As 2021 comes to a close, it’s important to take time to update your maintenance plan and prepare to budget for next year. In most commercial settings, the maintenance budget either stays the same or decreases by a certain percentage each year. However, at MaintenX we believe that proper maintenance planning and a thorough analysis of your preventative repair budget yields better results in the short and long term.
Your maintenance department is a complex system that requires careful attention to detail in order to actually eliminate costs from within. In order to better equip your maintenance department for next year, ask these five questions about your 2021 progress and performance:
Did costs go up or down in 2021?
Understanding the overall trend of your maintenance spending can help you identify issues and areas for potential cost savings. For example, if your overall spending went down but one piece of equipment needed several repairs, it may be time for a replacement. However, if costs increase all around, it may be wise to start investing in preventative repairs to improve performance and function across the board.
What new equipment will you need within the year? What about in the next five years?
Planning expenses well in advance will better prepare your maintenance team and allow you to make purchases based on quality instead of price. By saving early, you can upgrade to energy-efficient equipment and replace equipment before it completely malfunctions.
Did you conduct wrench time studies on service this year? If so, what can they tell you?
Wrench time studies help you better understand the efficiency of your maintenance team. For example, if service requests take a long time to process but the actual wrench time is fast, you may need to improve your communication system. However, if you have new maintenance team members who are underperforming, investments in training can improve your team.
What systems needed the most repairs this year? Are these systems reaching the end of their service life, or are they improving in performance?
For some pieces of equipment, it is not worthwhile to run them until they break down. Your HVAC system is a perfect example. More than likely, your facility cannot function without a running HVAC system. Instead of running yours to the ground, watch for signs of deterioration and replace them when they reach the end of their useful service life.
How well do you and your maintenance staff communicate? Are you having issues internally you need to address?
Communication is one of the biggest factors that slow down maintenance teams. Whether staff members are unsure of how to submit service requests or the maintenance team itself has an impossible backlog, these communication problems can severely impact your business’ functionality. Talk with your maintenance team to see if there are problems that can be addressed moving forward in 2022.
MaintenX works hard to improve our services year over year, and we want your feedback as customers. If you want to learn more about our maintenance planning process, give us a call today!
