Benchmarking your maintenance strategy against other similarly sized and staffed companies is an excellent way to improve efficiency and reduce costs over time. By comparing your maintenance costs, emergency service requests, and ability to recover after major disasters against other companies, you can see where your strengths and weaknesses lie. But, how do you know if you’re measuring the right metrics? How do you know if your benchmarking is actually usable as a guide for your ground-floor maintenance team?
Oftentimes, benchmarking only focuses on the numbers. How many dollars, service requests, and man-hours were used in a given year as compared to the competition. However, these numbers don’t tell you “how.” They don’t answer the most important question, “How are our strategies succeeding or failing in achieving maintenance goals?” They only tell you whether or not you’re meeting an arbitrary mark.
The only way to make your benchmarking effective is to study the processes and support systems needed to meet your target numbers. For example, if your goal is to reduce maintenance costs by a certain percentage by the end of the year, you can benchmark to see where other maintenance teams are cutting costs effectively that you aren’t currently implementing. Something as simple as a new waste reduction process or more efficient energy systems can help you reach your target goals immediately.
Processes don’t just include the work, but also how the work is managed and supported through the staff. A work environment where long-term facility health is prioritized over the short-term fixes typically sees the best numbers in the end as well. By offering employee support and ample resources to your maintenance team can help them go above and beyond for your business.
MaintenX is a leader in our industry because we prioritize long-term facility excellence for our clients. To learn more about our work order management and preventative maintenance strategies, contact us today.
