Many times maintenance is skipped due to the added costs of time and money. However, equipment needs to be properly maintained if businesses wish to operate successfully. Properly maintained equipment improves the life of machinery and also helps improve overall safety.
When equipment breaks down or malfunctions unexpectedly due to lack of proper preventative maintenance (PM), who’s fault is it? Is it the machine manufacturer? The end-user? Or both? And how much did that service call cost you and your business? These questions and many more are common during equipment breakdowns when repairs come directly out of pocket for unexpected downtime.
If equipment maintenance costs are out of line with what you would like to spend, there are some simple things you can do to reduce equipment downtime. The tips in this article will help you save money on equipment maintenance-related expenses without sacrificing equipment life or performance.
Practice good preventative maintenance
Keeping equipment in good running order requires an investment of time and knowledge but failing to do so can have significant cost implications for the future. Preventative Maintenance Software can help save you money by catching potential problems before they cause significant damage.
Proactive, preventative maintenance is key in ensuring that common equipment failures are resolved before they cause service downtime. Having the right equipment maintenance software is critical in this activity as it can help analyze trends to build a comprehensive schedule.
By understanding equipment performance history and trends, you will be better prepared to schedule any required service at appropriate intervals and also identify potential issues before they lead to equipment failures.
Simplify your maintenance
Make sure your preventive maintenance tasks come first in the equipment work order list every day so that they get done more often than repairs due to failures.
By keeping maintenance simple, it is much more likely to be completed. Using simple checklist tasks is useful in this activity.
- Perform equipment inspections in order of priority and condition.
- When performing equipment inspections, document all issues with photos and use the right maintenance software for quick equipment diagnostics.
- Use equipment inspection reports to help secure funding for needed repairs or replacements by providing clear information on inventory conditions.
Proper storage
Rain and other weather conditions can damage equipment left outside. By using a good equipment shed or locker, damage from weather conditions is mitigated.
In addition to weather, equipment can be damaged through vandalism or simple misuse when left outdoors in an easily accessible location. Again, secure storage is the solution and failure to account for this can cost a company significant amounts of money in unnecessary repairs and replacements.
Review training practices
Workers are frequently unwilling to perform maintenance on their equipment because they believe it is a waste of time, or they are under pressure to complete other tasks. This develops into a habit and equipment maintenance is never carried out. One way to help correct this situation is through equipment inspection software.
Using equipment inspection software will keep the equipment in your company up-to-date with necessary repairs and replacements, and can also be used to schedule mandatory equipment check-ups that all employees must attend.
These check-up appointments provide training for users, which will increase everyone’s knowledge level about how the equipment operates and what preventative steps should be taken in order to minimize future problems and reduce costs due to breakdowns and unplanned work.
Save Money on Equipment Maintenance with Field Eagle
If you have equipment spread across a large area or many different sites, it may take hours to complete a single inspection. By using equipment inspection software like Field Eagle, inspectors can reduce the amount of time they spend inspecting equipment. Using checklists and other tools available within Field Eagle, inspectors are able to perform their tasks with greater accuracy and effectiveness.
In addition, with the capabilities the software provides, issues found at one site can be validated and reviewed across other sites and the head office in real-time further improving effinciencies.
In addition to saving time, Field Eagle’s equipment maintenance checklists also improve performance and reduce the risk of breakdowns. As a result, businesses will see improved productivity and an improved ROI with lower costs in the long run.
To see how Field Eagle can help you achieve your goals, fill out the form below for a Free Demo.
