Maintenance scheduling is considered one of the critical aspects of reliability management in asset-intensive organizations, especially for organizations that depend on heavy equipment and machinery-based production. Hence, various types of maintenance planning and scheduling processes co-exist to allow organizations to optimize their productivity.
But scheduling maintenance operations can be complex and demanding, especially for an organization involving numerous assets. It is where the CMMS (Computerized maintenance management system) or Maintenance Management Software helps. This blog will explore how to leverage CMMS software for efficient maintenance scheduling.
What is Maintenance Scheduling?
Planning and organizing asset maintenance activities are known as maintenance scheduling. It involves the complete details on what, when, where, and who ought to conduct the maintenance tasks in all assets in an organization. It enables organizations to identify and solve communication issues among maintenance teams before they get out of hand. Regular maintenance planning and scheduling of assets and equipment ensure optimal asset performance by reducing asset downtime, repair cost, and asset breakdowns in organizations.
Importance of maintenance scheduling for operational efficiency
- It enables organizations to identify potential risks within the assets and address them before they cause damage.
- It extends the lifespan of assets, resulting in a better return on investments (ROI), reducing the need for premature replacement of assets.
- Regular maintenance planning and scheduling of assets can help organizations prevent expensive repairs and replacements, eventually decreasing operational costs.
- It maximizes uptime by identifying and fixing asset-related issues before the issue becomes major.
What is Scheduled Or Planned maintenance?
Scheduled maintenance is an asset maintenance job assigned to the maintenance technician along with the deadline. It provides maintenance scheduling information on who and when to perform the maintenance tasks. It involves temporarily shutting down the assets or system to conduct inspections, repairs, replacements, or upgrades on the worn-out assets or parts.
Scheduled maintenance on assets is performed recurrently based on the pre-determined asset maintenance schedule or according to the manufacturer’s recommendations to ensure that the assets are well maintained. A scheduled maintenance program identifies and addresses potential risks with the assets before they can cause asset downtime or breakdown.
Working procedure of Scheduled Maintenance
The first step in scheduled maintenance is to identify the maintenance needs of the assets in an organization. This is followed by deciding whether to plan a recurring or one-time maintenance process and scheduling maintenance tasks once you determine the asset’s maintenance needs.
Planned Maintenance
Planned Maintenance is a proactive maintenance strategy that involves anticipating the asset needs and scheduling maintenance activity to avoid asset failures and minimize unplanned downtime. This practice involves identifying maintenance tasks, coordinating the materials and workflow, and prioritizing the maintenance work order. Planned maintenance involves correction-based maintenance, predictive maintenance, and preventive maintenance.
Workflow of Planned Maintenance
Planned maintenance begins with identifying a problem or an upcoming maintenance task, then inspecting the asset and its location. The next step is to create a work order that includes details like required parts, work instructions, and the due date for completing the maintenance tasks. The asset maintenance work order can be assigned to the maintenance personnel according to its priority and due date. Finally, the maintenance engineers complete the asset maintenance task, update the work order with its relevant status, and close the assigned work order upon completion.
How to leverage CMMS Software for effective maintenance scheduling?
Preventive Maintenance
Preventive maintenance scheduling enables organizations to perform maintenance tasks even before equipment failures occur. It involves scheduling maintenance tasks regularly, according to the asset’s requirement, industry best practices, and manufacturer’s recommendations. With the CMMS Software, you can easily set up the preventive maintenance schedule based on the factors such as usage, meter reading, or time. CMMS proactively allows factories and facilities to schedule maintenance tasks manually or automatically with its software’s scheduling features. It enables managers to assign tasks to appropriate maintenance technicians, ensuring that the right person is responsible for conducting maintenance tasks. The CMMS software helps organizations to reduce unexpected downtime and extends the asset lifespan with effective preventive maintenance scheduling.
Centralized Data Management
The CMMS software’s ability to centralize all asset maintenance-related data in one place is one of its most significant advantages. CMMS solution stores and keeps track of complete equipment data, Work Orders, Maintenance history, and other relevant information under a single database. The centralization of the entire asset-related details makes it easier to access. It, in turn, efficiently streamlines maintenance schedules, as all the required data is in one place. Maintenance Scheduling can be time-consuming and complex, especially regarding storage, tracking, and accessing large chunks of information. However, the CMMS’s ability to centralize data management makes it more efficient and accessible.
Automated Work Order Generation
Manual creation of asset maintenance work orders can be tiring and time-consuming. The CMMS maintenance planning software can help you automate this process. It can automatically generate asset maintenance work orders based on the preventive maintenance schedule or based on requests. The work order generated with the CMMS software solutions involves all the required data about the maintenance tasks, such as an asset that needs maintenance, task description, checklist, scheduled start and end dates, and assigned maintenance personnel. CMMS saves time and ensures that an organization generates asset maintenance requests accurately.
Real-time Asset Maintenance
Tracking the progress of asset maintenance tasks can be complex and demanding. With no real-time updates on the maintenance operations, organizations might miss out on critical maintenance tasks or fail to recognize the potential issues beforehand, resulting in increased downtime, higher maintenance cost, and decreased productivity. The CMMS maintenance planning can provide real-time status updates of asset maintenance tasks, work orders, and equipment, making tracking maintenance planning and scheduling easier.
The CMMS solutions also enable organizations to track asset downtime and performance metrics in real-time, which results in identifying trends and patterns that might be responsible for determining issues with an asset before they accelerate. Leveraging real-time asset maintenance updates with SMMS solutions can empower asset maintenance operations by increasing productivity, profitability, and customer satisfaction.
Effective Planning and Allocation
Planning and allocating resources for asset maintenance tasks is crucial in maintenance scheduling. It ensures that the asset maintenance process is conducted according to the budget and time defined by the organization. With CMMS maintenance planning software, you can easily plan and allocate the resources like materials, staff, and equipment for maintenance tasks.
It ensures that the right resources are available at the right time to increase the efficiency of the maintenance process. And keeps track of the inventory levels and the availability of the maintenance spare parts. CMMS ensures that the maintenance personnel have the required tools and equipment to conduct their tasks without delay. This ultimately results in reduced downtime and improved productivity in organizations.
Reporting and Analyzing
Analyzing and generating reports manually for maintenance tasks can be time-consuming and complex, especially when managing large equipment and facilities. The CMMS software includes in-built reporting and analyzing tools that help organizations to generate reports on maintenance cost, asset downtime, and other relevant metrics. Organizations can further utilize this data to identify trends, predict issues, and make data-driven decisions about future maintenance scheduling.
Fogwing CMMS for Maintenance Scheduling
Fogwing Asset+ CMMS (Computerized Maintenance Management System) software is a powerful tool designed to streamline and optimize maintenance operations for businesses across various industries. It offers a comprehensive set of features and functionalities that enable organizations to efficiently manage their assets, track maintenance activities, and ensure the smooth functioning of their equipment and facilities.
Fogwing Asset+ CMMS software provides a centralized platform where users can effectively manage their assets throughout their lifecycle. From acquisition to disposal, the software allows organizations to record and track essential information about their assets, including equipment details, maintenance history, warranty information, and vendor contracts. This helps in organizing and maintaining a comprehensive asset database, which aids in making informed decisions regarding asset maintenance, repairs, and replacements.
One of the primary advantages of Fogwing Asset+ CMMS software is its ability to schedule and manage preventive and predictive maintenance tasks. The software allows users to set up maintenance schedules based on time, usage, or predefined triggers. It sends automated notifications and work orders to maintenance teams, ensuring that tasks are completed on time and equipment downtime is minimized. By proactively addressing maintenance needs, organizations can reduce the likelihood of costly breakdowns, extend asset lifespan, and optimize operational efficiency.
Conclusion
Scheduling maintenance is essential for assets, as poor maintenance might lead to equipment failures, downtime, and increased maintenance cost. However, with CMMS software, organizations can streamline maintenance processes and optimize asset maintenance operations. The Fogwing Asset+ is one such Smart CMMS software that organizations can use effectively to manage and schedule asset maintenance tasks.
Fogwing Asset+ is a smart CMMS and asset performance monitoring platform that offers a centralized database for asset maintenance, including complete asset maintenance-related data like work orders, maintenance schedules, and work orders. In conclusion, leveraging CMMS software for efficient maintenance scheduling is crucial for any organization that relies on assets or equipment.
