6 important steps before implementing equipment maintenance management software

We all know that having equipment maintenance management software is essential within our company for cost reduction, savings, asset availability and even the cars we own. You will learn how to apply maintenance effectively with or without the power of equipment maintenance management software.

You will need Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Word. To get started, create a folder on your PC to store the files we suggest in this tutorial. Name it “My Business Maintenance.”

Step 1: Organize your environment

One of the most important steps before using equipment maintenance management software and getting the most out of your company is knowing your maintenance goals. So what are your primary goals: availability or reduced repairs?

Type your goal and let’s get started!

Step 2: List and group the assets

You need to group those assets by different or specific needs, for example: all cars, all trucks of a specific year, make, etc. this is in order to define the maintenance tasks and common maintenance routines recommended by the supplier for each group.

One of the benefits that an equipment maintenance management software should give you is to group your equipment together for easier management and scheduling.

Open Excel and create a note book inside the folder and name it “Asset List.xls”. Add one row per asset. Include the columns: Asset ID, Description, Group, Location.

Step 3: Define the tasks

Create a note book inside the folder and name it “To Do List.xls”. Add one row per task. For this workbook, include the columns: Task ID, Description, Frequency, Filename.

Step 4: Define the content of the task

Open Microsoft Word and create a new document for each task, for each document write a title task, task number, time needed, men needed, tools needed, materials needed, task steps, and any special and safety considerations. You can name this document “Task Number.doc”

Now, in the “Task List.xls” workbook, make a link from each row to the corresponding task content file (in the cell, just right-click and select “Hyperlink…” in the menu)

Step 5: Programming

You now have your list of asset groups and maintenance tasks written down. Maintenance scheduling is where equipment maintenance management software will be most useful. Before setting the schedule, you need to answer a few questions:

-Annual maintenance budget. -What assets or equipment will you need available and when? -Which ones will be working while the others are stopped for maintenance. -Where maintenance will be applied, a contractor or internal employee. -How much time will be needed for this maintenance?

After that, create a new Excel workbook and name it “Scheduling.xls”. It must contain at least the columns: asset id, asset name, assigned task, task name, scheduled value. Select the supplier’s manual to help you get started recording programming values.