Initiating proactive maintenance at your facility

 

Why wait for equipment to break down? Strictly reactive maintenance strategies only take effect once an asset has failed and is already having a negative impact on productivity. In today’s strategically and technologically advanced facilities, there is a better approach: proactive maintenance.

Taking a proactive approach to equipment failure means keeping track of the many critical assets that make up your facility and providing upkeep before breakdowns occur. This can lessen avoidable downtime and help you track and optimize total cost of ownership.

Beginning a switch from a proactive to reactive maintenance strategy requires a rethink of your approach. But it does not have to be a disruptive process, especially when you are working with MINER’s expert team of consultants and technicians.

Considering the productivity benefits that can come from making the change, your organization is leaving money on the table every day it doesn’t investigate proactive maintenance. 

Track the status of all assets 

Proactive maintenance is at its best when it is carried out in a disciplined and data-rich style. This means building a database of every asset in the facility. It should note each piece of equipment’s suitability for its role, age and wear status.

Condition monitoring and regular updates to this listing ensure that technicians are focusing on the most likely sources of avoidable failures and unplanned downtime when they perform maintenance work.

Combining condition based maintenance with scheduled maintenance is a way to get ahead of some machine failure risks. Inspections can be carried out via mobile-compatible assessment tools, allowing personnel to keep meticulous notes about asset status and condition.

Once your company has these surveying practices in place, you can launch a proactive maintenance approach that will deal with each asset individually. Rather than treating all your equipment as an undifferentiated group, technicians can craft a methodical maintenance strategy that reflects both unchanging facts such as asset age and updated assessments of current condition.

Assets eligible for such a proactive maintenance program include:

 

• Commercial doors: When doors are unable to open or close smoothly, it’s difficult for employees to perform logistics work efficiently. An asset failure can prove even more costly, stopping work and causing thousands of dollars in lost productivity. Elements of doors that may break down include tracks, motors, electronic controls, door seals and insulated panels.
• Loading dock equipment: As with doors, other loading dock equipment must be in top condition to keep the supply chain moving smoothly. From loading dock levelers to vehicle restraints and beyond, these assets require maintenance to prevent avoidable equipment failure and elevated employee risk.
• Automated and motorized assets: Automation is an increasing part of the modern warehouse. The addition of these systems gives employees new options for condition monitoring. But workers must be sure to keep close track of motors, control systems and more to ensure everything is working within acceptable parameters.
• Temperature control solutions: Whether you’re trying to comply with the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) or simply hoping to optimize your air conditioning spend, every part of an environmental control system must be maintained. This extends from air conditioning units and HVAC equipment to the insulated doors and seals that lock air in.

Create a customized proactive maintenance strategy

Your proactive maintenance strategy should be suited to your industry, operational patterns and equipment setup. This means more than simply coming up with the best ways to repair physical assets. The plan should be conceived with business objectives in mind. Ideal maintenance can reduce downtime and boost employee productivity.It’s best to think in these terms from the beginning of the process. Safety awareness and the cleanliness of your facility are other areas of improvement that can be addressed with an overarching proactive maintenance strategy. When technicians are making their rounds, they can correct a number of potential issues within the facility, such as obstructed pathways and spills.  

Improve operations with reliable equipment

The effects of proactive maintenance are important because they are so wide-ranging. Every corner of your business can be transformed for the better with an infusion of expert upkeep and the improved uptime that comes along. In fact, some of the areas of savings and process improvements may be surprising. The following are some of the results that can accompany a new proactive maintenance strategy designed and implemented by experts:  

• Improved TCO and ROI calculations: Frequent inspections and assessments of your assets allow you to create detailed projections regarding their total cost of ownership and return on investment. Understanding TCO and ROI is a key step in optimizing these measures.
• Better compliance and safety awareness: Maintaining assets and the facility as a whole on a regular basis can help your organization meet the guidelines created by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and other regulatory bodies while also minimizing the risk of avoidable accidents.
• Efficient, uninterrupted operations: Today’s logistics processes can be optimized to a great degree, but asset failures and downtime can undermine these efforts. By performing proactive maintenance rather than waiting for a breakdown, you give your supply chain a chance to thrive.

  Many secondary benefits come from these maintenance management advantages. For example, you may find it easier to retain and recruit top-performing employees when you can promise a compliant work environment with high-level safety awareness. Waiting for equipment to break is simply not an acceptable way to run an industry-leading facility.  

Stop relying solely on reactive maintenance

Too many organizations have only reactive maintenance strategies in place. These businesses are effectively leaving money on the table by suffering the lost productivity and heightened risk associated with avoidable downtime. Switching to proactive maintenance can lead to a 50% reduction in maintenance costs. It is important to have emergency repair services on call. But expert technicians should be available as a complement to your proactive maintenance strategy, not a replacement for it. You can work with MINER to develop any or all of the elements of an optimized proactive maintenance strategy. From surveying your equipment to producing a maintenance schedule to performing expert repairs, our expert maintenance team, consultants and technicians are available to become key contributors to your operations. Defending against avoidable downtime and equipment breakdown issues through proactive work is a step toward truly modern facility operations, with all the advantages that come along. Proactive maintenance is the key to this forward-thinking approach.