Some myths are central to the functioning of modern plants without them knowing why that is the case. Much like tradition, myths can be passed along from one plant manager to the next. This creates a situation where myths are part of an organization’s culture which causes all sorts of maintenance management trouble.
So, let us look at a few of these myths evident in many modern plants – and possibly yours too.
- Employees are an organization’s most valuable asset
Yes, this might be true for most of your employees, but not all of them. Why? Because not all employees are equally motivated or committed to your organization’s vision. The people who are indeed invested in the organization’s goals, vision, and mission are nothing else than an asset, as they ensure the work they do contribute towards that holistic organizational goal.However, people who are not committed to the organization’s well-being (as a whole) and who are only focused on their well-being, will not only not be an asset, but a costly liability. This might be because they do their work half-heartedly and because they slow other hard-working employees down while simultaneously damaging workplace morale.
- Maintenance costs must be cut as soon as possible
Even though one should always strive to lower maintenance costs, this should be done strategically and not suddenly. A sudden cut of maintenance costs might be beneficial for your short-term budget, but definitely not for your long-term goals. By significantly decreasing the budget for maintenance, ill-maintained equipment will start to fail one-after-the-other and your business will suffer as a result of the amount of downtime forced upon it. Balance is the keyword here. Costs on maintenance cannot be cut without a thorough consideration of the entire plant’s costs. Remember, the reduced cost will not improve reliability, but improved equipment reliability will reduce costs.
- More staff on shift will reduce downtime
If lots of your equipment have failed because of too little maintenance, the impulse is to ask more of your staff to work shift to fix the broken equipment. Even though this might be a temporary, short-term solution, this is not viable in the long run. What you ideally would like to achieve is to find the problem that originally caused the downtime – the source – and seek out patterns of breakdowns. How? Teach operators to do intricate inspections of equipment, take readings, and see trends. These inspections will help eliminate sudden equipment failure followed by downtime and extra costs.
- Employees don’t like change
Management often decides to change things in the organization but forget to involve the employees (who will be the ones that have to implement the change). This situation causes employees to be reluctant to incorporate new ideas and routines into their day-to-day lives at work. You see, it is of great importance that employees feel their opinions and effort are appreciated. Even if management makes the decisions on its own, it must be communicated to the employees in a way that they feel the change is not only advantageous to management, but also to them. Ask your employees what suggestions they have with regards to the change, whether they understand why such change is necessary, and if they are willing to take part in this new routine. Involvement (of employees) and transparency (from management) are two key values in this situation.
- CMMS will not help to improve maintenance management
A CMMS’s core goal is to help your organization have a more effective maintenance strategy. Software such as Proteus MMX has many ways of optimizing your current inefficient maintenance management strategy. Keep in mind though, that manual processes that were not in place before the acquisition of a CMMS, will not magically be corrected by the implementation of such software. A CMMS must thus be implemented with the mindset of an overall maintenance strategy change in an organization.
How will Proteus MMX catalyse your efforts toward a more effective maintenance management strategy?
- Scheduled maintenance notifications
- Central dashboard for multi-location operations
- No more spreadsheets
- No more manual data entry
- Informative data about areas in which employees need guidance
- A simplified request intake process
Ready to learn more about CMMS and if it’s right for you? Call Eagle at 262-241-3845, send us an email, or schedule a demo to learn more about the software’s rich features.
