Managing assets is a critical part of any company’s overall maintenance strategy. It ensures the performance and longevity of your assets, minimizes unplanned downtime, and encourages productivity.
Because asset management is so critical, it’s essential to implement a structured asset maintenance process as part of your overarching maintenance plan. Taking a reactive or hands-off approach without a defined strategy leaves organizations vulnerable to risk factors. In this article, we’ll cover how to plan your asset maintenance process, a step-by-step guide for implementing it, and best practices for refining your asset maintenance strategy.
Asset maintenance planning
Every good strategy begins with a plan; asset maintenance is no different. As you set up your asset maintenance strategy and surrounding processes, be sure that you have devoted adequate time and resources to planning and setting objectives for your strategy.
Asset inventory creation
As part of the planning process, you must take a detailed inventory of the maintainable assets within your organization. A comprehensive asset inventory of equipment, machinery, vehicles, and other physical assets will help the company stay organized.
When taking inventory, be sure to include the following asset information in correspondence with each item:
- Serial numbers
- Make
- Model
- Location
- Maintenance history
- Usage patterns
- Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) maintenance schedules
Consider also listing locations and stock of parts that the asset requires for maintenance.
Setting maintenance goals
Setting goals will help ensure that your asset maintenance process aligns with the company’s production and overarching maintenance objectives. Define what you want to achieve with your asset maintenance process. Common objectives include reducing breakdowns and downtime, extending asset lifespans, improving safety, and lowering repair costs.
Establishing maintenance strategies
There are several maintenance strategies your organization can utilize when implementing asset maintenance processes. Discuss these strategies within your company to determine which strategies are best for you.
Common types of asset maintenance include preventive maintenance (PM), predictive maintenance, and reactive maintenance. Most companies utilize a mix of each of these strategies. The appropriate balance will vary based on asset criticality, environment, available personnel, and budget.
Workflow: Step-by-step asset maintenance process
Asset maintenance management varies depending on the number of assets within your organization, their criticality, and the personnel available to complete maintenance activities, but the basic steps of implementing asset maintenance are fairly standard.
Step 1: Maintenance scheduling
Proper maintenance scheduling is the foundation of any effective asset maintenance process. Based on prioritizing critical assets, usage patterns, and OEM (original equipment manufacturer) recommendations, maintenance tasks should be scheduled to minimize disruptions.
Whatever mix of strategies you employ, creating a clear maintenance schedule ensures that technicians are always prepared to complete tasks on time and in the appropriate manner. Developing your schedule will involve everything from routine checks to major overhauls, with the help of strategic thinking to avoid interrupting critical production processes.
Implementing a Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS) streamlines and simplifies maintenance planning and scheduling. A CMMS brings maintenance data, documents, and workflows together in a central location to help teams reach a new performance standard and grow into strategic allies for the business as a whole.
Step 2: Work order creation and assignment
Once you have the schedule in place, create detailed work orders for each maintenance task. These work orders should outline the following details:
- Which asset requires service
- How should the technicians carry out the maintenance activities
- Which materials and tools will the technician need
- Who should complete the task
Ensure that tasks are assigned to technicians with the necessary expertise and always consider the priority level of each task. A leading-edge CMMS will expedite the process of issuing and completing work orders with all the necessary detail. Applied strategically, these tools can effectively eliminate the risk of human error affecting maintenance processes or production lines.
Step 3: Performing maintenance tasks
With the work orders in place, technicians can then carry out the assigned maintenance tasks. This step could include repairs, replacements, inspections, or general upkeep.
During this phase, it’s critical to follow all safety protocols and use the correct tools and materials. You should schedule tasks for maximum cost efficiency and minimal impact to asset performance. Communicate any issues you discover promptly and carry out an official reporting and response process to ensure you make any needed adjustments in a timely manner.
A well-maintained CMMS helps by providing easy access to historical data and necessary documentation, aiding technicians in making informed decisions as they perform maintenance activities.
Step 4: Monitoring and documentation
All maintenance activities should be carefully documented along the way. This includes logging any actions performed, materials used, and any findings or concerns. Accurate records ensure that the asset’s maintenance history is up to date, informing future decisions and keeping equipment in peak condition.
Post-maintenance asset monitoring ensures that tasks were performed in the appropriate manner and that your approach is still sufficient for success. Additional tools like condition-based maintenance systems empowered by IoT sensors can provide real-time data on asset health and performance.
Step 5: Post-maintenance reviews and ongoing communication
Finally, conduct post-maintenance reviews to continue refining and improving your asset maintenance strategies. How well do your technicians meet company objectives for metrics like downtime, productivity and availability? What do your managers and technicians think about your maintenance processes and strategies?
By analyzing the outcomes and feedback from technicians, you can fine-tune scheduling, improve task execution, and ensure that the next round of asset maintenance is even more efficient. Reviews also provide an opportunity to update asset management systems with new insights or adjust future maintenance strategies.
Best practices for successful asset maintenance
As with all other aspects of maintenance, certain best practices will help you optimize your asset maintenance process for the most successful outcomes.
- Training and skill development: Ensure maintenance techs receive proper training and certifications to keep them in the know on the assets they maintain.
- Collaboration across teams: Encourage open communication and foster cross-functional collaboration between teams to ensure seamless maintenance operations and boost the perception of your maintenance team.
- Regular inspections and audits: Conduct internal audits to verify compliance with industry standards and use these inspections as opportunities to update processes for continuous improvement.
- Data-driven decision making: Leverage historical maintenance metrics and utilize real-time asset performance to refine your strategies and make informed decisions regarding the organization’s needs.
- Implement technology: Tools like CMMS platforms and condition-monitoring sensors are becoming the standard within organizations that prioritize effective maintenance.
Read more: Guide to Asset Maintenance Management
Optimize asset maintenance with Limble CMMS
For a more strategic and data-backed approach to asset maintenance, Limble’s asset platform offers powerful tools that simplify scheduling, optimize work order creation, and provide real-time monitoring. Explore how Limble can enhance your asset management by scheduling a free demo today.
