Author: Ethan Wilke

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.

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.

This article is part of a series of articles on the topic of asset naming conventions. Read our other articles on this topic:

• What is an Asset Naming Convention and Why is it Important?
• 3 Asset Naming Convention Designs to Consider

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.

This article is part of a series of articles on the topic of asset naming conventions. Read our other articles on this topic:

• What is an Asset Naming Convention?
• How to Create Your Own Asset 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.

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 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 predicts asset failure.

Advanced PdM techniques may also incorporate cutting edge technology 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 with minimal downtime.

Difference Between Preventive and Predictive Maintenance

Preventive maintenance (PM) and predictive maintenance (PdM) 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 the manufacturer’s recommendations. Maintenance technicians can also identify the need for maintenance through regular inspections. While useful, these methods are only capable of identifying the most obvious problems based on one’s sense of sight, sound, touch, and smell. (For health reasons, we do not encourage anyone to diagnose equipment problems via taste.) Once issues are discovered, maintenance activities are usually scheduled on a strict, time-based or usage-based interval.

Predictive maintenance relies on sensors to identify the need for maintenance. Not only are sensors more accurate than human senses, but they 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. More about how predictive maintenance works is described in the following section.

How Predictive Maintenance Works

Think for a moment about 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. Predictive maintenance consists of 3 main components: 1) capturing sensor data, 2) communicating data, and 3) making predictions via data analysis.

Capturing Sensor Data

As with condition-based maintenance (CbM), 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

As its name implies, predictive maintenance is based on the ability to make assumptions about when an asset will fail. This capability is what sets PdM apart from CbM. Collected data is analyzed to identify trends and forecast when an asset is expected to fail. The algorithms use predetermined rules to compare an asset’s current performance against its expected performance, determine the level of deterioration, and estimate when maintenance will be needed. Computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) software provides historical equipment data used in predictive algorithms, as well as creates and tracks maintenance work orders based on the predictive analysis.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Predictive Maintenance

Advantages of PdM

Remember that no maintenance technique should be used in a vacuum. A comprehensive maintenance strategy will include a variety of approaches and techniques. Below are some of the advantages of PdM:

• 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. With other maintenance strategies, excessive downtime is created from too much, too little, or unscheduled maintenance work.
• Combined Benefits of Other Maintenance Techniques: PdM combines the preemptive repair or replacement concept of preventive maintenance with asset performance data collected with condition-based maintenance to help you optimize maintenance resources.
• Lower MRO Inventory Costs: An effective PdM program helps maintenance teams plan ahead, reducing the need for last-minute purchases of under-stocked parts, expedited shipping costs, or costs incurred by overstocking inventory.

Disadvantages of PdM

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.
• Required Expertise: Employees must be trained to use monitoring equipment, interpret the data received from sensors, and analyze reports generated by PdM software.
• Not Cost-Effective for All Assets: In facility-centric environments, other maintenance techniques are often cheaper and more effective than predictive maintenance. The cost of setting up PdM on low-value assets may outweigh any potential benefits.

When to Use Predictive Maintenance

The decision whether to use predictive maintenance depends on the return on investment (ROI), which is to say, will the money saved on a reduction in asset failures meaningfully exceed the costs of maintenance. Organizations should also consider an asset’s cost and criticality. It is most appropriate for manufacturing and production assets that are critical to the organization and assets with high repair and replacement costs. Organizations with remote or mobile assets, such as the oil and gas industry or those involved with fleet maintenance, can also benefit from predictive maintenance.

When Not to Use Predictive Maintenance

As we mentioned in the list of disadvantages, PdM is not suitable for some facility assets like buildings. For example, monitoring a roof for leaks would require numerous sensors to be installed without a guarantee that they will be located in areas where leaks will occur. In this case, preventive maintenance (e.g. periodic inspections) is a more appropriate option. Additionally, it is not cost-effective to set up a predictive maintenance program for equipment that is relatively cheap to replace in the event of catastrophic failure.

FTMaintenance Work Order Software

Predictive maintenance activities are best implemented with the help of CMMS software like FTMaintenance, which provides a single platform for documenting, managing, and tracking maintenance activities. FTMaintenance is comprehensive work order software that automates work order creation, notification and distribution, and closure. Mobile CMMS features allow you to manage work orders on-the-go. To see how FTMaintenance can help you improve your maintenance operations, schedule your demo today.

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.

Key Takeaways

• Time-based maintenance (TBM) is performed at fixed intervals.
• Time-based maintenance is a beneficial part of a larger maintenance strategy, but should not be used by itself
• Safety-related assets or assets with seasonal maintenance needs are good candidates for time-based maintenance.

What is Time-based Maintenance?

Time-based maintenance (TbM), also called periodic maintenance, refers to routine maintenance tasks performed on an asset at fixed time intervals, regardless of its condition. As a type of preventive maintenance (PM), the goal of time-based maintenance is to prevent failures before they happen and improve asset performance. However, because TbM may be performed whether it is needed or not, it does not always strike a balance between risk and reward.

For example, changing the oil in your car every 1,000 miles as opposed to the manufacturer-recommended 3,000 miles may lead to fewer problems, but comes at a cost. While a lower risk of failure may be a reward in itself, money and time are wasted performing the oil change more often than recommended.

Time-Based Maintenance Examples

Periodic, time-based maintenance is required to keep assets in proper operating condition. Examples include:

• Tuning up a furnace every year before winter
• Clearing debris out of a gutter every 6 months
• Visually inspecting fire extinguishers each month
• Changing an air filter every quarter
• Lubricating pumps every 6 weeks

Advantages and Disadvantages of Time-based Maintenance

Advantages of TbM

Like other types of maintenance, TbM can be beneficial when used as part of a larger maintenance management strategy.

• Minimal Training: Time-based tasks are relatively simple and usually don’t require extensive training to learn.
• Lower Long-term Cost: Compared to breakdown or corrective maintenance (CM), time-based maintenance is relatively inexpensive.
• Easy to Implement: Unlike predictive maintenance (PdM) or condition-based monitoring, time-based maintenance does not require additional sensors or equipment to decide when assets require service.
• Predictable Schedule: Since time-based maintenance follows a set time interval, maintenance schedules are consistent and predictable.
• Effective for Continuously Running Assets: Wear and tear is more predictable for assets that run continuously, allowing maintenance work to be scheduled at regular intervals.

Disadvantages TbM

Organizations that rely heavily on time-based maintenance can face some challenges:

• Ignores Other Causes of Failure: Time-based maintenance assumes that failures are age-related and does not take into account the actual condition of assets. As many maintenance professionals know, many breakdowns and failures do not occur at regular, predictable intervals.
• Too Frequent Schedule Introduces Risk: A maintenance activity may introduce a risk of incorrect re-assembly, misalignment, or other errors. A too frequent maintenance schedule heightens this risk.
• Too Infrequent Schedule Leads to Excessive Failures: A too infrequent maintenance schedule risks preventing predictable asset failures.
• Ineffective for Assets Run Occasionally: Assets that are used occasionally will not wear down at the same rate as assets that are used continuously. Therefore, TbM is not optimal for all assets, but can be used as part of a larger preventive maintenance strategy.
• Increased Costs from Excessive Maintenance: Performing maintenance on assets that don’t need it leads to unnecessary downtime, labor, and consumable part costs.

When to Use Time-based Maintenance

As with other preventive maintenance activities, time-based maintenance should be used to prevent failures on assets that are critical to the organization. Using asset management KPIs such as mean time between Failure (MTBF), historical maintenance data, manufacturer recommendations, and one’s own experience, the ideal interval for time-based maintenance activities can be identified.

Safety-related activities, such as fire extinguisher inspections and smoke alarm tests, are well-suited for time-based maintenance because the cost of asset failure is high, the cost of maintenance is very low, and condition-based maintenance (CbM) is either impossible or costly. HVAC units, furnaces, and other assets that require seasonal attention are also great candidates for time-based maintenance activities.

Effectively Manage Maintenance with FTMaintenance

Time-based maintenance activities are best scheduled and tracked through computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) software, like FTMaintenance. FTMaintenance is preventive maintenance software for scheduling and managing maintenance activities. It allows you to easily track your historical maintenance data and create insightful maintenance reports for better decision-making. Learn more about how FTMaintenance can help you by exploring our maintenance management software features.

Historically, maintenance has been viewed as a necessary evil that, while valuable, costs the company money. Although some organizations may still hold this idea to be true, many companies today regard maintenance as an essential part of business operations that has an impact on the bottom line. What accounts for the change in thinking? To find our answer, let’s take a quick look at the history of maintenance.

The First Industrial Revolution

An illustration of a steam-powered pump likely used during the first industrial revolution.

Near the end of the 18^th century, the first Industrial Revolution was just beginning to take shape in the United Kingdom and across Europe, and later made its way to the United States. Steam power started being used for production, and machines were gradually replacing human labor in manufacturing and agriculture.

Overall, the machinery of the time was tough, had basic controls, and was fairly reliable. Also, production demands were not as great as they are today, so avoiding downtime was not a critical concern. Factories employed a “use it until it breaks” mentality and focused largely on corrective maintenance, which was performed primarily by machine operators. Machines that could not be fixed were replaced.

The Second Industrial Revolution

The Second Industrial Revolution started in the United States during the mid-to-late 19^th century. During this period, new discoveries and innovations drove manufacturing forward. The discovery of electricity meant that factories could stay open longer and electricity-driven machines could produce products at a much larger scale.

Factories continued to replace people with machines, and Henry Ford’s assembly line further strengthened mass production. Maintenance teams became slightly more proactive and used a basic time-based maintenance (TBM) strategy which involved replacing parts at specific time intervals, whether it was needed or not.

Once the Great Depression hit in the early 20^th century, little money was available to replace machines. Maintenance became a more specialized skill set as employees learned how to fix and repair what was broken. At the same time, machine operators were directed to push equipment to its limits, resulting in frequent failures and high maintenance costs. Unfortunately, rising costs were typically blamed on the maintenance team.

War Production and World War II

In 1939, conflict was spreading throughout Europe and Asia, setting the stage for World War II. Factories in the United States were being converted from producing consumer goods to producing war materials to support Great Britain and other American allies.

After the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, President Franklin Roosevelt set aggressive goals to out-produce and overwhelm the Axis Powers. As millions of Americans entered the military, their positions in the workforce were taken by millions of women, minorities, and other citizens.

Besides becoming combat pilots, many women started working for military support services, including aircraft maintenance. As the needs to maintain and fix military vehicles and manufacturing equipment became a priority, maintenance started to become an independent function.

The United States Department of War even recruited skilled mechanics and technicians from machine manufacturers, such as John Deere, to serve as a military maintenance units that kept combat equipment in working order.

Aftermath of World War II

Following World War II, war production converted back to domestic goods as soldiers returned home from the battlefields. The strong, post-war economy kicked off the baby boom in the United States, and thriving markets became more competitive. To stay ahead of their rivals, manufacturers sought to increase their production which meant that maintenance costs would also grow if nothing changed. In response, factories began to put more effort into preventive maintenance activities.

Meanwhile, the industrial rebuilding of Japan gave birth to the concept of total productive maintenance (TPM), where small groups of workers were responsible for performing routine maintenance on their own machines to keep the equipment in top operating order.

In the 1960’s, high airplane crash rates caused the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and United Airlines to investigate the effectiveness of preventive maintenance practices in the airline industry. This investigation debunked long-held beliefs that assets and components had a set “lifetime” before they had to be replaced. Under what was called reliability-centered maintenance (RCM), more focus was placed on understanding and prioritizing asset failure and developing plans to better manage those failures. RCM concepts were soon adopted by other asset-intensive industries and large corporations that required maximum uptime.

The Third Industrial Revolution

PLCs automated production during the third industrial revolution.

The rise of electronics in the second half of the 20th century launched a new era of industrial automation. Production processes became more automated thanks to programmable logic controllers (PLCs) and robots. Employee safety became a maintenance concern as highly-performing equipment brought about more risk for accidents. Punch card-based computerized maintenance management systems (CMMS) were used in large companies to remind technicians to perform simple maintenance tasks. Later, technicians fill out paper forms, which were then handed to data-entry clerks to type into mainframe computers to track maintenance work for each asset.

Building on the concepts of RCM, maintenance strategies in the 1990’s began using the concept of risk when making maintenance decisions. Risk-based maintenance (RBM) seeked to optimize maintenance resources by prioritizing the risk of failure, with high-risk assets being subject to more intensive maintenance programs.

The early ‘90’s also saw the expansion of personal computing, which made CMMS solutions more affordable for medium-sized companies. Microsoft Access^® and Excel^®-based maintenance management became common. Although many companies still rely on these systems, there are more powerful options available today.

Into the 2000’s

Advancements in computing and information technologies into the 2000’s further impacted the way maintenance was performed and managed. CMMS systems could now be hosted on the cloud and accessed over the internet.

Low-cost, Software as a Service (SaaS) subscriptions and minimal IT requirements made cloud-based CMMS attractive to, and more affordable for, small businesses. Improved wireless and mobile technology made it possible for organizations to access their CMMS from internet-connected smart phones, tablets, and laptop computers.

The continued growth and application of internet technologies in recent years allows world-class organizations to implement advanced maintenance strategies such as condition-based maintenance (CbM) and predictive maintenance (PdM). With these strategies, internet-connected sensors are used to monitor asset conditions such as vibration, temperature, noise, and pressure, and predict when failure is about to occur. CMMS software continues to be improved to support these advanced maintenance strategies.

Keep Up with Changing Maintenance Practices with FTMaintenance

The history of maintenance evolved drastically over times and continues to change today. No matter what maintenance strategies you use, it is important to have a system in place to help you manage maintenance activities and provide value to your organization.

FTMaintenance is a feature-rich, easy-to-use platform that allows you to easily document, manage, and track maintenance activities. With a full suite of tools for managing work orders, assets, inventory, preventive maintenance, and more, FTMaintenance CMMS software will help you improve your current maintenance operations and prepare for the road ahead. Request a demo to see FTMaintenance in action!

A CMMS helps you track asset management Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

What is a Key Performance Indicator?

Asset management KPIs help maintenance managers evaluate an asset’s performance as well as bring visibility to problems or a need for change. A key performance indicator (KPI) is a measured value that signifies how well an organization is meeting a strategic goal over time. Organizations often utilize numerous KPIs to track their progress across various parts of their operation.

Maintenance professionals use a computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) to track numerous maintenance metrics, including information about asset performance. When used correctly, CMMS software can provide valuable maintenance reports that help you make better decisions about your assets.

Asset Management KPI Examples

Every organization has its own unique strategic business goals and will want to track different types of information. However, there are a handful of KPIs that are used across many organizations. In this article, we describe some of the most common asset management KPIs.

Mean Time to Repair (MTTR)

Mean Time to Repair (MTTR) represents the average time required to repair an asset, from the moment an incident occurs until it is returned to service. This measurement refers to the amount of “wrench time” spent resolving an issue. To calculate the Mean Time to Repair, you divide the total amount of repair time (usually in hours) by the number of repairs:

How to Interpret Mean Time to Repair

MTTR is a reflection of how quickly the maintenance team repairs an asset and is used to predict how long a particular piece of equipment will be unavailable. It can also be applied to work orders to estimate the time it takes for future repairs on the same type of or similar assets. The Mean Time to Repair KPI can also be used as a benchmark for frequent, important repairs. If one observes that repairs are taking longer than usual (compared to the benchmark), further investigation might be warranted.

MTTR is commonly used when making repair versus replace decisions. As assets age, they take longer to repair. Using a MTTR report can show how an asset is performing relative to similar assets and help you build a case for replacement. That said, there may be other underlying issues that are causing an undesirable MTTR. You should also investigate whether changes are needed to staffing, scheduling, or inventory management.

Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF)

Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF) is a measure of an asset’s reliability and directly affects availability. It represents how long equipment performs its intended function under normal operation before a problem occurs. Note that MTBF excludes time required for proactive maintenance activities like scheduled preventive maintenance. MTBF is calculated by dividing the total runtime (the time the equipment is in use) by the number of failures.

How to Interpret Mean Time Between Failure

By tracking Mean Time Between Failure, an organization can monitor an asset’s current performance as well as try to predict an asset’s future performance. A low MTBF value (meaning that failures occur often) can be a sign that equipment is reaching its end of life and is becoming too difficult to maintain. Instead, it would be more economical to replace the asset.

MTBF may also signal that there is an issue with the asset’s preventive maintenance plan. Maintenance managers should determine if there is a need to change the frequency of scheduled maintenance tasks or introduce new ones.

Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE)

Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) measures the productivity of an asset over a period of time. This KPI is typically used in manufacturing environments, especially where lean manufacturing is practiced. While the maintenance team may not be responsible for tracking this KPI, it will be impacted by maintenance activities. This calculation is a little more complicated than the previous KPIs we’ve discussed, but we will try to simplify it.

Availability means, “Does the asset run when it is scheduled to be used for production?” It can be determined by dividing actual run time by planned production time. Availability excludes any planned maintenance activities, such as preventive maintenance or maintenance that takes place during plant shutdowns.

Performance compares how much product was actually produced to what could theoretically be produced during the actual availability of the asset. It is the maximum speed possible for producing quality parts. To calculate performance, first multiply the ideal cycle time (i.e., 0.75 seconds per unit produced) by the total count of units produced. Then, divide that number by the total availability of the asset.

Quality measures how many units met quality standards, taking into account any that were defective or require a rework. In this equation, quality compares the number of good units to the total number of units produced.

How to Interpret Overall Equipment Effectiveness

Using Overall Equipment Effectiveness, manufacturers can assess how efficient their production process is and what is negatively affecting it. Low availability might be caused by faulty parts or insufficient preventive maintenance such as lubrication or calibration. Low performance may be related to factors that affect your cycle time. For example, machines may experience excessive wear and tear from being run outside of specification. Poor quality indicates that there may be a problem with the production process, either with assets or production staff. Using a CMMS, maintenance managers can identify what changes to make to maintenance schedules, activities, or resources to improve OEE.

Track Asset Management KPIs with FTMaintenance

FTMaintenance is a CMMS that allows you to capture vital asset and maintenance data to calculate insightful KPIs to meet strategic goals. Maintenance is an important aspect of effective asset management. To remain successful and profitable, it is essential to measure asset performance and adjust maintenance operations accordingly. Tracking asset management KPIs using a CMMS will help you make smarter, data-driven decisions. Schedule your demo today to learn how FTMaintenance CMMS software can help you improve your asset management process.

Key Takeaways

• Proper work order management allows you to efficiently process and complete work orders
• The work order management process covers the entire work order lifecycle, from initial request to closure and analysis
• Computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) software, like FTMaintenance, simplifies and automates work order management

What is Work Order Management?

Work order management is the systematic approach of processing and completing maintenance work orders in a timely manner in order to minimize asset downtime. Work order completion depends on the availability of other maintenance resources such as assets, parts, people, and money.

Importance of Work Order Management

Traditionally, maintenance teams have relied on paper-based work orders to communicate job assignments. Though the work orders themselves may be easy to create by hand, the management of paper-based work orders is labor-intensive and often introduces more problems than it solves.

For example, maintenance staff must interpret bad handwriting, leading to incorrect documentation. Physical copies are liable to get misplaced and lost, resulting in missed maintenance. Stacks of paper clutter up file cabinets and desks, making it difficult to find historical work orders.

Some maintenance teams have advanced to spreadsheet-based work order management, but these systems carry their own limitations. Spreadsheets can only be modified by one person at a time, making it difficult for technicians to see the most up-to-date information. Work orders generated by spreadsheet software must still be printed, bringing along the challenges discussed earlier. Using spreadsheet software may be daunting for staff.

As organizations grow, “old-school” work order management methods quickly become unsustainable and inefficient. Even more so, a renewed focus on operational efficiency has put a spotlight on the functions of the maintenance department. To improve work order management, organizations invest in a computerized maintenance management system (CMMS).

Work Order Management Process

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Proper work order management considers the work order at every stage of its life from request to completion. The following sections describe what happens in each step of the work order management process. You will notice how a CMMS makes the work order management process more streamlined and efficient.

Work Request Approval

The need for maintenance work is often communicated through a work request or service request. An approver will review the request and determine whether a legitimate need exists, if enough information is available to create a work order, or if the issue has already been reported. Many organizations use the maintenance request feature of a CMMS to handle incoming requests. If the request is valid, it will be approved and a work order will be created.

Read also: What is a Maintenance Request System?

Work Order Creation

The creation of a work order signifies that authorization has been given to perform the requested work. Work orders are created from approved maintenance requests, by the maintenance staff, or automatically from a CMMS. Using a mobile CMMS, technicians can create work orders from the field.

Prioritization

Prioritizing work orders involves determining which work orders are to be completed first. A work order’s priority is typically determined by the criticality of the job or asset. For example, work orders related to safety (of sites or staff) may be given a high priority. Lower priority work orders include routine preventive maintenance or non-essential maintenance requests.

The maintenance team creates standards for what makes a work order high or low priority. Not only will this allow the truly high priority work orders to be completed faster, but when a backlog does occurs, it should consist of low-priority work.

Scheduling

The scheduling of work orders is based on their priority. Emergency work orders are addressed without delay. Preventive maintenance work orders are typically scheduled based on calendar- or runtime-based intervals, or by the asset manufacturer’s maintenance guidelines. However, timing is not the only consideration when scheduling work orders.

Maintenance managers consider the availability of technicians, spare parts and supplies, and tools or other special equipment needed to complete work orders. CMMS software allows you to visualize the maintenance workload and identify how staff can be used most effectively.

Assignment

Every maintenance team is made up of technicians with varying skills and abilities. Work orders should be assigned to the technicians best suited for the job. For larger organizations, technicians may specialize in a particular craft or have training on specific assets.

Small to medium-sized businesses are more likely to use jacks-of-all-trades who can perform a multitude of maintenance tasks. Determining who is best for the job may be done by first-hand experience, but can also be identified using maintenance reports from a CMMS.

Distribution

Once work orders are scheduled and assigned, they must find their way into the hands of technicians. Work orders can be physically handed out, but it takes time to track down technicians. CMMS software features automatic printing to designated printers and automatic emailing to staff. A CMMS with mobile capabilities allows technicians to instantly receive work orders on internet-connected devices.

Execution

Execution is the act of the assigned technician(s) performing the tasks listed on the work order. A CMMS allows you to track the progress of work orders in real-time so that you can ensure technicians are staying on top of their work.

Documentation

Part of the work order management process is training workers to document all results, both the good and bad. The more accurate information you have, the better off you will be. Technicians should take care to record exactly what was done, how much time was spent, what parts were used, and so on.

Documenting work in a CMMS leads to more accurate maintenance records that can be used to identify areas of improvement and assist in future troubleshooting. Poor documentation leads to inaccurate or flawed reports – as they say, “garbage in, garbage out.” The better your work order documentation, the better you will be able to monitor and track key performance indicators (KPIs) using CMMS maintenance reports.

Closure

Work order closure occurs when all tasks have been performed, all services delivered, and the job is complete. Technicians are now available to begin working on other “open” work orders.

Analysis

Your collective work order history is the foundation for meaningful reporting. Without the reporting functionality of a CMMS, it becomes very difficult to track key performance indicators (KPIs) that provide glimpses into your process. For example, how easily can you calculate the number of work orders that were created or closed using a spreadsheet or paper-based tracking system?

Improve Work Order Management with FTMaintenance

Even the best work orders can fail without a solid system to manage them. FTMaintenance is powerful work order software that simplifies your work order management process. Featuring automated work order creation, assignment, distribution, and closure, FTMaintenance reduces the amount of administrative work involved in accomplishing your every day maintenance activities. Request a demo to see how FTMaintenance can improve your organization’s work order management process.