A successful maintenance department involves a lot of work but all of that hard work is pointless if the team members do not change habits that were not conducive to the evolved department.
Transitioning From Paper
Building automation is one area where the same old habits do not work for the betterment of the facility. For instance, if a certain piece of equipment is automated but the employees use a temporary fix that is similar to what was done before the automation, what was the point of upgrading the equipment? These temporary fixes only put a band-aid on the underlying issue instead of taking care of the actual problem.
Move Forward Not Backward
Actuators and valves that are put in a set position to fix the problem puts the system more in a manual mode, similar to how things were done before the automation process. This sets the maintenance department back to what is was before and wastes energy as well as money that was spent on the automation upgrade.
Break Old Habits
There are a few ways to make sure that these habits are broken. One way is with training and demonstration. Another thing that makes it easier is a CMMS (Computerized Maintenance Management Software) program. How it works is that a work task is created or a preventative maintenance task is created.
Accessible Key Documents
The employee gets the task automatically when it is time for the work to be done. Since there is a place for notes and information, reminders of the proper way to do the work is available to be inputted into the work order. Another feature is the ability to upload training manuals which allows employees to refer to the training material in case it is needed.
Read More: Selling The Importance of Preventive Maintenance
New training takes time but it is always smart to break the bad habits or prevent them before they start so that the maintenance department runs the way it was intended. Sometimes the old way of doing things may work in some cases but when it comes to building upgrades and building automation, this is rarely the case.
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