Building Better Maintenance Operations: How to Optimize and Streamline Your Processes
Managing facilities and working in maintenance operations means you’re always looking for ways to improve and be more efficient. On one hand, you want to make sure that the people utilizing your facilities are happy and getting the most out of them. On the other hand, you want to make sure that you’re reducing costs where possible.
It can be difficult to take a step back and ensure that your operations are running efficiently, but taking a look at maintenance operations best practices can help you to reevaluate your facility.
According to Facilitiesnet.com, there are several crucial items that facility managers need to accomplish to achieve improved operations. Take a look at these tips below to find out how you can optimize and streamline your maintenance processes.
Create a Preventative Maintenance Plan
Developing a preventative maintenance program is crucial in facilities management. One of the main goals of this is to establish consistency throughout the facility among maintenance employees. Facility managers often fail to set up a preventative maintenance plan because it can be time consuming, but it’s definitely worth establishing. Your plan can decrease equipment downtime and repair costs while also eliminating the premature replacement of tools. Preventative maintenance also improves safety for everyone involved in it.
When creating your plan, start with critical equipment and systems, such as utilities and the major HVAC system. Have your technicians weigh in on the plan as well by looking at and touching the equipment.
Hold Regular Meetings
Keeping an open line of communication between managers and maintenance employees is crucial for operations to run smoothly. During these regular meetings, all parties involved should discuss what’s currently happening in the facility and what the plans are for the future.
Hold these meetings on the same day of the week at the same time of day every time so it becomes a habit for employees to attend. Make sure that everyone knows that attendance is required.
Always have an agenda for every meeting. Briefly summarize what was covered in the meeting the previous week, discuss what’s going on during the current week, and review plans for the upcoming week.
Empowering and Enabling Technicians and Staff
Facilitiesnet.com says, “By making workers better reactive maintenance technicians, managers allow them to complete more reactive work, which frees up a little bit of extra labor to begin the good stuff.” It’s important to make sure that your technicians and staff are properly trained to complete the jobs required of them.
Provide them with additional training so they’re continuously working on sharpening their skills, which will lead to better results. In addition to ensuring that they have the proper training, it’s also important to provide them with the tools they need to do the job properly.
Your maintenance operations can always be improved on to optimize your process and make the day-to-day easier.
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