Good maintenance notifications are important for asset-intensive companies. Typically included in EAM systems such as SAP PM, they help employees to identify what parts need servicing and include important information that outlines details about the required maintenance. They are used to prioritize maintenance activities and determine the action required.
What’s the Problem?
Given how instrumental maintenance notifications are in day-to-day operations, their ease of access and clarity are crucial to preventing confusion and wasted time. Unfortunately, like many things in this world, they are not so easily perfected.
One of the key issues surrounding maintenance notifications is that they often lack detail. This makes them difficult to refer to without a follow-up. On other occasions, the information that is included might not even be correct. This leads to maintenance planners and technicians losing wrench time attempting to decode information. Simple details such as affected equipment and the action required are key to a maintenance notification. If left incomplete, they can have lasting outcomes, such as part deterioration or cost increases due to the replacement of machinery.
Lack of detail also creates complications for management too. With incomplete information, it is more difficult to track maintenance costs, project future requirements, or perform reliability analysis. This can be frustrating for managers, as it prevents them from making good decisions. Companies that use Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) to review components and identify failure modes are challenged by poor data, as these types of processes require accurate information for a complete analysis. If not recorded properly, maintenance notifications can go against their nature; hindering more than helping.
Maintenance workers also tend to dislike the part of their job involving data entry. Work orders can be a cumbersome process, which often leads to it being prioritized less. Some may even skip steps or omit critical details that are needed to ensure that assets are maintained properly. Loss of interest and low prioritization due to technical difficulties can also have a profound effect on the rest of the company.
What’s the Solution?
One of the best ways to improve the quality of your maintenance notifications is to ensure that all the necessary information is included. This could be done by creating a checklist of necessary details, including mandatory fields, or by composing a series of questions that will prompt employees to input additional details that are necessary. A good front end to your EAM systems, such as NRX Maintenance Mentor, should be capable of guiding those procedures.
Questions like those will also reduce the frustration felt by employees surrounding the process of completing work orders. By making it more accessible, the incentive to follow procedures and ensure data accuracy will be improved. This will also have a positive effect on management, as they will be able to properly conduct FMEAs; now that the data is consistently correct.
How Can NRX Help?
NRX Maintenance Mentor is an easy-to-use front end to SAP and other EAM systems that guide maintenance technicians through the process of work order creation and closeout to ensure that they are completed efficiently and effectively. If you want to learn more, check out our Simplifying Plant Maintenance e-book or contact us at 1-877-603-4679
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