You’ve heard it before – “new year, new me.” If you’re a business owner or manager responsible for your company’s commercial maintenance strategies (rare, sure, but not obsolete), then you may say something like, “new year, new commercial maintenance strategies.” Okay, chances are no one has actually said that, but it doesn’t mean reexamining your commercial maintenance strategies heading into or at the beginning of the new year is a bad idea.
In reality, if it crosses your mind, it may mean that any day throughout the year is a good time to take a look at and potentially amend your commercial maintenance strategies. The benefits are plenty and not hard to identify. Given people like to set certain personal and professional resolutions for each new year, though, let’s assume you’re here to consider and potentially implement new commercial maintenance strategies for 2022. If so, here are some to get you on your way:
The Four Pillars of Strategy
In the world of commercial maintenance, there are four types of maintenance upon which strategies are built. The first is reactive maintenance, or the type of maintenance that’s needed when things break down, like fixes and repairs. The second is preventative maintenance. Also called proactive maintenance, this type includes the scheduled inspection and potential repairs, the purpose of which is to prevent breakdowns and extend the life of assets. The third is predictive maintenance, which involves monitoring and collecting data to predict the risk of failure. The fourth is reliability-centered maintenance, which is less common and involves analyzing equipment individually and focuses on reliability. Between these four, commercial maintenance strategies are formed.
What to Hold Onto From Previous Strategies
Based on a combination of several factors, including the nature of your business, the type of facility or facilities your business operates in, where those facilities are located, the type of machines, equipment, hardware, and technology used, and more, your previous maintenance strategy will have been pretty specific. If you’re reading this, it may mean you should take a look back and identify your previous strategy’s strengths and weaknesses, and focus on eliminating the downside in your new strategy.
Predict & Prevent
Predictive and preventative maintenance are the mind and body of a majority of commercial maintenance strategies. They account for most of the maintenance budget, time, and effort a commercial maintenance strategy requires. Frequent, proactive attention from maintenance staff combined with regular inspection helps keep things running smooth and well.
For When You Can’t Predict or Prevent
Breakdown maintenance is a critical part of any commercial maintenance plan as there are times when maintenance is required for things that aren’t predictable and generally not preventable. Make a plan within your plan for breakdown maintenance.
Set a Goal & Implement
No commercial maintenance strategy is worth the paper it’s written on without a clear goal and an effective implementation. Make sure your new strategy clearly defines a goal and a way to reach that goal.
