An effective maintenance and inspection schedule is one of the most important aspects of keeping facilities running smoothly. When everything is working perfectly, it can be easy to overlook the need for routine maintenance and inspections.
But when minor problems turn into major ones, it’s usually too late to take corrective action. This article will walk you through the five steps to establishing effective maintenance and inspection scheduling at multiple facilities, as well as offer a brief overview of the challenges facilities managers face while managing multiple facilities.
Five Steps to Success
1. Identify and Understand the Problem
To establish effective maintenance and inspection scheduling system, you first have to identify and understand the problem you are trying to solve.
For example, facilities managers often face the problem of maintaining multiple facilities located in different geographical areas. This can make it difficult to track maintenance activities and ensure that all facilities adhere to the same standards.
Without a clear understanding of the problem, developing a system that effectively solves it won’t be easy. Additionally, it is crucial to involve as many stakeholders as possible in this process. The more people you have involved, the greater buy-in you will ultimately have for your system.
2. Plan Maintenance Tasks Properly
It is essential to avoid overlaps and conflicts when scheduling maintenance and inspection activities at multiple facilities. One way to do this is to create a master schedule that outlines all of the activities that need to be completed at each facility.
Some examples of these facility activities include:
- Conducting a thorough assessment of each facility
- Identifying which equipment needs to be serviced
- Determining the frequency of service for each piece of equipment in all the managed facilities
- Creating a work order for each task that needs to be completed
- Scheduling routine maintenance tasks
It is also important to keep track of changes to the master schedule and communicate them to all stakeholders.
3. Choose the Right Workers for the Job
Choosing the right workers for the tasks you want to allocate is crucial, and you must ensure they have the necessary skills and experience. A good example is to create a pool of workers who can be deployed to different tasks as needed.
This can give you the flexibility to move workers around as needed and allows you to create a well-oiled machine.
In this case, finding people with experience in conducting maintenance and inspection activities would be ideal. As a facilities manager, it’s also important to be mindful of the need for safety when choosing workers.
Here are the essentials every facilities manager should look for when choosing workers for maintenance and inspection tasks:
- The ability to read and follow instructions
- The ability to use basic tools and equipment
- The ability to identify and report problems
- Good communication skills
4. Monitor the Work Progress
After the work has been allocated, it is crucial to monitor the progress. You can do this by conducting regular audits and inspections, which can help you identify potential problems and take corrective action.
It is also essential to track the work completed by each team, and this can help you identify areas where there is scope for improvement. Similarly, you should also monitor the performance of individual team members. This will help you identify training and development needs.
Monitoring the progress is essential to ensure that the work is carried out as per the schedule in each of the facilities you monitor.
5. Use Corrective Actions to Prevent Future Problems
Corrective actions prevent future problems and keep your inspection findings accurate. After identifying an issue, take some time to investigate the root cause and develop a plan to prevent it from happening again.
This could involve anything from process changes to additional training for your employees.
This is because a lack of proper training can influence how good or bad employees are at their job. Workers who are not adequately trained tend to take longer to complete tasks, which can lead to disruptions in operations.
Additionally, it can lead to safety issues as workers may not be aware of the hazards associated with the task. This could result in injuries or even fatalities.
Corrective actions can be time-consuming, but they’re worth it in the long run. You can save many headaches by taking the time to fix the underlying issues.
5 Challenges of Managing Multiple Facilities
Now that we’ve covered some of the crucial steps you need to take to establish effective maintenance and inspection scheduling at multiple facilities, it’s time to talk about some of the challenges facilities managers face while they manage more than one facility.
Challenge 1: Budgeting
It can be challenging to track all the expenses of each facility and ensure that you stay within your budget. The best way to overcome this challenge is to create a separate budget for each facility. This will help you track all the expenses associated with each facility and ensure that you stay within your budget.
Challenge 2: Time Management
The first step in time management is creating a schedule. A schedule helps you to stay on track and avoid overlap in tasks.
There are a few key elements to include when creating a schedule. They include:
- The task description
- The task frequency
- The responsible person
- The estimated time to completion
Challenge 3: Team Coordination and Multitasking
You need to be able to communicate effectively with your team, as well as keep track of what needs to be done and when.
You can utilize one of the many different software programs out there that can help you keep track of maintenance and inspection tasks. It can be a great way to stay organized and ensure everything is done on time.
Challenge 4: Equipment Maintenance in Multiple Facilities
Equipment maintenance in multiple facilities is another common challenge that most managers face. In this case, it is essential to create an inspection and maintenance schedule that all employees can follow—in all facilities. This will ensure that everyone is on the same page and that equipment is appropriately maintained.
Challenge 5: Accurate Record Keeping
Keeping accurate records can be difficult when you manage more than one facility. After all, you have to keep tabs on everything that is going on at each location.
An ideal solution to this problem would be software that will help you keep track of all the work orders, preventive maintenance tasks, and inspection schedules at each facility. This will allow you to see which locations are falling behind and need more attention.
Conclusion
While there are many steps to effective maintenance and inspection scheduling at multiple facilities, you can ensure that your organization is on the right track by following the tips outlined in this guide.
By communicating with all stakeholders, setting clear priorities, and utilizing technology, you can create a system that works for everyone involved.
Implementing an effective maintenance and inspection schedule doesn’t have to be complicated or time-consuming. With enough planning, you can ensure that your facilities run smoothly and efficiently.
Bryan Christiansen is the founder and CEO of Limble CMMS. Limble is a modern, easy-to-use mobile CMMS software that takes the stress and chaos out of maintenance by helping managers organize, automate, and streamline their maintenance operations.