Being responsible for the day-to-day management of a factory – or a group of factories – can be a pretty overwhelming responsibility. Maintenance Directors have a whole host of legal and moral obligations to stick to, and dropping the ball in one area can lead to catastrophic losses in others. There are many things to think about, not least cost efficiencies, health and safety and the state of your equipment. Here’s our handy guide to running a factory that’s slick, efficient and safe!
Get your maintenance admin wrapped up
Gone are the days when every item of machinery had its own maintenance folder, sat on a shelf in the office. These days, modern technology has enabled factories to go completely paper-free. If you are still wrangling with a lot of paperwork then it’s definitely time to appraise your systems and processes and find a way to move everything online. Using an end-to-end maintenance system like HolisTech’s CMMS will make your life considerably easier.
Automate your processes
Machinery maintenance is never a finished job. At any given time, many machines may need routine health and safety inspection, while others can go down with no notice – creating huge downtime in the factory and interruption to business. Relying on memory to know how to prioritise your repairs will only cause you stress. It’s very simple to set up a reminder system that lets you know what needs to happen and when.
Assess the software you use
You might already be fully automated in the way that you work, but that’s not to say there still isn’t a better system that could work more efficiently for you. A dream factory relies on multiple software packages, including a CMMS where each programme is able to communicate fluently with everything else. Machinery maintenance software has come a long way in the last decade or so, so it may well be that a simple software upgrade might be all you need to take your factory from good to great.
Know where you want to go
Any successful business has a firm grasp on ‘what good looks like’. It’s essential that you set yourself targets and key performance indicators within your factory. By monitoring these figures you’ll know very quickly if things are going wrong. And if they’re going well, then it’s a great opportunity to celebrate with your team and let them know how well they have done.
As with running any business, the key to success is to keep a firm eye on the detail while never letting go of the bigger picture. Automating processes as much as possible will help you with this. The experts at Strategic Maintenance Planning are on hand to advise you on the best package for you, and because we’re all engineers we’re also available to help you implement them. Give us a call today to find out how we could make your life easier!
