risk of more sever breakdowns and extended downtime.
Overcoming the maintenance challenges of plastics manufacturing requires a robust maintenance strategy. Computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) software provides the tools needed to meet these challenges head-on and better manage your maintenance operations. Below are some ways that a CMMS benefits the plastics industry.
A CMMS provides robust asset management features essential for tracking molds and plastic manufacturing equipment. It allows you to keep detailed records on all maintenance assets, including their specification, condition, availability, usage, and maintenance history. Using this information, you can manage asset lifecycles more effectively and ensure each piece of equipment receives the attention it needs.
In industries with high production volumes like plastics manufacturing, time is money. The consequences of downtime make reactive maintenance strategies unsustainable. The maintenance planning and scheduling features of a CMMS empower you to be more proactive about maintenance management.
CMMS software allows you to create a master preventive maintenance plan for all of your production assets, ensuring that routine maintenance is performed on time. Tasks lists allow you to define exactly what needs to be done, what materials and supplies should be used, and approximately how long routine tasks should take, leading to more consistent, quality maintenance. Work orders can then be triggered using time-based or runtime-based intervals, ensuring maintenance occurs when needed.
Some CMMS systems take proactive maintenance a step further and connect with condition-monitoring sensors. This integration supports advanced maintenance strategies like condition-based maintenance (CbM), which triggers work orders based on real-time equipment conditions, and predictive maintenance (PdM) which forecasts when equipment is expected to fail. These strategies allow you to perform maintenance only when it is needed, unlike with time-based maintenance practices.
Successful maintenance management in the plastics industry relies on effective communication and collaboration between the maintenance, tool and die, and productions teams. A CMMS ensures that the general maintenance team and tool and die team have access to the same maintenance information about production equipment and can work together to prioritize repairs and coordinate resources.
CMMS solutions also include a work request portal that allows non-maintenance employees to submit service requests directly to the maintenance team. With this feature, the production team can submit requests, check request status, and be automatically notified when requests change status or are completed. This level of transparency makes everyone aware of when maintenance will occur and creates a more collaborative relationship between maintenance and production.
Using a maintenance tracking system enables you to leverage historical maintenance data in order to diagnose why equipment failed. CMMS solutions automatically create a service history for each asset, providing you with a wealth of data that can be used to identify failure trends, track reliability following repairs, and generate maintenance management reports that reveal key insights about asset performance. This allows you to move beyond treating symptoms and address the root causes of breakdowns, thereby preventing the likelihood of the problem recurring.
Read Also: What is a Failure Code?, What is a Cause Code?, and What is a Remedy Code?
The plastics manufacturing industry faces many maintenance management challenges that significantly impact production, product quality, and overall profitability. Given the importance of plastics in our lives, organizations that fail to tackle these challenges may find it difficult to maintain consistent production.
Now is the time to modernize your maintenance operations and invest in a computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) like FTMaintenance Select. FTMaintenance Select provides robust tools for managing assets, inventory, preventive maintenance, and work requests. Leveraging this platform, you can implement proactive maintenance strategies that will reduce downtime, ensure consistent production, and set you up for long-term success. Request a demo today to learn more.
Read More about FTMainenance Select benefits for the plastics industry
FasTrak SoftWorks, Inc. is pleased to announce the release of FTMaintenance Select v3.67.1.0, which incorporates the following:
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Learn more by reading our companion article 4 Inventory KPIs to Improve MRO Inventory Management.
Maintenance organizations face a crucial decision when choosing a computerized maintenance management system (CMMS): should the solution be hosted in-house or in the vendor’s cloud. In an era where data breaches are increasingly common, organizations are intensifying their scrutiny on data security measures. Despite the high levels of security promised by cloud service providers, many organizations are strategically choosing to host their software locally. In this article, we’ll explore why on-premise CMMS deployment remains an attractive option in today’s security-focused business environment.
On-premise CMMS deployments offer the following security benefits:
One of the primary security benefits of on-premise CMMS deployments is the full level of control it provides compared to cloud hosting. By managing your own technology infrastructure, you can tailor security measures such as firewalls, intrusion detection systems, and data encryption to meet your specific needs. This level of customization is often not possible with third-party managed cloud solutions.
Owning all the hardware and software also means that sensitive maintenance data is stored in a secure and controlled environment. This allows you to monitor systems closely and respond quickly to any potential security threats, minimizing the risk of data breaches.
Having your CMMS on-premise allows you to directly control and monitor physical access to your maintenance data. Servers and storages devices can be located in secure facilities with restricted access, round-the-clock video surveillance, adequate temperature control, and fire protection. Knowing that servers are on-site and well-protected can also increase confidence in your sensitive maintenance data’s security.
With on-premise CMMS, organizations can enforce strict access control policies to prevent unauthorized access to server rooms and data centers. Control mechanisms, such as key cards, pin numbers, or biometric scanners limit entry to servers to authorized personnel only. These controls track who entered the facility and when, making it easy to track employee activity and quickly identify any suspicious behavior.
From a CMMS perspective, access to the software requires proper licensure and authentication. Once inside the software, user access is managed by permissions and other configuration settings. This ensures that only authorized users gain access to the specific modules or functions relevant to their job responsibilities and cannot access data outside of their approved boundaries.
Being isolated from the internet significantly reduces your exposure to external cyber threats. Generally, cloud service providers have become increasingly targeted as more and more businesses have migrated to the cloud. In contrast, disconnected, on-premise solutions are much harder to access, and would likely require bad actors to breach physical security measures first.
Automatic software updates, such as those done on cloud-hosted CMMS solutions, have the potential to introduce defects, vulnerabilities, and unforeseen risks. With on-premise deployment, you have total control over when and how updates are applied, allowing time for adequate testing and CMMS software validation before rolling out updates.
Organizations that choose a locally-hosted CMMS solution benefit from the in-house expertise, which can provide custom solutions to meet your security needs. While third-party vendors have cybersecurity experts, their solutions are more generalized and may be less likely to be aligned with your unique security needs. An in-house team is intimately familiar with your infrastructure, processes, and risks, enabling them to provide a better security solution.
Certain industries may find this aspect of security the most advantageous. Industries such as government, healthcare, and pharmaceuticals, which are subject to stringent regulations and handle highly sensitive data, may require the added security and control of on-premise CMMS deployments.
In today’s world of increasing cybersecurity threats, the decision between cloud vs. on-premise CMMS deployments is becoming more important. While cloud solutions offer many benefits, growing concerns over data security are driving many organizations back to traditional, locally hosted solutions. FTMaintenance Select is one of the few solutions on the market today that offer a robust CMMS with an on-premise deployment option. Request a demo today to learn more.
FasTrak SoftWorks, Inc. is pleased to announce the release of FTMaintenance Select v3.66.1.0, which incorporates the following:
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Tools are essential assets for executing maintenance activities, yet they often do not receive the same level of attention as parts inventory. This oversight can lead to disruptions in the maintenance process, costing valuable time and money. This article explores the importance of tool tracking and why organizations implement a computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) to gain more control over tool management.
Tool management is the process of tracking, storing, organizing, and managing ownership of the tools used to perform maintenance activities. Unlike other inventory, such as parts, tools are durable assets that are used repeatedly over time and are not consumed by maintenance activities. This typically includes hand tools, battery-powered tools like power drills, and measurement and inspection devices.
In some industries, like construction or facilities management, motorized equipment such as lawn mowers, vehicles, and specialized equipment like welding kits may be considered tools.
Tools do not typically face the same scrutiny as spare parts or other consumable inventory. This may be due, in part, to the fact that technicians are expected to be equipped with a set of basic personal tools, rather than company-issued ones. This places much of the tool management responsibility on technicians. However, there are many reasons maintenance organizations should consider a formal tool management process.
According to SupplyChain247, MRO inventory accounts for as much as 40% of an organization’s annual procurement spend. Protecting this significant investment is crucial for many reasons. First, high-quality and specialized tools are expensive, and losing or damaging them can lead to high replacement costs and hurt the company’s maintenance budget.
Having a large number of tools also impacts your investment if tools go missing or are misplaced. Lost tools result in direct financial losses and cause workers to waste valuable time looking for tools or waiting for replacements. This leads to increased downtime and reduced productivity. Ensuring tools are available minimizes these losses and lowers maintenance costs.
Further, proper tool management ensures all necessary tools are available and in good working condition. Reliable tools allow technicians to perform consistent, high-quality maintenance work and lower potential safety risks. Maintaining specialized tools, for which there are often no or few replacements or alternatives, enables technicians to perform specific tasks when needed and keep equipment running.
Lastly, a formal tool management process creates accountability among maintenance team members. When tools are being tracked, employees are more likely to take care of them, reducing the likelihood of loss and misuse.
In our experience, organizations with a small amount of specialized tools, small maintenance teams, and single inventory locations can typically manage tools without a formal system. However, as your workforce grows, so does the volume of tools that must be tracked and the locations in which tools are stored. At a certain point, basic or manual tool tracking systems begin to break down and face the following tool management challenges.
Many organizations manage tools by way of paper logs or spreadsheets. These systems work in the short term, but become overwhelming and slow as the number of tools increases. Employees may also view updating records and filling out the log as too administrative and stop updating them altogether. Automated tool tracking software reduces the time and effort needed to track tools, and allows technicians to focus on their primary responsibilities.
With a large volume of tools, manual inventory counts are overwhelming and painstaking. To make matters worse, tracking tool counts on paper or spreadsheets is prone to errors and does not always align with reality. For example, mismatches arise when tools listed as being in stock are missing, or when “missing” tools are in fact in stock, but stored in an alternate location. These discrepancies slow down the maintenance process while workers go searching for the missing tools or wait for replacements to arrive.
Improper tool inventory management quickly leads to wasteful spending. Maintenance teams may purchase unneeded duplicates of tools that they already own, but cannot locate. Tools may also need premature replacement because they are not properly cared for. These procurement costs add up quick, further eating away at precious, limited maintenance budgets.
Tools disappear without a trace in poorly managed systems. When tools aren’t closely tracked, employees struggle to locate tools or know who last used them. This lack of accountability can lead to employees not feeling responsible for returning tools to their proper place, leaving them scattered throughout the facility. Further, this situation creates opportunities for theft.
Without a formal tool tracking system in place, tool maintenance is often overlooked. Because no one feels responsible for regular inspections and servicing, tools deteriorate faster, often well before they’ve reached their usable life. This not only risks tools failing at critical moments, but it increases costs for tool repairs or replacement.
Computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) software offers comprehensive tool management capabilities and acts as robust tool tracking software for maintenance teams. Below are some ways a CMMS improves tool management.
A CMMS allows you to create a tool register that lists all of your tools, their locations, and inventory details. Using an electronic system, you can easily search for specific tools and check their availability, where they are located, and who has them without having to physically travel to each storage space.
Additionally, CMMS solutions with barcode scanning support streamline the tracking process, ensuring accurate tool management with a simple scan.
By managing both tools and work orders from a single system, you can easily identify required tools directly on work orders. This capability enables technicians to efficiently gather necessary tools and arrive fully prepared at the job site.
Implementing a structured check-in and check-out system with a CMMS helps maintain a clear chain of custody of your tools. Using the system, technicians can easily log what they took and when it was returned. This check-in/check-out process ensures accountability and reduces the risk of tools being misplaced. This real-time tracking ensures that tools are available for the next person that needs them.
Further, the CMMS provides hard data regarding your tool utilization, which can be used to justify future tool purchases.
A major benefit of using a CMMS for tool management is the ability to track tool maintenance. You can create work orders to ensure tools are kept in optimal condition and track maintenance costs and history. This data can be used to manage tool lifecycles and make repair vs. replace decisions.
Tool management is an important, yet often overlooked aspect of maintenance management. Implementing a CMMS, such as FTMaintenance Select, provides comprehensive tool tracking and allows you to manage work orders, inventory, and tools from a centralized platform. Request a demo today.
FasTrak SoftWorks, Inc. is pleased to announce the release of FTMaintenance Select v3.65.0.0, which incorporates the following:
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Solutions
Learn more by reading our companion article How to Measure Preventive Maintenance Effectiveness.
FasTrak SoftWorks, Inc. is pleased to announce the release of FTMaintenance Select v3.64.5.0, which incorporates the following:
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Learn more by reading our companion articles 3 Important Asset Management KPIs and How to Use Them and What is Overall Equipment Effectiveness?
FasTrak SoftWorks, Inc. is pleased to announce the release of FTMaintenance Select v3.64.3.0, which incorporates the following:
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FasTrak SoftWorks, Inc. is pleased to announce the release of FTMaintenance Select v3.64.1.0, which incorporates the following:
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Solutions
FasTrak SoftWorks, Inc. is pleased to announce the release of FTMaintenance Select v3.63.0.0, which incorporates the following:
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Solutions
FasTrak SoftWorks, Inc. is pleased to announce the release of FTMaintenance Select v3.62.20.0, which incorporates the following:
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Key Takeaways
Healthcare facilities are a complex ecosystem of interconnected systems and spaces designed for patient care, administrative and support functions, and facility operations. These characteristics set hospitals and similar facilities apart from other types of buildings, posing unique maintenance challenges for healthcare facility managers. To overcome these obstacles, facility managers rely on computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) software to gain better control over maintenance operations.
According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), hospital facility management is “an interdisciplinary business function that coordinates space, infrastructure, people, and organization in the hospital. It is responsible for the management and coordination of work projects for the construction, renovation and ongoing maintenance of the infrastructure at the hospital.”
As we covered in our article, What is Facility Management?, facility management involves hard and soft services. To recap, hard facility management services relate to the physical building, and include functions such as preventive maintenance, capital improvements, and management of building systems. Soft services focus on the people who use the building, encompassing responsibilities such as security, emergency preparedness, and janitorial services.
Numerous stakeholders are affected by the healthcare facility’s condition and performance, causing maintenance activities to be heavily scrutinized.
People go to healthcare facilities to check, keep up, and restore their health. They expect buildings to be safe, secure, and functional. Maintenance teams work tirelessly behind the scenes to ensure medical buildings run at their best, so as to not introduce any risk that may compromise the quality of healthcare services. But it’s not just patients who feel the effects – the condition of healthcare facilities affects everyone who enters the building including doctors, nurses, support staff, and visitors.
Apart from the people who work in and use hospitals, those who own and manage healthcare facilities also have a vested interest in maintenance as well. First off, maintaining a hospital is costly. It is estimated that operations and maintenance accounts for 80-85% of a healthcare facility’s capital project dollars, with maintenance occupying most of a facility manager’s responsibilities. Aside from costs, ownership must carefully monitor how the effectiveness of healthcare facility maintenance affects patient satisfaction, reputation, insurance reimbursement, and legal liability.
Every industry faces its own set of unique challenges, and hospitals and healthcare facilities are no different. Below are some examples of what makes healthcare facility maintenance so complex.
Hospitals bustle with activity both day and night. Maintenance teams are responsible for keeping critical building systems in operation at all times. This presents a major challenge for hospital maintenance – finding time to perform scheduled maintenance without causing downtime.
Round-the-clock operations require skillful planning and scheduling. First, if primary equipment must be taken offline for maintenance, a backup or alternative must be arranged. With limited backups available, assets must be maintained on a staggered schedule, creating a constant flow of maintenance work.
Further, maintenance must take any chance they can get to perform routine maintenance tasks. Maintenance schedules should be flexible enough to accommodate changing priorities, off-hours, or emergencies.
Adding to the administrative demands of planning and scheduling is the communication of maintenance tasks and coordination of resources. 24/7 operations means that responsibilities are handed off between shifts, and maintenance activities must be effectively communicated to new staff arriving to work.
Managing the maintenance needs of diverse hospital assets is complicated, resource-intensive, and requires careful attention. Building systems, medical equipment, and infrastructure are in constant use, so they wear out faster and require more frequent maintenance. However, each asset has its own unique maintenance needs, which adds to the complexity of asset maintenance.
More concerning is that any failure can set off a chain reaction with serious consequences. Treatment may be delayed or rescheduled, causing dissatisfaction with patients. Medical procedures may become complicated or carry heightened risk of infection (or worse). Hospitals may also violate compliancy requirements and suffer legal ramifications.
Further, a large number of healthcare assets naturally lead to a high volume of service requests and work orders. Unlike in standard facilities, where work orders may be prioritized by cost and complexity, maintenance work in hospitals must also consider the potential effects on patient care.
A 2017 American Hospital Association (AHA) study revealed that healthcare facilities must comply with as many as 629 requirements from the following 4 agencies:
Hospitals must also follow other regulations set by the OSHA and state health departments. In addition, healthcare facilities also seek accreditation from organizations such as:
Needless to say, there are an overwhelming number of regulations healthcare facilities must adhere to that are not required in other types of facilities. These regulations are constantly changing to keep up with evolving healthcare concerns.
Healthcare regulatory requirements are stringent, especially when it comes to patient safety, infection control, safety systems, and environmental issues. Facility managers must invest in the proper equipment, training, and documentation systems in order to meet compliancy requirements. This can be difficult with limited budgets and resources. In fact, the AHA estimates that healthcare facilities spend approximately $39 billion each year in order to comply with the administrative aspects of regulatory compliance.
If hospitals are found to be out of compliance, they can be penalized with fines, loss of accreditation, and exposed to legal liability. Therefore, it is critical that everyone involved with hospital facility maintenance and management understands their regulatory obligations and the risks that non-compliance poses to patients, staff, and the hospital at large.
While specific regulations differ globally, healthcare facilities across the world face similar challenges in maintaining safe, compliant environments. For example, Mitie, the UK’s leading healthcare facilities management company, supports healthcare organizations in upholding high service standards and meeting compliance requirements with tailored support services.
As in most industries, budget limitations and staffing shortage pose significant challenges to healthcare facility maintenance. When budgets are constrained, maintenance teams must find ways to lower costs without compromising patient care. This typically comes in the form of optimizing inventory management, prioritizing critical assets for preventive maintenance, reducing energy usage, and adopting lean maintenance techniques such as total productive maintenance (TPM).
In addition to budget constraints, hospital maintenance teams must also contend with staffing shortages. In hospitals, stress and burnout extend to all employees and make potential hires reconsider working in the healthcare field. This is especially true following the COVID-19 pandemic.
Another issue is that the maintenance workforce is getting older and there simply aren’t enough new, qualified people to replace them. Given the compliancy demands, hospitals prefer technicians to have healthcare experience, further limiting the pool of candidates. These labor market forces require hospitals to find ways to attract new hires and retain veteran staff.
Maintaining clean and infection-free environments presents numerous challenges. On top of regular maintenance duties and compliance requirements, facility management teams must also maintain rigorous cleaning and sanitation standards. Beyond routine cleaning, teams are also responsible for proper waste disposal, infection control, and air quality management. Even factors as seemingly small as making sure there is enough sunlight and ventilation play a role in creating a hygienic, germ-free facility.
These efforts are crucial for reducing the spread of germs and preventing healthcare-associated infections (HAIs), which can lead to severe illness, even death.
If not addressed, the challenges we discussed earlier can lead to dire consequences. A computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) offers numerous benefits to healthcare facilities, providing the tools needed to tackle these challenges head on. Below are just some of the many benefits hospitals gain from using a CMMS.
A CMMS brings all of your asset and inventory information together in one place, providing you and your team with a single source of truth about your maintenance assets. The system helps you build an asset registry to track equipment individually, ensuring that each piece of equipment receives a maintenance schedule and is accurately documented. CMMS software that supports asset tagging through barcoding allows you to track your assets, their location, and related work orders.
Tracking your inventory in the CMMS helps you quickly locate information about spare parts and tools, such as where they are located, how many are in stock, or who possesses them. Automatic stock updates reduce the likelihood of maintenance tasks being delayed by stockouts and wasting money on unnecessary purchases.
Further Reading: 3 Asset Naming Convention Designs to Consider
Using healthcare maintenance software enables you to implement proactive maintenance strategies. By creating a master preventive maintenance schedule for each asset, you can address potential issues before problems arise. This ensures that critical equipment and infrastructure remains operational without disrupting patient care.
Automatic work order activation and notifications ensure that necessary preventive maintenance work doesn’t fall through the cracks, and that technicians are aware of upcoming repairs. With a proactive mindset and robust maintenance schedule, you can significantly reduce downtime and extend asset life.
Tracking maintenance activities in a CMMS makes it easy to provide the documentation required for maintenance audits. A user-friendly interface makes it easy for technicians to demonstrate how they perform regular tasks such as generating and closing work orders and updating asset records. Using task lists, you can create standard maintenance procedures (SMPs) that include step-by-step instructions and ensure compliance with internal policies and regulatory standards. Some systems even include change log functionality that tracks what changes were made, who made them, and when.
A mobile CMMS bring the power of your CMMS into the hand of technicians wherever they go. Using a streamlined interface, maintenance teams can stay productive no matter where they are throughout the facility, and reduce time otherwise wasted returning to a central office. Barcode scanning capability helps maintenance technicians quickly access asset details, while cameras can be used to provide supplemental visual aids to work orders. Offline modes allow the CMMS to be used in areas with poor or no internet connectivity.
The complexity of healthcare facilities presents numerous challenges not found in other industries, especially as it relates to the patient experience. With so much on the line, it is critical that maintenance teams are equipped to handle the demands of hospital maintenance.
FTMaintenance Select is a comprehensive CMMS solution that provides your team with tools necessary to support the well-being of patients and staff. It centralizes your maintenance data in order to help you improve operational efficiency, implement proactive maintenance strategies, effectively coordinate resources, and simplify documentation practices. Request your demo today to see how FTMaintenance Select keeps your facilities running smoothly.
Read more about FTMaintenance Select benefits for healthcare facilities
Key Takeaways
Timely and effective resolution of service requests is a critical aspect of maintenance operations in order to reduce asset downtime and increase customer satisfaction. As such, it is important for maintenance organizations to measure key performance indicators (KPIs) for service request management. This article provides an overview of common service request KPIs and discusses how they can be effectively leveraged to improve maintenance operations.
Recommended Reading: What is Maintenance Request System?
The service request management KPIs presented in this article are not intended to be a definitive list, but instead are meant to spark discussion about commonly used maintenance metrics. After all, even seemingly straightforward metrics have some underlying nuance worth exploring.
Use this discussion as a jumping off point and work with your key stakeholders to develop KPIs that best align with your organizational and maintenance management goals.
Average Response Time is the amount of time between when a service request is submitted and when the maintenance team starts executing the requested work. It measures the maintenance team’s promptness in addressing maintenance issues reported by others.
To calculate Average Response Time, first sum up the response times of all service requests that were both submitted and responded to within the reporting period. Then, count the number of these service requests used in the calculation of the sum. Finally, divide the sum of response time by this count to get the average response time. Ensure that response times are expressed in a consistent unit of time, such as minutes, to maintain accuracy.
| NOTE: We acknowledge that organizations may calculate Average Response Time differently. Our version of this KPI focuses on how responsive the maintenance team is to the requester and only measures response times for requests submitted and responded to within the reporting period. We have purposely excluded requests that were submitted prior to, but responded to within the reporting period, or requests submitted, but not responded to within the reporting period. |
Like other KPIs, Average Response Time is most helpful when compared to a benchmark, as it allows you to see whether the metric is improving or declining. Compared to a benchmark, lower values mean response time is short and indicates that the maintenance team is able to deliver timely maintenance assistance.
Higher values mean that it is taking the maintenance team longer to address requests. This could be due to a large backlog, understaffing, poor request processing practices, or other issues.
When measuring Average Response Time, it is important to look at the result in context of your maintenance operations. A number of factors may greatly influence your measurements and give an inaccurate impression of performance if taken at face value. Let’s look at a few scenarios.
When calculating an average, it is easy for outliers to greatly weigh down or inflate the result. For example, think of a product review on popular online shopping websites. On products where most ratings are 3-4 stars, a small number of 1-star or 5-star reviews shift the average lower or higher.
Similarly, some requests take a relatively long time to complete due to complexity, or a relatively short time due to their straightforward nature. These outliers can skew measurements, making the maintenance team look artificially quick or slow to respond. Since these outliers do not reflect your typical response times, you may consider omitting them from the calculation.
Low priority requests will naturally take longer to execute. As we just discussed, these outliers can artificially lower your response time, making the maintenance team appear slow to respond.
In an ideal scenario, service request administrators or reviewers communicate delays back to the original requestor. Some organizations may consider this communication to be the start of request fulfillment, as some work has been put forth in reviewing and prioritizing the request. If this is the case in your organization, this initial review will help control the response times for low priority requests.
Another approach to measuring response time is to limit the calculation to high priority, or medium and high priority, requests. Doing so focuses on your response time calculation on urgent maintenance needs, and ignores low priority, minor requests that may skew results lower. After all, your responsiveness to highly important requests is more apparent to others and leaves requesters with a better impression of the maintenance team.
Average Turnaround Time is the duration of time between when a service request is submitted and when the resulting work order is completed. It measure how long it takes for service requests to be processed, from start to finish.
To calculate Average Turnaround Time, sum up the turnaround times of all service requests that were submitted and completed within the reporting period. Then, divide the sum by the number of service requests used to calculate the sum. For greatest accuracy, turnaround times should be expressed in a single unit of time, such as minutes.
| NOTE: We acknowledge that organizations may calculate Average Turnaround Time differently. Our version of this KPI focuses on how quickly requests are completed from start to finish, and only measures turnaround time for requests submitted and completed within the reporting period. Some organizations may opt to measure the duration of time between when a technician receives an approved requested and when the resulting work is completed. In some industries, such as IT and customer service, this is referred to as the resolution time. |
As mentioned before, turnaround time calculations should be compared against a benchmark. Lower times equate to faster turnaround time and processing, while relatively higher values mean longer turnaround times. As turnaround time reflects customer service and addresses how quickly requests are addressed and completed, maintenance teams aim for low turnaround times.
High turnaround times may be interpreted differently based on whether your organization has a formal request review process, or automatically adds requests to the work order queue. If requests are reviewed before being assigned, first take a look at your process and ask questions like:
If there are no process problems, high turnaround times may be due to other factors such as manpower constraints, out of stock inventory, influx of more complex, higher priority maintenance needs, or other issues that prevent the completion of requests.
As demonstrated, service request management plays a critical role in maintenance management and keeping others within the organization satisfied. By measuring service request management KPIs, you can gain actionable insights into your process or performance.
FTMaintenance Select’s service request management functionality enables you to implement a formal channel for receiving, processing, and communicating about service requests. Request a demo today to learn more.
FasTrak SoftWorks, Inc. is pleased to announce the release of FTMaintenance Select v3.62.18.0, which incorporates the following:
Features
Solutions
FasTrak SoftWorks, Inc. is pleased to announce the release of FTMaintenance Select v3.62.15.0, which incorporates the following:
Solutions
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