Month: June 2013

Reduce Fleet Cost with Maintenance Management Software

Labor, tires, and ever-fluctuating gas prices have all been steadily adding to the overall cost of maintaining fleets in recent years. Fortunately for fleet managers, there has also been a number of countervailing technological innovations that, if implemented effectively, can help combat rising costs. Maintenance management software makes implementing these measures much easier, while also providing mission-critical information on overall costs that can improve decisions about fleet lifecycles.

Here are 5 ways to use maintenance management software to make fleets more efficient, increase uptime and reduce fleet cost:

1. Fine-tune tire pressure, balance and replacement cycles. It’s obvious that the cost of tires has risen steeply in recent years. What’s less obvious, however, is what can be done about it. Some fleet managers have responded by extending their tire replacement cycle—sometimes up to a year or two above normal. This, however, is a risky strategy. The increased threat of a blowout leaves drivers less safe, and when blowouts do occur, they often require roadside repairs that are, on average, much costlier than routine maintenance. Continue reading “Reduce Fleet Cost with Maintenance Management Software”

5 Ways Maintenance Software Can Help Increase ROI on Pumps

The trade publication Modern Pumping Today recently released a comprehensive 4-part series on pump maintenance that every plant and facility manager—and anyone else who works with pumps, should see. The series offers numerous maintenance tips that every plant and facility should incorporate into scheduled equipment management routines with the aid of maintenance software. Given that pumps consume some 60% of motor related-energy at most plants, maintaining them properly can have a significant impact on overall operational costs.

We’ve picked out five standout findings from the research and offered our take on how/why they should be implemented using a robust maintenance software platform like ManagerPlus.

1. Initial purchase price represents just 10% of total pump cost on average; maintenance accounts for 20%. Continue reading “5 Ways Maintenance Software Can Help Increase ROI on Pumps”

Simplify Facility Sustainability Efforts with CMMS

A combination of media attention, new technology, and influential research has pushed sustainability issues to the forefront of the facilities management profession. Annual surveys consistently rank facility sustainability at or near the top of facility management priority lists; a key indication of the degree to which issues of waste, inefficiency and environmental impact have transformed the industry.

Fortunately, facilities professionals can take some relatively straightforward steps toward meeting evolving sustainability targets and benchmarks, and a strong CMMS program can help simplify the process.


Continue reading “Simplify Facility Sustainability Efforts with CMMS”

Prioritizing Maintenance by Determining Critical Equipment

One of ManagerPlus’s big focuses in training and consulting on maintenance procedures is the necessity of a preventive posture when it comes to maintenance. If a large portion of your maintenance budget is consumed by corrective repairs, it’s a good indicator that you’re spending too much and that redirecting resources to strategic preventive efforts will have a positive effect on those costs, as well as the secondary and tertiary costs that ripple through the rest of you operation.

Identifying Mission-Critical Assets

One factor that is essential to structuring large maintenance plans is the classification and prioritization of equipment assets. Do you know what the lost opportunity and productivity costs are for a single day or week of downtime for a particular asset? Do you know the average rate of corrective repairs, average downtime or the effect on other departments’ operations when a particular asset is down for repairs?

Multiple factors can affect how critical an asset is to your organization, though every operation and industry has concerns specific to it:

  • Safety risks for critical equipment failures
  • Equipment life cycles and acquisition schedules
  • Manufacturing processes and production schedules
  • Costs of breakdown at multiple production phases
  • Health and safety inspection requirements
  • Convenience of repair

Knowing which equipment is most critical and precisely how its operation or malfunction affects your business can lead to more effective maintenance choices in the long run and even help you address other operational vulnerabilities with effective risk management.

Why Critical Assessment is Fundamental

The benefits of this criticality-based approach become clear when considering the things immediately under the control of most maintenance managers: maintenance scheduling and replacement lifecycles. The full cost of downtime isn’t always fully known, which can impair a manager’s ability to prioritize preventive maintenance effectively.

Continue reading “Prioritizing Maintenance by Determining Critical Equipment”