A lot of facility and maintenance managers understand that they need to upgrade their maintenance management program to something that is more effective and efficient. Yet, many of these facilities aren’t making any changes. Why is that? For some the transition period between the old and new is just too daunting. But is it actually that hard to upgrade your maintenance program from reactive to proactive?
What is Reactive Maintenance?
Reactive maintenance is exactly what it sounds like: a piece of equipment or an asset fails or breaks down and someone goes to fix it. This method of maintenance management is not at all efficient, and causes not only your maintenance team but your residents or customers a lot of undo stress and frustration. That’s why facilities that want to improve their maintenance ROI turn to preventative maintenance software and programs instead.
What is Preventative Maintenance?
Preventative Maintenance is essentially the act of regularly scheduling maintenance activities to prevent equipment or assets from failing/breaking down. For example, tasks like monthly exhaust fan cleaning or quarterly fire alarm testing. With a preventative maintenance software, these tasks are easily scheduled and tracked.
Moving from reactive to preventative maintenance is as easy as implementing a user-friendly CMMS software. It won’t take long for you and your technicians to learn to use it, and it will make a huge difference. But, in order to truly maximize efficiency, you can go one step further to proactive maintenance.
What is Proactive Maintenance?
Proactive Maintenance differs from other maintenance modes because it addresses much more systemic elements of a maintenance program, rather than examining the machine itself. It is aimed at identifying the root cause of equipment failure in order to control the problems that lead to wear and tear as opposed to just fixing it after it breaks (reactive) or continually stopping the wear and tear from happening (preventative).
Typically it is done through analyzing data and reports from your assets to figure out what’s causing them to deteriorate and then addressing those problems with maintenance.
Moving to a Proactive Maintenance Program – How Hard is It?
Moving from reactive to proactive will not only save your technicians and customers undo stress; it will help maximize your facility ROI. But will the transition be too difficult to be worth it?
The answer is no – not with a customizable maintenance management software. A CMMS that is customized specifically to meet your company’s needs might be able to do the actual analyzing of data for you, but it can make getting to that point much easier. Firstly, a CMMS program with preventative maintenance capabilities will help you get started moving from reactive to proactive by addressing maintenance issues before they become breakdowns.
In addition, the reporting and tracking tools that a CMMS can offer (including cost and lifecycle tracking) will be very helpful when it comes to actually figuring what’s causing your equipment to start to fail. Finally, you’ll find the work order software will quickly streamline maintenance activities, giving you and your maintenance team more time to organize and analyze a proactive maintenance strategy.
Interested in getting a customizable CMMS maintenance software that will put you on the path towards proactive maintenance? We offer all of the maintenance management features you’re looking for. Get a free demo of how it will work in your facility, or check out our three starting point options.
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