Remove the Pain Points of Maintenance Work Requests
One of the best and worst things about being a Maintenance Manager is being so ‘popular’. Everyone wants a piece of you and, as you know, everything is urgent- at least to their way of thinking. When was the last time someone called you and said “No hurry on that work order request, take as long as you like.”
Of course, what might seem ‘red hot urgent’ to the person with the problem, may not be quite as urgent in the scheme of things as they might think.
Everyone has their own agenda and being the person in charge of maintenance issues, you play a key role in managing expectations.
Pain points associated with Work Order requests:
- Time lost in searching for unrelated information, and sifting through mountains of paperwork
- A loss of momentum, as one job comes straight over the top of another, and
- The feeling of being totally overwhelmed by the volume of work requests.
With this in mind, MCGlobal Solutions can provide proven ways to take the chaos out of maintenance work order requests.
Managing Maintenance Work Requests in 3 Steps:
1) Conduct an Asset Criticality Assessment
Of the 200 or so work order requests that could be on your radar, not all of them will be critical.
The first thing to do is conduct a Criticality Assessment of the assets, prioritising all work requests.
Only those items requiring Statutory Compliance and/or impacting health and safety– such as checking for Legionella in a commercial HVAC system – are truly critical.
If it impacts a client experience, for example, a tap dripping at night in a hotel guest’s room or air conditioning not working in a shopping centre, its criticality is slightly lower.
The main advantage of a criticality assessment:
- It uses an established filter
- With predetermined criteria
It saves you from having to agonise over what risk level a task falls under by having criteria set. And it prevents you from going through the same process a few weeks later with a similar project.
If it ticks the box as critical, based on the predetermined criteria, then it automatically gets priority.
This will reduce the daily influx of work orders that must be dealt with immediately down to a more manageable figure.
2) Determine available resources
Once you have ascertained the criticality of work orders in descending order from “must do” to “wish list”, it is then a case of working out if you have the right resources on hand to confidently and competently do the work.
As you know, these resources are often interdependent.
For example, having the LABOUR to complete the task, in terms of supervisory staff and trades staff.
If the workforce is available, do you have the parts to complete the work?
If certain PART are not on hand, what is the timing for supply so the work order can be re-scheduled?
Also, you must consider the TOOLS and EQUIPMENT required for the task. You might have access to labour and parts, but if your team is on a mining site a piece of equipment might be 100kms away.
3) Consider physical access
This is where you need to look at the big picture, such as:
- Is it safe?
- Is it in use?
- Is there other work going on that would prevent getting access? (Eg you need to paint, but earthworks are making the site too dusty)
- Do other jobs require the same resources?
- Can we schedule around regular maintenance?
This process can be stressful unless you have the right Computerised Maintenance Management System (CMMS) in place, one that will consider each and every facet of the job and give you a red or green light.
Our tailored CMMS will make short work of your work orders.
MCGlobal Solutions can configure the CMMS guaranteed to meet your specific industry challenges.
The system will be set up to effectively track, analyse and manage every component of your maintenance management operation, and;
- give you an instant update on your real-time inventory,
- increase efficiencies across the entire asset lifecycle
- assist with better work scheduling,
- improve the safety and reliability of your assets,
- and much more.
Want professional advice about how to streamline work order requests?
Contact MCGlobal Solutions for more work order best practice information and professional advice tailored to your industry – Book a Demonstration
