Top Strategies for Maximising Asset Uptime with CMMS Solutions

• Published date: 11 September 2024
• Author: SSG Insight

Organisations may look to increase their asset and equipment uptime for many reasons, but it is especially relevant currently as organisations are facing cutbacks. As well as benefitting from increased productivity and efficiency, improving asset uptime supports organisations to reduce costs from costly emergency repairs and unplanned downtime, to maximise the lifespan of their assets, to contribute to their sustainability goals, and much more. In this article, we’ll provide insight into uptime strategies for improving profit margins.

Having supported many organisations across industries to improve asset uptime with a CMMS solution, we have put together our top recommendations for achieving this:

1. Use Preventive Maintenance (PM):

Schedule regular preventive maintenance tasks within a CMMS based on time intervals or usage metrics. Create notifications within your system to receive alerts and reminders for upcoming maintenance tasks to ensure they are completed on time.

2. Use Predictive Maintenance (PdM):

Integrate IoT devices and condition monitoring tools with your CMMS to track the real-time status of your assets and equipment. Ensure you analyse the data that is collected within the system to predict potential failures and address them before they lead to downtime.

3. Implement Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs):

Document standard operating procedures for maintenance tasks within your CMMS, to ensure tasks are completed consistently and to the highest standard. It is important that members of your maintenance team should be trained on using the CMMS, an adhere to the SOPs stored to ensure compliance and efficiency.

4. Plan for Downtime:

Schedule a planned shutdown, or plan maintenance tasks during off-peak hours to minimise the impact on operations. This allows for maintenance tasks to be performed in a controlled manner, reducing the likelihood of unexpected equipment failures. It is important to develop a contingency plan for any unexpected equipment failures, to ensure they are repaired efficiently to restore operations.

5. Monitor and Report on Key Performance Indicators (KPIs):

Use the data within your CMMS to track key performance indicators such as mean time to repair (MTTR), mean time between failures (MTBF), and overall equipment effectiveness (OEE). Regularly analysing reports generated by your CMMS will help you to identify areas for improvement and make data-driven decisions. Our recent article provides insight into maintenance-related KPIs to measure.

6. Maintain an Efficient Inventory of Spare Parts:

Maintain an accurate inventory of spare parts and materials within your CMMS to ensure you always have the necessary components when they are needed, and that you do not have capital tied up on parts that are not needed. Establish thresholds within your system to automatically trigger purchase orders or notifications to restock.

7. Leverage Technology:

Integrate business systems with your CMMS for a seamless data flow to support with better decision-making. Implementing remote monitoring tools helps to keep track of asset conditions and performance from anywhere, enabling faster response times.

Asset and equipment uptime has a significant impact on profit margins, especially in industries where operational efficiency and productivity are critical. Uptime can positively affect profit margins through:

• Increased Production Capacity: higher uptime means equipment is operational more often, allowing for increased production output without additional expenditure on new machinery. Consistent uptime ensure production schedules are met, increasing customer satisfaction.
• Reduced Operational Costs: planned maintenance is typically less expensive than unplanned downtime, due to a reduction in the frequency and cost of emergency repairs. Maintenance teams can work more efficiently when experiencing less unplanned downtime, reducing overtime costs and improving productivity.
• Minimised Downtime-Related Losses: downtime directly impacts revenue by halting production and delaying order fulfilment. Increased uptime ensures a steady flow of products, maintaining revenue streams.
• Improved Product Quality: equipment that operates reliably and consistently is less likely to produce defective products, reducing waste and rework costs.
• Energy Efficiency: well-maintained equipment that runs efficiently consumes less energy, leading to lower utility costs. Reduced energy consumption and waste align with sustainability goals, and have a positive impact on environmentally conscious customers.
• Enhanced Competitive Advantage: uptime allows organisations to be more responsive to market demands and changes, providing a competitive edge. Efficient operations also free up resources that can be invested in innovation, new product development, and market expansion, driving long-term growth and profitability.

Effectively utilising these strategies within a CMMS can support organisations to significantly increase asset and equipment uptime, leading to improved operational efficiency and productivity. By maintaining high uptime, companies can ensure smoother and more efficient operations, directly contributing to lower costs, higher revenue, and improved profit margins. If you would like to understand more about how Agility CMMS can support you to reach higher levels of uptime, get in touch using the form below and a member of the team will be in touch.