Setting up your preventative maintenance (PM) plan doesn’t have to be difficult. It will take some time, but in the end, your department will run better than ever.

Setting up your Preventative Maintenance Plan starts with why—why do you need one? What is the plan’s purpose, and which assets really need it? Your PM plan will need clear and detailed instructions, or standard operating procedures (SOPs). Each asset may have its own set of instructions, and with the help of a computerized maintenance management system (CMMS), you can keep each set tied to each asset. Along with manuals and warranty information, a CMMS is a great tool when setting up your preventative maintenance plan. Once your plan is in place, you can report, track, and adjust as needed.

To start building your PM plan, you’ll want to consider the purpose of PM work specific to your department and its goals. Here are a few examples given by our Director of Business Development, Tim Gelletly:

• • Prolong the life of your machine.
  • Support the prevention of unplanned breakdowns. 
  • Keep your machine within the OEM warranty.
  • Place your equipment in a state of usefulness/readiness.

Manufacturers that want to court new customers, secure contracts, and grow their business often need to show their prospects that they adhere to PM standards related to their industry. This PM work shows they are capable of producing products within the required specifications.

If your assets fall into one or more of the categories above, you’ll not only want a PM plan, but you will also need one. Any asset essential to daily production needs PM. If it is not essential or is relatively easy or quick to fix, you can leave those assets out of your PM plan. Before starting your PM plan, you may need to determine how to organize your assets and components, which is known as asset hierarchy. Find out why it’s important to have an asset hierarchy in place by reading last month’s blog here. 

After you’ve figured out which assets to start on, you’ll need to compile a list of what needs to be done to that asset, how often it needs to be done, and by whom. Some assets come with a standard set of instructions, but you’ll want to add things like where the necessary tools or parts are, who will perform the work, and on what day(s).

SOPs make work fast and efficient and ensure you don’t cut corners or forget items. With MaintiMizer™, we even have a module called Dynamic SOP. Instead of printing a checklist, you can mark off steps completed in MaintiMizer™. You can even save your work halfway through to be picked up later or by another tech. Dynamic SOP can be even more intuitive by routing the work order to the appropriate person or team to resolve any issues as well as handle exceptions to the SOP. Once you close the work order you can finalize the Dynamic SOP so it can’t be edited either.

Once you have your plan in place, it’s time to perform the work, report it, and track it. Inputting the data into the CMMS is only the first step in keeping records on each asset. You can use this data to optimize your plan by building reports to remain compliant with regulations and save money by reducing unplanned downtime or even too much or too little PM work. Align your reporting needs to your purpose. Make sure it all makes sense and cut out anything that doesn’t need to be done to save time and improve efficiency.

If you need more help aligning your preventative maintenance plan with your department and MaintiMizer™, reach out to us at info@ashcomtech.com.

What reports to use based on your goals?

There are many ways to pull reports from MaintiMizer™. We have pre-built reports in different modules, but we also have our robust Query Builder, which can pull just about any data you’d need with a few clicks. It can, however, be overwhelming. It doesn’t have to be, though—pulling data based on only your goals is the key. Tim Gelletly, director of business development, states, “In my opinion, customers should be thinking about the data they require (and a good test of this is asking themselves a simple question: when I get this data, what will I do with it?) and then build the simplest query in MaintiMizer to meet that need.”

Let’s look at the specific reports you want to pull based on your goals:

Goal: Reduce Backlog

                Search/update work order

This report seems to be popular. By using this data builder, you can search for open or closed work orders in a certain time frame. Use this data to see how your month went versus how your current month is going and if there are days that have more open work orders than others and why. You can also use this data to see how long work orders have been open. This one report can give you a ton of information with only a few clicks.

                Backlog review list

See what work needs to be done, and schedule it in order of importance. To determine which work orders should be done first, read our last blog post—“4 Reasons You Need Asset Hierarchy and Criticality Analysis.”

Goal: Improve Inventory Management

                Dead Stock widget in 5.0

If your goals include a better inventory management system, we have a few reports you can look at. In 5.0 we have a widget for your home screen that’s called Dead Stock. In your settings (from the side menu, choose the general drop-down tab, choose settings, then scroll down to the home-page module), you can choose to show this widget on your home screen and how many days back you’d like to see (30, 60, 90, etc.). Now every time you log into MaintiMizer™, you’ll see how many parts haven’t been used in that number of days along with the total cost of those parts. Clicking on the widget brings you to a report that shows you which parts are included in that report, making it easy to know which parts you can scale down on or not have on hand at all if the lead time is short.

                Non-active/active parts

Look at non-active parts for the past year to decide if you have too many or need to keep that specific part in stock at all. To determine whether to keep a part on hand or factors to consider when deciding the amount to keep on hand, check out our “Do You Barcode” blog post.

Goal: Reduce Failures

                Failure analysis

To help reduce unexpected failures, this report shows how many failures an asset has had over a period of time. You’ll be able to track trends to see if there is room for improvement or to know when to expect the next failure (if failure is unavoidable).

                Mean time between failures 

Gelletly recommends this report: “A great report that doesn’t get used too much is the Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF) report. If properly used, this can help influence and optimize PM schedules for their business.”

Here are a few tips when pulling reports from MaintiMizer and using our Query Builder from Gelletly:

Keep it simple!

• “Generally, I find that customers need the most help critically thinking about the data they want to present, and this presents when looking for a report or building a query. The report that they should be using is often a simple query but then is laden down with several modules, screens, and fields, making the report less cooperative and useful. In my opinion, customers should be thinking about the data they require (and a good test of this is asking themselves a simple question: when I get this data, what will I do with it?) and then building the simplest query in MaintiMizer to meet that need.” 

The best practices I suggest are the following:

• Think about the data you need to see and the order you want them in.
• Take the time to locate these data in MaintiMizer, and write down which module you can find that data in.
• Go to the QUERY TOOL, select the module, then select the fewest number of screens necessary. Finally, select the fewest fields to present as possible. Remember to use the variables in the grid. Run the query, and confirm it is presenting what you asked it to do.

If you have questions on how to pull these reports, email support@ashcomtech.com. Need an in-depth overview of these reports and how to use the data they collect? E-mail us at implementation@ashcomtech.com, and we can set up training classes for you and your team!

Four Reasons You Need Asset Hierarchy and Criticality Analysis

Modernizing maintenance is all about leaving behind legacy systems and integrating new systems that help you run your department more efficiently. As our society rapidly moves and grows, we need systems in place, so we don’t fall behind. The moment a company does so is the moment it gets into financial trouble. Finding ways for your company and department to run like a well-oiled machine helps ensure job security and financial stability. Systems like asset hierarchy and criticality help move your department to a proactive maintenance team with little unexpected downtime.

1. Reliability

Understanding your asset relationships can significantly reduce equipment downtime. Asset criticality ensures reliability from a data-driven perspective rather than guesswork.  

2. Efficiency

Knowing what’s inside each asset gives you a better idea of how to schedule preventive maintenance tasks. Asset criticality ranks assets from most critical to least critical, helping your technicians to increase inventory management efficiency by keeping the most critical parts on hand instead of having to wait for a shipment.

3. Budgets

Directly connect every cost to individual components instead of the asset as a whole. This will allow you to have a better inventory management system and fine-tune purchasing decisions.

4. Scheduling

Asset hierarchy organizes assets in a parent–child relationship so that you can identify and prioritize maintenance tasks, replacement parts, preventive and corrective maintenance, and other steps needed to keep an asset in working condition. This will help determine what work needs to be done and ensure critical assets are looked at first.

Asset hierarchy and criticality are tedious but simple tasks. Remove the guesswork when assigning work orders, and improve inventory management and asset reliability. Reliableplant.com has a great article on how to get started. Check it out here: https://www.reliableplant.com/criticality-analysis-31830.

Read More on Modernizing Your Maintenance Here:

Setting and Achieving Goals in 2023

Modernizing Maintenance

Modern Maintenance Setting and Achieving Goals

January is the start of a new year, which usually means we hear a lot about New Year’s resolutions. We make them, get all excited, and about a month or so later we forget them. I like to keep it simple, no “New Year, new me” cliches, just plain goals. I have an idea of the things I want to do, see, and achieve next year. I write them down and make a plan to fit it all in. Do I always get it right? No. This way of thinking, however, has slightly tricked my brain into actually working toward my goals all year. Unfortunately, to achieve any goal takes more than a little brain trickery. Having an idea of what your goals are is just the start. You then need to write them down, get everyone involved who needs to be, brainstorm how to achieve them, put the plan into action, and then do the work. Let’s breakdown what it will take for you to achieve goals in your department this year.

Corporate hands down many of the maintenance departments’ goals: decrease downtime or spending; increase productivity or revenue; cut costs and increase profits. These are the basis of most, if not all, company goals. Cutting costs is a little too broad though; you’ll want to be as precise as possible. For instance, “cutting costs by 10 percent while increasing production by 5 percent” is specific. That kind of specificity gives you and your team a very clear goal to work toward.

Once you’ve gotten your goal(s) set, you’ll need to brainstorm ideas to make it happen. Start by getting your entire team involved. They work with the assets day in and day out, which can help pinpoint problem areas as well as give ideas on how to do things a little differently. No idea is a bad idea, it just may not be a good fit. Go through each idea and discuss the pros and cons. Team involvement connects everyone with the goals while improving a team-like atmosphere.

Now that you have a plan of action, write it down. Research has shown you are 42 percent more likely to achieve goals if they are written down and 76 percent more likely to achieve your goals if you write action commitments and share weekly progress reports. Set milestones or key performance indicators (KPIs) and review them weekly. I’m going out on a limb here in assuming most company goals are set with a 12-month timeline. If yours are not, make sure you know exactly when the goals need to be achieved. As it’s been said, “A goal without a deadline is just a dream.”

By using a computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) such as MaintiMizer™, you’ll be able to track goals easily. Take a look at your reports from last year and break them down week by week or month by month. Whatever makes the most sense for you and your team. We understand every month is not the same; you could have spent more money in January than you did in April. If you have your cost reports from January of last year, compare them to January of this year. Using our sample goal from above, if you spent $6,000 last January, you’ll want to make sure this January you spend $600 less. This is just one way to set KPIs and track your goals. Be sure to set KPIs that make sense for your company.

Now that the initial legwork is done, it’s time to hold yourself and the team accountable for achieving these goals. Using the KPIs you set, make sure you are reviewing them as often as needed. If your team is falling behind and you’ve only been checking KPIs once a month, move into weekly progress checks. If there seems to be a big gap between where you are versus where you need to be, take a look at your action plan. Is there anything more you can do? Anything that needs to be done differently? Are your technicians properly trained for their tasks? Do you have the right technicians working on the assets that best suit their abilities? Review, assess, and change up the plan as needed. No need to change the goal, just the steps to get there.

When done correctly, goal setting is effective and often critical to success. Goals energize performance, motivate teams to persist in activities over time, and focus people’s attention. Set your goals, write them down, and have your CMMS help keep the whole team on track. Your CMMS can be your best friend when it comes to tracking KPIs, so make sure it’s set up properly and kept up to date. Keep momentum going all year long with this formula, and you will achieve goals for your department consistently.

What does modernizing maintenance mean? It’s proper maintenance with limited interruptions to operations. To put it simply, it’s the practice of moving your maintenance department out of reactive maintenance and into preventative and even predictive maintenance strategies. With the help of Industry 4.0 tools and strategies, from Computerized Maintenance Software Systems (CMMS) and sensors to root cause analysis and asset criticality analysis, you’ll be able to build a plan to leave legacy systems behind and move into modern maintenance.

There are many different approaches you can take when it comes to modernizing your maintenance department. It all starts with the decision to do so. Then what? Ask yourself why you want to and where you want to end up. Your company could be looking at future expansions, reducing maintenance costs, improving operations, and more.  These are all good reasons that you’ll want to modernize your department and need to do so. Expansions will fail if your department isn’t ready for the workload, nor can you improve operations if you’re stuck in reactive maintenance.

You could simply want to make the lives of you and your employees easier, which is easier said than done, but it can happen. Modernizing your maintenance won’t happen overnight. It takes setting goals that align with corporate goals, updating any training you or your team may need, putting together a strategy that makes sense, putting your plan in action, and then reviewing and revising as you go.

Now that we have gotten into the why behind modernizing your maintenance department, let’s look at what it is and how it can help achieve your goals. Proper maintenance can look a little different from company to company, but at the end of the day, it’s all about keeping your assets running at their best throughout their expected life cycle. The best and simplest way to achieve that is by implementing a CMMS properly (note I said properly—that’s the most important part; don’t skimp on the implementation process and training on the program!) into your department, setting up a preventative maintenance program, and continually assessing your department and its goals. That may sound like a lot, but once you get into the groove of using these methods, you’ll see how much easier your department runs.

Over the course of the next 12 months, we will dissect each of these components with a series of blogs that I have put together with the help of my team. These informational blogs will help you take your plan to the next level—regardless of where you are in your journey—and include the following:

• Reducing waste
• Determining which reports in MaintiMizer™ to use based on your goals
• Learning how to utilize MaintiMizer™ 5.0 widgets
• Deciding why and how to use the data you get from those reports
• Improving employee retention
• Establishing asset criticality and asset hierarchy

Once you start implementing modern maintenance, the benefits will start rolling in. Benefits include better communication and accountability within your team, a better organized workflow, fewer asset failures and overtime hours, lower employee turnover, and a happier C-suite. All of this makes your organization and department a better place to work. Follow along with us over the next 12 months to get your department moving in the right direction.

Ninety percent of employees surveyed agreed training and development programs improved their job performance. Below are 5 steps to build your training program.

There are hundreds, if not thousands, of computerized maintenance management systems (CMMS) out there. You can pick one, install it, and start using it with no problem. You could probably even do that with MaintiMizer™. However, without proper training you’ll find yourself overwhelmed with the multiple functions and ways of doing the same thing, so you’ll find yourself asking, “What are these reports even for?” If you go through the motions when it comes to new things, whether it be a new job, software, or system, you’ll end up sliding back into the old way of doing things.

Every company is different and has its own systems, so training isn’t a one-size-fits-all situation. Tailoring your training program to your company’s unique needs is what makes the program successful. At Ashcom, when we’re asked to train our customers on our software, some of the first questions we ask are these: “What are your company’s goals?” and “What are your goals for this training?”

Sure, we can come in, show you how to use the program, and leave. But we don’t think that’s enough. It leaves a gap between how to use the program and why you’re using it. Implementing a strong training program is as easy as answering, “What do you expect your employees to be able to do after they complete the training?” This ideology applies to any training program within your company—training new hires, adding new business systems, and management training.

There are five points you need to remember when creating a training program: Identify, Compare, Observe, Create, and Reinforce. These points apply when an outside trainer works with your company as well. Here’s how we define these five points:

1. Identify

Identify clear goals that support both the organization and the individuals being trained. What are you trying to accomplish within your organization? Answers may include improving company culture, improving communication, or increasing productivity.

2. Compare

Compare what your employees do now with what they need to do to meet the objectives ahead. Do they need new certifications or software systems?

3. Observe

Observe the learning styles of your employees. Everyone learns a little differently. Observing how your employees learn, whether it’s through video, in-person training, courses with workbooks and hands-on training, or a mix of styles will help your employees retain the information you need them to know.

4. Create

Create materials relevant to your program. Examples include workbooks, manuals, how-to videos or an in-depth, hands-on training program.

5. Reinforce

Follow-up with employees to see if they are on track with the new systems or if they need further instruction.

Implementing anything new should be followed by in-depth training. A study of organizations in Belgium found that productivity was 23 percent higher for trained employees compared to untrained employees. According to a 2019 Education tech Company Structure study, “Seventy percent of employees say they are at least somewhat likely to leave a current employer for one that invests in training and development.” Set your goals, then set up your training programs around those goals. You can improve employee morale and communication and set your company up for long-term success with proper training.

Here’s what a few of our customers have said about our training program:

“We have done a lot of training. This was the most positive feedback I have received on an outside training opportunity. I think the message, delivery, and material were relevant and done in a professional and knowledgeable way. I believe Gutchess Lumber will benefit greatly from this training. Kim followed up at each stage of the process and left our team with the tools to be successful. We have been underutilizing this program and I look forward to better efficiencies in the maintenance department.”

“Tim was very informative. Took time to explain all segments of MaintiMizer™ and answer all questions with patience. Knowledgeable and I believe he went above and beyond to answer all questions”

“Tim and Ka Lok both did an excellent job showing us how to use the system more effectively and any questions they were unsure of was sent to their company to get resolution. Tim is great at presenting and discussing this program. Some areas and issues can be sensitive to people and Tim will diffuse them with a way to make both parties understand.”

Avoiding overwhelm when implementing a new software or system in your organization is much easier than it seems. According to plantservices.com “With most modern software packages, the greatest cost can be installation and implementation.  Prices vary dramatically but a rule of thumb is one to three times the cost of the software.” To avoid the overwhelming sticker shock and to see a return on your investment, be sure to implement your software properly. You are not just buying software when you invest in a Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS)—you are essentially changing the way you run your maintenance department.

Here are five steps to avoid overwhelm when implementing a CMMS to enjoy a better organized, efficient maintenance program while saving your company money.

1. Research

Take the time to get to know what each software has to offer and why you may need or want certain features. Make a list of the things you need this software to tackle, and then narrow down your choices to a select few.

2. Get Your Team Involved

Who will be using the software? Who will be managing it and who will be paying for it (if it is not you)? Present your list of needs for the software and ask if there’s anything missing. Also, ask what the top needs are—this will help narrow the search while giving your team ownership in the decision-making process. Present your top software choices and let your team view demos, features, and even be present on the initial sales call once you get to that point.

3. Get Everyone on Board

After implementing steps one and two, getting everyone on board should be easy—or at least easier. Change is hard and making the greatest number of people happy is even harder. Take the path of least resistance by keeping everyone informed during the process. Achieving this step will help in decreasing the overwhelming nature of the task at hand.

4. Training

I cannot stress this enough—make sure you understand all the components of the software. When it comes to a CMMS, some components can be overwhelmingly daunting. Ensure there is training available as well as a support team that suits your needs. If you prefer talking to actual people, makes sure that is an option. If you prefer videos, manuals, and quick how-to documents, make sure those are available. If you prefer hands-on training for you and your employees, make sure that is possible. Hands-on training from the software makers themselves can be worth its weight in gold. Learning how to implement a strong training program can be done, and our next blog will highlight how to do just that.

5. Price Tag

Some people like to purchase whatever is cheapest, whereas others spend months hemming and hawing over whether they want anything at all because of the price. Let’s get real for a second — price should not be your main concern. We all have budgets to stick to; however, on average, it only takes about 14.5 months to recoup your initial investment on a CMMS. A CMMS can provide a maintenance cost reduction of as much as 25 to 30 percent. Reducing asset failures, employee downtime, and employee overtime only scratch the surface of what a CMMS can provide. I’m not saying you need to get the most expensive one—you should get the one that makes the most sense for your company. It may end up being the cheapest one after all. However, the price of a CMMS is nothing compared to the benefits of using one.

Here’s an indepth look at what a CMMS can do for you if implemented properly. Implement your CMMS properly the first time and enjoy your ROI, efficient workplace and productive, happy employees.

A computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) keeps your department organized, and the data it provides can help eliminate obstacles such as budget constraints, time and staffing issues, asset failures, and inventory issues. The data your CMMS provides helps to track and manage the money your department uses and gives a clear picture to decision makers. Being able to know where the money is going and why can alleviate the pressures of budgets and help you determine whether your department is spending too much in one area. Read more here about how to properly manage your inventory to help save time and money.

Saving time is a big deal at most companies. We’ve all heard the phrase “time is money.” The data a properly set up and maintained CMMS provides will give a clear picture of how time is spent in your department. For example, how long it takes work orders to be completed and the average downtime of both employees and assets, planned and unplanned. When you look at your dashboard with MaintiMizer™ 5.0 report widgets, you can have most of this information upon sign in. You can see open work orders, dead parts, bad actors (equipment), completed and on-time work orders, and reported versus scheduled work orders.

Administrators or maintenance schedulers can use the data from open work orders to see whether there are any major backlogs of work, find out why and how to fix the issues. Are work orders taking longer to complete than normal? Are you dealing with employee turnover or call offs? Are there missing parts or tools? Now that you know what is happening and why, you can adjust your preventative maintenance plan and how many work orders are being assigned daily, create an asset criticality plan, go over how much inventory you have on hand each week, or make a case for hiring more employees.

Once you’ve established a baseline of data by entering in all relevant information for work orders, inventory, employee time, and costs, you’ll be able to quickly notice any trends or random outliers in your data, such as a spike in open work orders or a sudden lack of inventory or extended downtime on assets or employees. When one of these outliers or trends pops up, you’ll be able to catch it and work to find the root cause. Take for example, the report widget “equipment bad actors” on your home screen—it will show whether there are assets that seem to be failing repeatedly or having extra work done on them. Seeing this and fixing the underlying issue before there’s a major breakdown—well, I don’t have to tell you why that’s important!

Obstacles are part of life. We can’t escape them all. But having the right tools and insights can help alleviate the major ones or reduce the number of obstacles so your department runs more efficiently. Create a plan in case the major obstacles are unavoidable. Maintenance doesn’t have to be a reactive profession.

Risk Assessment 101

When we see the words “risk assessment,” we can all probably take a good guess as to what it is. When it comes to working with machinery with many moving parts, at extreme temperatures, and at high speeds, injuries are more likely to happen, even for the most experienced maintenance tech. This is where risk assessment comes into play. To help keep employees, work areas, and buildings safe, some machinery requires a more thoughtful approach before work can be done on it. Risk assessment is the process that identifies hazards and risk factors, analyzes and evaluates those hazards, and then determines how to mitigate, control, or eliminate them.

Of course, there are many ways to go about the process, but typically, it takes only six steps:

1. Identify the hazards.

Any and all hazards should be noted, whether they are natural, biological, workplace, intentional, technological, chemical, or psychological. Assemble a team that includes people who are unfamiliar with the workplaces as well as those who are familiar with them. That way you have fresh eyes looking for possible risks. Look at past accident reports involving the asset and determine whether an asset has parts that can be easily moved or damaged unintentionally (e.g., safety guards that can be removed).

2. Decide who might be harmed and why.

Not only the technician working on the machine but also those who are around it can be harmed. Consider all the employees who are normally in the work areas surrounding the assets. You should also think about those who may have a different level of risk such as workers with disabilities, young or inexperienced workers, and new or expectant mothers.

3. Evaluate the risks.

Now that you’ve listed the risks and who may be harmed, you should consider the likelihood of the risks happening and how much damage could occur. There is no one-size-fits-all template to determine the level of risk. Use your best judgment.

For example, if hazards can cause major injuries, (e.g., fractures, head injuries), poisoning, or even death, those would obviously be high risk. Furthermore, you should consider the probability of those risks happening. Could they happen once or twice a year or once in a working lifetime?

Evaluate the risks and ask yourself how likely they are to happen and what you can do to eliminate or control them. Is a properly fitted hard hat enough to protect from head injuries, or is a full insulated body suit better fit for the situation?

4. Act to prevent risk.

Now is the time to write down the prevention protocols. A checklist would suffice here. Make sure no one else is near the machine that doesn’t need to be. Turn off or slow down the machine. Mandate wearing proper safety gear. Whatever protocols you decide on should be listed and abided by before work begins.

5. Record your findings.

Depending on your industry, you may be required by law to have a written risk assessment for each asset. Record everything: how you identified the risks, who or what may be harmed, etc. (Every item from above). Be sure to have everything documented for employees and management to review.

6. Review and adjust as needed.

Update your risk assessment protocols as needed. Ask relevant questions such as the following. Are there new machines around the existing one, and does that change who or what may be hurt or damaged? Did something happen during the last work order that no one thought of beforehand? Are the risks less than or worse than you originally planned?

Once you have your risk assessment process in place, you’ll use it each time you’re about to perform maintenance on a given asset. You’ll go through your checklist and make sure everything is in order. You may run into issues if not every box is checked where the assessment fails, and the machine is not ready to be worked on. You then need to find the issue or reason, fix it, and perform the assessment again. Once the assessment has passed, you can then perform work on the asset. This process is vital to workplace safety. Workplace safety should be a top priority for any manufacturing company. Risk assessment is not only important but necessary.

We’ve made it easy for you and your company to make risk assessment a part of your maintenance management system. Along with our all-new MaintiMizer™ 5.0, we are launching a Risk Assessment Module. This module allows you to build out your checklist and process it right in our Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS). There’s no need for Excel or any other software program, not to mention paper and pencil! A customer previously asked us to build this module into our system, and after a couple of years of planning, coding, and testing, it will be ready to launch by September 2023. If you’ve been undecided about upgrading your system to our 5.0 platform, this module alone should help you determine your need for it. If you are in an industry or company that requires risk assessment, why not use one system to accomplish the task?

Get on our list to upgrade to 5.0 here.

Do You Barcode? 

Many of our current customers take advantage of this amazing feature. If you’re not one of them, you’re going to want to listen up.

Barcoding has been around since 1951 and is widely used in retail environments where hundreds—even thousands—of SKUs exist. Keeping track of inventory, pricing, and purchase orders make taking care of those SKUs possible. But what about your maintenance department? How can it help you?

Let’s first look at your current stock room. Are your spare parts neatly arranged and labelled properly? Could you successfully send a new employee in there to find them? If not, you may need to use a barcode system.

You might be wondering whether it’s necessary to have a neat stock room. If you can find the parts eventually, does it matter? Imagine the following scenario: you’re pulling your PMs for the day, and you have a few pieces of equipment that need parts replaced; one needs a new belt, another needs a new hose, and some need new bolts. These appear to be quick and simple fixes—until you visit the stock room and struggle to find what you need. The bolts aren’t the right size. The belts you have are for other assets that aren’t interchangeable. That hose you know you saw yesterday is gone. Now what do you do?

If you search for another 20 minutes you might find that hose, but perhaps nothing else. Congratulations! You’ve just wasted an hour, and you can only do one of three PMs. Now you might need to track down your supervisor and explain why you can’t do the rest of your work. On top of that, you might need to wait on a purchase order for those parts to be approved, ordered, and shipped, delaying the scheduled PMs even further.

If you’re already doing heavy lifting to optimize your department with a Preventative Maintenance Plan, consider including barcoding. When you set up barcodes for inventory in your Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS), you’ll not only be able to find parts within minutes, but the system also will automatically remove items from your inventory and charge them to the correct assets.

Maintaining a real-time overview of your inventory will help with purchase orders by indicating when to order new parts, how often you order certain parts, and enabling you to decide how much to order. Perhaps you’re ordering too frequently and have more inventory than you need, or perhaps you can include a part with a different purchase order and save on shipping costs.

Charging a part to its correct piece of equipment helps you be more efficient. The goal of which is to track your assets, keep them running, and maintain a safe work environment. Using a barcode system, you can take the information you receive from your CMMS and turn it into actionable processes. Examining your assets each month, as well as who has worked on them and which parts were used, allows you to adjust your PMs as needed. As an example, imagine that you have an asset that goes through hoses quickly. The CMMS history shows that you’ve changed hoses twice in a single month, but one hose should have lasted two or three months. With barcoding, you can examine what’s going on with that asset and find the root of the problem before it gets worse.

Before utilizing a barcode system, perhaps you were too busy to notice that your hoses were being used more than they should have been. The CMMS doesn’t show which asset is using which parts because the PM wasn’t filled out completely, or it was taken out of inventory without being charged to an asset. This might leave you with problems that could have been avoided, including asset failure and unplanned downtime.

Barcoding systems have come a long way since 1951 and have grown increasingly important in several industries, including maintenance. By keeping your assets running efficiently, avoiding costly downtime, and completing PMs on time, you can vastly improve your bottom line with a barcode system. MaintiMizer™ can provide you with barcoding that you can build directly into your existing system. In addition, we can share best practices for labeling and organizing your storeroom.

For more information, please email us at info@aschomtech.com. If you currently use our barcode system, please email marketing@ashcomtech.com with a note about how it helps your department. We’d love to hear from you.

Happy Barcode Day!

Team Ashcom