Process Perfect: What Will You Optimize in 2025? ⚙️

We’ve had the Maintain X software for almost two years now and it’s really helped us in every aspect especially in keeping a running list of work orders throughout time. If I had to choose one thing that I would like to see improvement in, it would be in parts management. We several running parts and inventory that sometimes it almost seems impossible to keep track of everything. 

As I continue to refine and improve our maintenance operations, I would like to propose an enhancement to MaintainX that would enable us to track and report costs associated with maintenance schedules, distinguishing between normal working hours and overtime or extra work at different costs. Currently, we monitor our maintenance activities effectively; however, being able to differentiate and track costs for normal hours versus extra hours, and having this reflected in the reporting dashboard, would allow us to better manage budgets and optimize resource allocation.

In another post I related how we are aiming to improve both team communication and documentation methods. I am also planning to optimize our preventative maintenance scheduling as this is a major pitfall at the moment. We have so many machines relative to our number of mechanics, so PM’s often pass their due date by several weeks and sometimes longer when our techs are bogged down in critical maintenance tasks. Having a smarter approach to PM scheduling will hopefully enable us to get ahead and stop chasing our tails.

Parts Inventory Management: Seeking Solutions

One of the biggest challenges I’m currently facing is parts inventory management. Effective management is critical to ensuring we minimize downtime and optimize resources. However, keeping track of stock levels, preventing overstock or stockouts, and streamlining the reordering process have proven difficult.

I’m reaching out to the community for advice and solutions. Specifically, I’m looking for insights on:

• Best practices for organizing and tracking inventory. 

• Does it manage (updated/ organized) by a single member or collectively? 

• Is there any simpler way to cross verify the inventory other than monthly cycle count? Our yearly inventory doesn’t include parts for the maintenance. 

Other major concern is pricing, we had Part X in stock that had $50 when it was stocked, life expectancy reduces by staying on shelf for Y months/years, now during replace of part & restocking new part value is $100. what make most sense for the $ value of repair? as now it won’t give the expected life from it being on shelf for Y months/years & part prices also went high.

Using MaintainX  I hope to significantly improve Team communication and collaboration. With real time chat available and the ability to tag team members with specific assignments, can help each technician prepare for their work schedule. Work orders have taken longer in instances where communication could have helped solve matters quickly.  Effective team communication and minimizing downtime can be achievable with implementing Team Communication.

We've been using the Maintain X software for nearly a year, and it has significantly benefited us, particularly in tracking work orders over time. If I had to suggest one area for improvement, it would be parts management. With so many parts and inventory items to manage, it can sometimes feel overwhelming to keep track of everything.

Our organization is still learning how to best configure preventative maintenance tasks and to extend to daily vehicle maintenance checks too.   

A maintenance process I want to improve in 2025 is parts inventory control. Currently it’s not a feature that we use significantly, my goal is to create a workflow and optimize it for a small amount of items. I don’t expect to use it for a majority of our inventory, but focus on critical items. Later this year we are moving into a new maintenance shop and I want to ensure we start things off on the right foot, being lean and organized.

I chose Team Communication. At about 1 year using MaintainX, we’re finally getting to the point where our work order volume has exceeded our programming of sorting and communication tools within the platform. I need to focus on creating the Categories, Teams, Assets, and other functions so my team can see their priorities more clearly. I’m seeing duplicate work orders for the first time, for example. With the pace of the holidays, this became clear quickly. Adapt!