Supercharge your maintenance strategy

Learn and discuss ways to evolve your maintenance strategy including predictive, prescriptive, AI, IIoT, integrations and more

67 Posts
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67 Posts

ChrisLeeTeam Fiix

published in Supercharge your maintenance strategy

Asset Categories Explained

Hello fellow Fiixers! I’m Chris, and I’m an Implementation Consultant at Fiix. You can learn more about me and my CMMS experience here in our Welcome & intros thread. The Fiix Professional Services team often gets asked about the best way to set up asset categories. So, I thought I’d take a moment to share some key recommendations from our team. Focusing on asset categories when considering the structure of your data ahead of data inputting/importing is critical to maximize the searching, reporting and custom field usage capability of your Fiix CMMS system. It’s also beneficial if you are looking at doing some housekeeping on your existing system. Simply put, asset categories define, identify, or classify assets of a similar type. How many layers are required for good searching or reporting?In most cases, one or two levels are sufficient to satisfy most requirements. Categories can also be set up for Locations/Facilities, Parts/Supplies, or Tools. Hierarchical tables can be create

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21 days ago

Eric Wallace C.E.T.Fiix Community Team

published in Supercharge your maintenance strategy

How to become carbon neutral in five stepsMAINTENANCE TIPS

At its core, maintenance and sustainability go hand in hand. It’s all about keeping the same equipment, materials, and assets in use while producing the least amount of scrap and waste possible.Better-maintained equipment leads to less waste, and more efficient production lines, resulting in less energy being consumed. But that’s not the only way maintenance can become more sustainable. Read on for our top tips for becoming a certified carbon-neutral organization. What does it mean to be carbon neutral?For years, we’ve run our lives on fuels that put carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. If we stay on this path, greenhouse gases will skyrocket, amplifying the heat trapped in our atmosphere and causing a whirlwind of global environmental change.We need to change the way we do business.Percentage of CO2 in the atmosphere[Source: BBC Bitesize]Going carbon neutral is one way to help fight these changes and do your part to create a sustainable future. Being carbon neutral can be defined in on

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1 month ago

Eric Wallace C.E.T.Fiix Community Team

published in Supercharge your maintenance strategy

Eight tips for negotiating the best deal from your parts vendorsMAINTENANCE TIPS

This article was written by Marc Castel, who has decades of experience in maintenance, the plastics industry, and digital transformation.Parts will always need to be ordered and equipment will always need to be repaired. That’s just the reality. Without a good parts vendor, those orders and repairs can get expensive really quickly. That’s why getting the best deal on parts and pairing that with service you can trust is important to not only your bottom line, but ensuring production isn’t affected by breakdowns. The key to getting the best value for your money is through the art of negotiating.In this article, we discuss eight tips to help you negotiate the best deal with your vendors – including knowing what to ask for, building a relationship with your vendor, and doing your homework. What to ask for and what not to share 1. Don’t volunteer or initiate pricing with the supplierIt might seem counterproductive not to discuss your budget with a vendor, but it’s actually a very powerful n

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2 months ago

Eric Wallace C.E.T.Fiix Community Team

published in Supercharge your maintenance strategy

Three real-world problems you can solve with Fiix Foresight

Let’s take a look at three ways you can use Fiix Foresight tools to solve real-world problems.First, a quick reminder about Fiix Foresight. Fiix Foresight is the AI brains behind your CMMS. It powers three tools at your disposal: work order insights, parts forecaster, and asset insights. Let’s explore each tool and the common problems they solve for your maintenance team. Work order insights Here’s a common scenario: It’s the busy holiday season and a lot of technicians are taking time off. Perhaps some are also missing work due to an illness going around. This means that open work orders are left hanging, and it can be difficult to identify each one that requires reassignment (especially at hectic times like the year end). It’s likely that at least some work orders will slip through the cracks, delaying maintenance and possibly even resulting in equipment failure. The solution: With work order insights, work orders at risk of delay are automatically flagged so you can act quickly to

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3 months ago

Eric Wallace C.E.T.Fiix Community Team

published in Supercharge your maintenance strategy

A (re-)introduction to the Fiix Foresight AI engine

In the first post of our series, How data fuels greatness in maintenance, we looked at why data is so important for today’s maintenance teams. The follow-up post, Harnessing the benefits of data and AI powered maintenance, broke down the different levels of data usage.Today let’s get specific and take a look at one key tool you can use to unlock the benefits of your data: Fiix Foresight. But first, we need to understand the technology behind it: artificial intelligence. What is AI?When it comes to using data to improve maintenance, one term comes up again and again—artificial intelligence. What is AI (without the jargon), why is it important, and how can it help in your day-to-day work? I spoke with Fiix Product Manager James Binckly to find out.“You’re probably already familiar with two AI-powered tools: Google’s autocomplete search feature and Netflix’s movie recommendation engine,” says James. “Both systems work the same way.”“You’ve got an artificial intelligence chewing on your da

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4 months ago

Justine RaeFiix Community Team

published in Supercharge your maintenance strategy

Time to unwrap some more maintenance-themed fun 🎁

The Fiixers is a perfect embodiment of the kindness and generosity of the holiday season. So, here’s the next instalment of the 12 Days of Maintenance to keep these good vibes flowing and show our appreciation for all that you do to make this community thrive all year round!Here are your final 6 stocking stuffers: Day 7: A quick refresh on Fiix’s Analytics tool Day 8: A Fiix playlist (for when you need to hear something other than holiday music) Day 9: Conquer Maintenance backlog like a pro Day 10: Stay cozy with this Fiix fireplace (+Fiix Wins!) Day 11: Collect and act on maintenance data quickly: Maintenance Metric SOP Day 12: ‘Tis the season to celebrate 2022 milestones Click here to access. From all of us at Fiix, we wish you and your family the very best for this holiday season…and here’s to even bigger and better things together in 2023!

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5 months ago

Justine RaeFiix Community Team

published in Supercharge your maintenance strategy

Happy Holidays…and thank you for another amazing year in The Fiixers🎁

As a show of gratitude for all of our members who showed up for one another in 2022 to share their CMMS knowledge and help other Fiix users we’ve put together a little holiday surprise. So, hopefully you have some downtime to check out the 12 Days of Maintenance. Here are your first 6 stocking stuffers: Day 1: Four steps for designing work orders to get the data you want Day 2: The ultimate maintenance gift guide Day 3: How to get your maintenance project approved Day 4: Recommended maintenance podcasts Day 5: How maintenance teams can budgeting effectively during a recession Day 6: Treat yourself with these maintenance themed holiday recipes Click here to access. We hope you find these stocking stuffers informative and helpful during this holiday season. p.s. - the final 6 stocking stuffers are coming on December 12th

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5 months ago

Eric Wallace C.E.T.Fiix Community Team

published in Supercharge your maintenance strategy

Harnessing the benefits of data and AI powered maintenance

Following up on our post on how data fuels greatness in maintenance, let’s dive into how you can begin combining your data with the power of AI to accelerate your maintenance maturity journey from preventive to predictive maintenance. Understanding the maintenance maturity journeyWhile every journey will differ in timeline and complexity, here’s how a typical maintenance maturity journey progresses: Reactive: You’re starting to record data (typically break-fix operations) Preventive: Now you’re planning maintenance based on time and usage Condition-based: With sensors connected to your assets, you can collect and use equipment condition to plan maintenance activities Predictive: Now modern AI algorithms can identify trends and anomalies without specifying conditions or thresholds (using the data you started recording in the reactive and preventive stages) Prescriptive: At this point, you’ve got an almost fully automated maintenance process. Clear action plans are auto

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6 months ago

Emma MuldoonRetired Team Fiix

published in Supercharge your maintenance strategy

The five most common types of maintenance triggers

Maintenance triggers aren’t a one-size-fits-all solution. Matching the right triggers to the right assets takes time and effort, but the end result is a more efficient and reliable facility.In this post, we’ll explore the five most common types of maintenance triggers and share when and how to use each of them to improve your maintenance program. #1 Breakdown triggerThis occurs when a piece of equipment breaks down and can’t be used anymore. When this happens, an alert is triggered and maintenance is scheduled to fix the problem and return the equipment to operation.Breakdown maintenance triggers are a clear sign that a run-to-failure maintenance strategy is being used for an asset. They are also often put in place on non-critical assets that can be replaced or fixed quickly with little cost or effect on production with planned stock availability.For example, a light bulb is allowed to operate until it goes out, which triggers a maintenance order that can be fulfilled quickly because

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6 months ago

Eric Wallace C.E.T.Fiix Community Team

published in Supercharge your maintenance strategy

How data fuels greatness in maintenance

If you look at the top businesses in almost any industry they all have one thing in common: data is a key part of what fuels their greatness. It makes good teams great and great teams the best. One of the best examples of this is in sportsThe conversation around data in sports was almost non-existent 20 years ago, as illustrated in these examples:but we can look at a few key examples to see how this has evolved over time: The MLB’s Oakland Athletics used data to pinpoint the right metric to maximize their offensive outputs (and win more games) F1 teams used data to run over 2 billion simulations of every race to figure out everything from the best tires to use to when to pit stop College football teams like the University of Virginia used data to recruit players they think are most likely to make it to the NFL So how does this apply to the maintenance world? In this article we’ll explore the three ways data fuels greatness and how you can apply these learnings to your maintenan

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6 months ago

Emma MuldoonRetired Team Fiix

published in Supercharge your maintenance strategy

Increase your production efficiency in five simple steps 📋

While many projects can take months or years to complete, getting quick wins is crucial for building momentum and proving value for your maintenance team.In this article, you’ll learn five processes that your maintenance team can put in place quickly to help increase production efficiency.1. Optimize the frequency of your PMsGoing overboard on preventive maintenance can affect production efficiency in a few ways. It can either waste valuable time preventing non-existent failure or increase your risk of failure by meddling with a perfectly fine component.There are a few guidelines to consider when trying to find the right balance between too many and too few PMs:Use equipment maintenance logs to track the found failure rate on preventive maintenance tasks (Tip: start with PMs that take the longest to do or cost the most) If a PM leads to regular corrective maintenance, keep it at the same frequency If a PM rarely identifies failure, try increasing the time between inspections If the fo

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7 months ago

Emma MuldoonRetired Team Fiix

published in Supercharge your maintenance strategy

Use the RACI framework to nail your next project 🔧

In this article we’ll cover how to set clear roles that bring clarity and confidence to your next maintenance project by following the RACI framework. The benefit of this framework is that everyone knows exactly what they are doing and what is expected of them.ResponsibleThese are the people who are doing the work Make sure they know exactly what they need to do, why it needs to be done, what success looks like, what resources are available to them, and what to do in case of roadblocksAccountableThis is the person who is making decisions, charting the course for the project, and ultimately in charge of the results There should only be one person accountable to create focus, streamline approvals and make it clear who to go with for questions or problemsConsultedThese are the people who will be part of the decision-making, quality assurance and execution process. They are impacted by the project and need to have a say in it. They are also experts in their area of business and can give cr

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8 months ago

Chris KemmannContributor

posted in Supercharge your maintenance strategy

Corporate wants 100% schedule compliance.

Our plant was recently presented with a 100% schedule compliance requirement for all Fiix work orders. While I admire the passion behind this goal, I don’t think this is feasible. Don’t misunderstand, I’m not advocating for laziness or that high goals shouldn’t be striven towards, but my understanding is that world-class schedule compliance percentages are in the low to mid 90’s.Can anyone weigh in on what would constitute as world-class schedule compliance? And more than that, what would you say to look for to bring it up to that level. For reference, our plant’s compliance percentage is around 65%.Bonus points to anyone who has 100% compliance (we hold you in great esteem) and can give some tips to us slow pokes.

8 months ago

Melissa MeyerRetired Team Fiix

published in Supercharge your maintenance strategy

Template: Failure mode and effects analysisTemplate

One thing in maintenance is always true; risk can only be managed and not outright eliminated. So if equipment failure is inevitable, you need to know how to reduce the likelihood of failure and react when it happens. This is where a failure mode and effects analytics (FMEA) can come in handy.Whether you’re looking to be more proactive or are focused on continuous improvement with your maintenance strategy, we’ve created a template to help you. Use it to map failure modes for critical equipment so you can develop better SOPs, maintenance schedules, and emergency procedures. You can get a sneak peek of the template and download it below.

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8 months ago

Melissa MeyerRetired Team Fiix

published in Supercharge your maintenance strategy

Template: Asset criticality analysis

Criticality and reliability-centered maintenance go hand-in-hand, but how do we determine what makes a piece of equipment “critical”? In short, it all comes down to risk. Performing a criticality analysis allows you to understand the potential risks that could impact your business.To get you started, we’ve created an asset criticality analysis template to help you build better maintenance schedules, prioritize PMs, sort backlogs, purchase parts, and more. You can get a sneak peek of the template and download it below.

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8 months ago

Emma MuldoonRetired Team Fiix

published in Supercharge your maintenance strategy

Asset management policy breakdown: how to develop, what to include and how to implement 🗒️

In our last article, we explored the key benefits of having an asset management policy (spoiler: there are many). To build off of this, read on to learn how to develop an asset management policy, what should be included, and how to implement it at your company.How to develop an asset management policy and strategyAn asset management policy typically includes four larger sections: Intent: clearly communicates the intended purpose of the policy Scope: describes the assets and services covered by the policy Statement of Principles: provides direction on how to apply it within the organization Responsibilities: identify who’s responsible for approving the asset management policy, providing resources to implement the policy, setting priorities, and leading the implementation of the asset management policyRemember, the best policy documents are straightforward, concise, and easy to understand. What should be included in an asset management policy?The following are the most important elements

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9 months ago

Emma MuldoonRetired Team Fiix

published in Supercharge your maintenance strategy

Asset management policy breakdown: what is it, why you need one and the benefits 🗒️

A facility’s assets are the lifeblood of any company, as its health determines how strong and productive the company will be. In the same vein, people are the heart of any company and can impact equipment with their decisions. Since decision-making and asset efficiency are so intertwined, companies need guidelines connecting them. And that’s where an asset management policy comes in.In this article, we’ll explore what is an asset management policy, why it’s important, and the key benefits it provides. What is an asset management policy?An asset management policy is one of the core requirements of ISO 55001:2014 certification and is a cornerstone of a solid and complete asset management strategy. It's like a compass pointing everyone in your organization in the right direction when making decisions about assets. An asset management policy provides a set of guiding principles, intentions, goals, and methods for asset management.It also provides a template so people can achieve the best p

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9 months ago

Emma MuldoonRetired Team Fiix

published in Supercharge your maintenance strategy

How to plan and schedule work orders like the best maintenance teams 🧰

When it comes to work order planning, no one wants to constantly take two steps forward and one step back. In this post we’ll explore the best practices and simple frameworks for strong maintenance planning and work order scheduling. PlanningThere are two ingredients you need to be really good at planning work orders:Clear goals for maintenance that align with the goals of the organization A way to prioritize maintenance activities based on your goalsAll of your work processes, schedules, training, and SOPs flow from your goals and priorities.“You really need to go back to the fundamentals of the organization and find out what their objectives are for maintenance,” says Charles Rogers, a Senior Implementation Consultant at Fiix with over 33 years of experience in maintenance and reliability. Four steps for aligning maintenance goals with business goals 🧭Follow this 4-step process to align your organization’s goals with your maintenance plans:Confirm the goals of your organization. Thi

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9 months ago

Melissa MeyerRetired Team Fiix

published in Supercharge your maintenance strategy

Template for preventative maintenance checklistTemplate

Exceptional maintenance troubleshooting requires solid planning and foresight. Creating detailed task lists is one way to bolster your planning and avoid headaches down the road. In a past post, we explored the 7 steps for building an effective preventative maintenance checklist 📰👇 Now you can put those steps into practice with our handy checklist template. It will help you build a preventative maintenance checklist or task list so that work can get done faster, safer, and with fewer errors. You can get a sneak peek of the template and download it below.

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9 months ago

Melissa MeyerRetired Team Fiix

published in Supercharge your maintenance strategy

Getting started with failure codes in FiixGuide

No one likes when things go wrong, especially when it happens without an explanation. How are you supposed to prevent a problem from occurring again when you don’t even know what caused it in the first place? In the world of reliability, failure codes exist to try to avoid this situation.Failure codes are shorthand descriptions of how an asset failed. When attached to work orders, they help you track a component’s failure history and determine ways to prevent future issues. Fiix customers with an Enterprise subscription can use failure codes to see trends in asset performance, costs, and more. In this post, we’ll explore how failure codes work in Fiix, the benefits of using them, and how to set them up. How failure codes work in Fiix They are made up of problem, cause, and action codes (e.g., Leak → Hole → Replace) Failure codes are attached to work orders to document where and when action was taken CMMS admins can nest failure codes so problems, causes, and actions are clear and easy

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9 months ago

Emma MuldoonRetired Team Fiix

published in Supercharge your maintenance strategy

How to build an effective preventative maintenance program 💡

For facilities looking to break out of a reactive maintenance rut a preventive maintenance plan can do wonders, but where do you begin? While this may sound easier said than done, this article will break down the 8 steps you should take to build a solid foundation for your preventative maintenance program (and set it up for success). But first: what is a preventive maintenance program? 🗒️It’s a series of processes, guidelines, and tools for conducting regular and routine maintenance on equipment and assets to keep them in good condition to avoid failure and costly unplanned downtime.A preventative maintenance plan makes everything clearer, so the path to reliability is obstacle-free. Goals and responsibilities are defined, timelines are understood, and all necessary resources are accounted for. Everyone knows what success looks like and how to sustain it. A preventive maintenance plan should include eight steps at its foundation:Remember, Each facility has different goals, assets, a

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10 months ago

Melissa MeyerRetired Team Fiix

published in Supercharge your maintenance strategy

Quick start guide for creating a preventive maintenance checklist

Very few modern processes don’t benefit from a good checklist—and that goes for preventative maintenance programs. A preventive maintenance checklist takes all the steps and information out of a manual and puts it into the hands of your experienced technicians. In this post, learn the benefits of having a preventative maintenance checklist and the key elements every checklist should have. Three benefits of having a preventative maintenance checklist 📝These checklists ensure preventive maintenance tasks are done correctly and in the same sequence of steps, regardless of which maintenance team member completes them, which:Helps standardize tasks and outcomes, eliminating guesswork or miscommunication, and reduces the chances of error and the need for costly repairs. Makes work more efficient and maximizes labour, which reduces downtime and allows technicians to move on to more skilled tasks in less time. It can also free up a technician’s time by allowing other facility members, like

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10 months ago

Melissa MeyerRetired Team Fiix

published in Supercharge your maintenance strategy

How to create and maintain a data-rich equipment maintenance log

While many things in maintenance are not predictable, equipment maintenance logs are. They help you perform preventative maintenance to ensure equipment is in good condition, runs as efficiently as possible, and provide a useful reference point for discovering failure patterns, expenditure, and repair. This post will explore how you can create and maintain a top-notch equipment maintenance log and the 6 ways you can make the most of the data you’re collecting within them. How to create an equipment maintenance logThis will all depend on a variety of factors that are specific to your team and facility, but any log should keep these 3 questions in mind: What asset and maintenance information do you need most? How detailed does that information need to be? Who will be using this information and how will they use it?Your log will include two sections: Asset Information Maintenance Work Information Equipment name Serial number Location within your facility Manufacturer detai

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11 months ago

Melissa MeyerRetired Team Fiix

published in Supercharge your maintenance strategy

7 steps for building a maintenance analytics program by starting small

Following up on our last post on the benefits of starting small with any maintenance project, we’ll now walk you through our step-by-step guide for creating a maintenance analytics program by starting small and growing it piece-by-piece 🧱. Step #1: Ask the right questions You need to be clear on the reason/purpose of why you’re collecting data in the first place, so consider questions like: What are your business’s biggest goals and how can maintenance impact them? What challenges is your company facing and how can maintenance solve them? What opportunities can your organization pursue and how can maintenance help?Answering these questions will give you a clear view of where your team can make the biggest impact with the fewest obstacles. To help you get started, here are a few examples of how you may answer these questions: What are your business’s biggest goals? Ex. Reduce waste across all business units How can maintenance impact those goals? Ex. Increase preventive

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11 months ago

Emma MuldoonRetired Team Fiix

published in Supercharge your maintenance strategy

How to start small with any maintenance project 🔧

It can be tempting to go all-in on a project and get big results as fast as possible. Unfortunately, that rarely happens. In fact, 70% of all projects fail. So what can you do to avoid a similar fate? Start small! Starting small means implementing an idea or project in small steps instead of all at once. In this post, learn the benefits of starting small, how you can start small in your next maintenance project, and when to take them from small to big. Three benefits of starting small? ➕Starting small eliminates a lot of the problems that plague larger projects, which helps you:Catch problems while they’re small and reduce risk: If something goes wrong or isn’t working, the consequences are contained. You can also identify and plan for risks when expanding the project. Get adoption and buy-in faster: Change is always hard, but is easier to navigate when it’s smaller. This gets people on board quicker, which gets you results faster. Implement projects with fewer delays: Starting small

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11 months ago

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Supercharge your maintenance strategy

How to become carbon neutral in five stepsMAINTENANCE TIPS

Eight tips for negotiating the best deal from your parts vendorsMAINTENANCE TIPS

Template: Failure mode and effects analysisTemplate

Template for preventative maintenance checklistTemplate

Getting started with failure codes in FiixGuide

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