July 22, 2024

How To Manage Deferred Maintenance

Maintenance managers have a constant challenge in their operations. Prioritization, costs, and available resources (labor and inventory) push supervisors to defer projects and repairs. Problems occur if this continues to be an ongoing practice. In this article, let's look at how to manage deferred maintenance.

Deferred maintenance comes with an obvious liability. Consider your home life. If you delay servicing your car, HVAC system or put off repairing the house's foundation, what do you risk? Do you have similar risks in the workplace?

Preventive maintenance, safety repairs, corrective repairs, and restorative jobs. You need these for the continued production of assets and equipment. Otherwise, you have unplanned downtime, safety hazards, and equipment aging faster than expected. In time, the costs you thought you saved by delaying maintenance increase.

What's the solution? Let's look at several steps to manage deferred maintenance and reduce the time you put off the work.

1. Analyze and prioritize.
• Obviously, to solve a problem, you need to diagnose the problem and come up a solution. What issues exist? What assets need attention? How important and urgent is each job?
• Just as you answered the question of risk with home assets, note the risks of delaying work on each asset. Track the root causes of breakdowns and equipment failure.
2. Use a CMMS.
• A computerized maintenance management system will help organize the above points. You input data about your assets, inventory, PM jobs, work orders, checklists, safety protocols, and other related information. A CMMS keeps a history of work orders and revisions to records. A CMMS will assist in planning, prioritizing, assigning, and scheduling jobs.
3. Improve your preventive maintenance.
• While a CMMS won't create a maintenance program, it can reveal improvements for an existing program. One of the prime ways to manage deferred maintenance: Stay proactive. Develop a quality PM strategy that includes scheduling jobs well before necessity. With this type of plan in action, you reduce unplanned downtime.

Deferred maintenance

Sometimes, you have to delay. However, use the CMMS to prioritize what you've deferred.

• Judge the importance and urgency of each deferral.
• Judge the safety issues of the deferral.
• Forecast the costs of breakdown repairs.
• Note the reduction of overall equipment effectiveness (OEE). Deferred maintenance leads to low productivity and reliability of equipment. These accumulate over time.
• Assess the risk of a complete shutdown. If one asset fails, how does that affect the rest of the production line? Do other people or equipment rely on Machine A to function for them to complete their jobs? What impact does deferment/downtime have on them?
• Be aware of regulatory compliance. If you defer today, will you need documentation to show auditors and regulators tomorrow? Failure risks severe consequences such as hefty fines and legal issues.

Conclusion

Managing deferred maintenance affects the overall well-being of your organization and the safety of your employees. Implementing proactive strategies and optimizing your current practices can help prevent the negative consequences associated with deferred maintenance.

Learn the features and functions of a quality CMMS. Proper usage of such a system will:

• Keep your maintenance operations organized. You'll plan preventive maintenance tasks and can access inventory and labor availability.
• Assist with work orders management.
• Provide reports such as key performance indicators (KPIs). You'll make informed decisions instead of pushing maintenance jobs into an unknown future.

Call Mapcon Technologies at 800-922-4336 to discuss a world-class CMMS. Start on your path to maintenance management success.