Cutting down the cost of production is one of the major concerns of a business to stay profitable and stable. It helps the business cover the necessary expenses and allocates funding wisely for better services and products. Wasting resources directly affect business revenue. Therefore, cost-efficiency of the flow of production and all aspects of business operations is a requirement than just thrifty measures.
Facilities take up a good fraction of the business operations budget, so maintaining them instead of spending on avoidable repairs can cut-down costs while increasing productivity and efficiency of services. Regular maintenance can also extend the lifespan of assets and equipment used for business operations. So, well-maintained facilities mean less repair and replacement expenses.
Here are some of the cost-effective facilities maintenance that can improve business efficiency:
Use of a preventive maintenance plan.
A wise maintenance strategy involves a preventive instead of a reactive maintenance plan. You should not wait for your facilities to become problematic and shutdown beyond repair before you consider spending on maintenance. Preventive maintenance includes the frequent routine check-up of facilities to ensure that they are at their best performance. A schedule of these check-ups can prevent the neglect of facilities that could eventually lead to malfunction and delay in production.
Since a preventive maintenance plan would be expensive to implement, you should include the critical facilities like machinery, computer hardware facilities, and others that need an extension of life span through maintenance and would be more expensive to replace or repair when ill-maintained.
Predictive Testing and Inspection (PT&I)
Even if a preventive maintenance plan is in place, there is still a need for predictive testing and inspection. Since well-maintained facilities are not safe from the natural wear and tear of equipment, there is a need to monitor the condition of facilities that could breakdown due to utilization for a long period. This can also serve as an assessment for facilities that are not included in the preventive maintenance plan. Results of these inspections could initiate timely maintenance and repair of facilities to avoid production delays.
One example of predictive testing and inspection is an electrical inspection report or EICR, also known as Electrical Installation Condition Reports (EICR). It documents and ensures that the quality of production will not be affected by the condition of electrical installations. Since production is heavily-reliant on electric machinery due to automation and digitized processes, an EICR gives a diagnosis of problems that you need to address immediately.
Establish replicable maintenance procedures
Your business operations run based on policies and procedures. Therefore, procedures that can establish regularity in maintaining facilities. This consistency can help prevent unnecessary expenses for the repair and replacement of facilities. When maintenance procedures are replicable, it can be adopted in any phase of the production flow, ensuring that facilities are all working efficiently for better production output.
IoT for Computer Maintenance Management Systems (CMMS)
Since technology has contributed in all phases of production flow and even in other processes of business operations, the computer management system must be maintained properly to avoid technical problems in production. Maintaining a computer management system is quite expensive since you need technicians to monitor the system 24/7 and troubleshoot vulnerabilities as they occur.
One way to cut costs in maintaining your computer-reliant facilities is the adoption of the Internet of Things (IoT) that allows remote and automated monitoring and auditing of CMMS. You would need less workforce for monitoring, cutting down on overtime pay for tasks that can be computer-assisted.
Four maintenance hacks for your business facilities will not be enough to ensure that the production flow will be smooth and cost-efficient. Make sure that you learn more about facilities management to increase productivity and revenue while keeping the process of production stable and consistent.
