Reduce maintenance costs by implementing these four effective maintenance strategies and investing in the right set of technologies.
Companies plan their budgets around their short-term and long-term strategies. However, when it comes to budgeting their asset maintenance, companies often find themselves in a tight spot. The unpredictable nature of machines makes it almost impossible for most companies to stick to a budget. Their maintenance costs can be so high that they eat up profit margins and prevent growth for some companies. Read on to find some practical ways to improve your company’s profitability by reducing maintenance costs.
How to reduce maintenance costs?
Preventing Breakdowns
It might not be surprising, but preventing breakdowns in the first place is a sure-shot way of reducing maintenance costs. It is crucial to prevent equipment malfunctioning or breakdowns. Repairing a piece of broken equipment can be extremely costly, and it also slows down operations, which is another form of monetary loss for the business. However, what can you do to prevent the equipment breakdown? The best way is to invest in effective preventive maintenance software (PMS). PMS solutions can trigger maintenance tasks based on time or condition. Routine maintenance can detect issues in pieces of equipment before they become show stoppers.
Tracking and Planning Inventory
When the mean time-to-repair is higher, it can result in significant losses to the business. In most cases, companies may not have the required spare parts in stock, adding to the repair time. For this reason, it is essential to maintain accurate inventory records for every spare part. A parts and inventory management system can help you proactively track parts usage and order items low on stock.
Training The Team
Training is one of the most overlooked factors regarding reducing maintenance costs. To illustrate, companies only train their technicians but training the entire team is a more effective strategy. When your entire team understands how a piece of equipment works, the process of detecting faults and reporting them to the maintenance team becomes much quicker and seamless. As a result, the chances of downtime reduces, and you won’t have to struggle with time-consuming and costly repairs.
Invest In The Right Technologies
It’s needless to say that technology is an incredible asset for any business. Businesses that use spreadsheets to manage their maintenance cannot easily track and analyze maintenance costs and asset performance. On the other hand, using a CMMS can significantly improve overall team efficiency and help you track your maintenance much more effectively. When you track and analyze your maintenance cost accurately, you will be in a better position to identify breakdown patterns and make improvements to lower your maintenance cost. Another technology that has gained much traction over the past couple of years is IoT (Internet of Things). The recent advancements in IoT make it possible to continuously monitor the health of assets and the environment they are in, enabling maintenance teams to detect and fix issues proactively.
Conclusion
Even the most expensive piece of equipment can experience breakdowns from time to time. Implementing effective maintenance strategies and investing in the right set of technologies is crucial to saving on maintenance costs. If you are looking for a CMMS platform to help you take control of your maintenance, be sure to give BriskForce a try. Get a 14 day free trial or get in touch with us for a personalized demo.