Take the Chaos out 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 job… take as long as you like.”)

Of course, what might seem ‘red hot urgent’ to the person with the problem getting all agitated on the phone, 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 are the meat in the sandwich.

There are three pain points associated with this.

• A loss of time 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
• A feeling of being totally overwhelmed.

With this in mind, MC Global Solutions would like to suggest proven ways to take the chaos out of maintenance work requests.

Managing maintenance work requests step 1: Determine priorities.

Of the 200 or so work requests that could be on your radar, not all of them will be critical.

In fact, only those items requiring Statutory Compliance and/or impacting on health and safety – such as checking for Legionella in a commercial HVAC system – are truly Code Red critical.

If it impacts on 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 further down the list.

So, the first thing to do is conduct a Criticality Assessment of the asset, prioritising all work requests.

The main advantage of a criticality assessment is that it uses an:

• Established filter with
• Predetermined criteria.

It puts paid to you having to agonise over what level a task falls under – and go through the same process a few weeks later with a similar project.

If it ticks the box as critical, 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.

 

Managing maintenance work requests step 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 – human and otherwise – to confidently and competently do the work.

As you’d know, these resources are often inter-dependent.

For example…

Do you have the labour to complete the task, in terms of supervisory staff and trades?

If the workforce is available, do you have the parts to do the work and if they are not on hand, what’s the timing for supply so this can be re-scheduled?

And what about tools and equipment? You might have access to labour and parts but if your team is on a mining site, a piece of equipment might well be 100k away… and you may not know that until everything else has been organised.

 

Managing maintenance work requests step 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 those resources?
• Can we schedule around regular maintenance?

This process is fraught with stress…UNLESS you have the right Maintenance Management System 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.

MC Global Solutions can custom-design computerised maintenance management systems (CMMS) guaranteed to meet ALL of your specific industry challenges.

They will effectively track, analyse and manage every component of your maintenance management operation, every step of the way.

Amongst other things, they can:

• Give you an instant update of 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.

For more expert information and professional advice about how to streamline work requests and make your job much easier, call +617 3303 0177 and speak to our friendly helpful team members, or simply click here to contact us.