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Supercharge your maintenance strategy

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

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78 Posts
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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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Emma MuldoonRetired Team Fiix
published in Supercharge your maintenance strategy
How to build an effective preventive 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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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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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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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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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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Emma MuldoonRetired Team Fiix
published in Supercharge your maintenance strategy
Analytics 101 🎬

Fiix’s analytics tool allows you to access valuable data about your organization’s maintenance activities. In this training video, Gail Mowatt (@gmowatt), Fiix's Senior Manager of Training and Education, will help you get acquainted with the Fiix analytics tool and key features like dashboards and looks 📊. Watch this ~7-minute video to learn how to:  Access analytics  Navigate dashboard and looks Apply filters Drill-down on a look If you have any questions or feedback for Gail please post in the thread below👇.

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Emma MuldoonRetired Team Fiix
published in Supercharge your maintenance strategy
How to use data to answer five big questions about your maintenance team’s performanceBlog

Maintenance involves many moving parts, which means more chances for something to go wrong. And when problems arise, you want to tackle them with as much information as possible. In other words, you want problem-solving to be predictable 🔮.🚨 Data is key to achieving this goal 🚨.Our most recent blog is all about using your maintenance data to answer your big questions and how Fiix analytics can make the whole process a lot easier. In it, we look at the 5 ways you can use data to solve common maintenance issues and lead your team to success: How do I make sure the right maintenance is being done at the right time? ⏰ How is maintenance affecting the performance of equipment? 🔧 How can my facility organize our storeroom so parts are easily accessible? 🏬 Where should I be allocating my maintenance budget? 💰 What obstacles are our technicians facing? ⚠️ Wanna learn more? Grab a cup of ☕️ and head over to our blog to check it out.

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ChrisLee
Team Fiix
ChrisLeeTeam Fiix
published in Supercharge your maintenance strategy
Considerations when mobilizing your maintenance team

Hey Fiixers! I’m Chris, and I’m an Implementation Consultant at Fiix based in the UK. Before joining Fiix I ran my own software and training consultancy for 13 years helping people build both Facilities and Asset Maintenance Systems. As businesses are driven towards compliance and improved working efficiencies, people are starting to look towards mobile solutions to help in these areas. During the process of rolling out these applications to customers, I have identified some considerations that I feel may be important ahead of implementing a mobile solution and this article may just provide you with some answers to your questions or prevent you from making a costly mistake. First we need to consider the hardware Mobile maintenance applications are quite often written for the popular Android platform, with some companies also offering an Apple equivalent. There is a wide variety of Android products available to select from, including commercially available devices from companies such

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ChrisLee
Team Fiix
ChrisLee
Team Fiix
ChrisLeeTeam Fiix
published in Supercharge your maintenance strategy
Implementation FAQ's

Hey 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.  During my time here I have noticed a trend among frequently asked questions I get during implementation. So I thought I’d share my findings with all of you.  No two implementations are ever the same as each organization will have different requirements, resources and budgets. What does remain pretty constant is the process which surrounds implementing the system with the only differing feature being the level of planning, resource and detail that is required in line with your business needs. I do tend to focus on maintenance software sectors (CMMS & CAFM) but the questions and answers in a lot of cases are quite generic, as is the implementation process. FAQ’s on new implementations:  How long will it take?  How long will it be before we can start using it?  What are the cost benefits and how long befor

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ChrisLee
Team Fiix
john reeve
New Member
john reeveNew Member
published in Supercharge your maintenance strategy
The Bad Actor Report: What is Failure Analysis?

Hello everyone! Over the next couple of weeks I will be posting about the bad actor report and recommended sort metrics. If this is a topic you would like to learn more about make sure you subscribe to this thread to see my series.The purpose behind failure analysis is to identify the problem and then the cause so you can prevent this event from happening again. Although it is “after the fact” (i.e., a lagging indicator) it is a valuable tool for performance improvement.Some organizations have trigger points that require a root cause failure analysis (RCFA) for serious events. This is where a team of people identify the problem, surrounding circumstances, and document all possible causes. The RCFA can last from days to weeks. In industries where a vehicle assembly line is stopped, the O&M shift might perform a 5-why analysis. This method involves asking "why" multiple times until the individual believes they have reached the cause of the problem. Chronic failure analysis (CFA) is

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john reeve
New Member
john reeveNew Member
published in Supercharge your maintenance strategy
The Bad Actor Report: May be the most important report

We've reached the final article of The Bad Actor Report. Let’s review why this report is the most important report in your toolkit for improving your maintenance strategy in this article.If you missed any posts in my series, you can check them out here ⤵  Chronic Failure Analysis may be the Most Significant Process you can Run. Well-known reliability professionals have stated that close to 80% of maintenance cost can be due to chronic failures. And because they are almost routine, their frequent occurrence impacts the bottom line.Thus, organizations should focus on ways to attack the worst offenders and eliminate the cause. The figure shown below is the complete process which if performed correctly will help reduce reactive maintenance.  Possible Corrective Actions There are many possible actions that can result from reliability team reviews. It is not as simple as adding a new PM or conducting training. Lastly, it is possible that the reliability team may recommend multiple actions. B

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john reeve
New Member
john reeve
New Member
john reeveNew Member
published in Supercharge your maintenance strategy
The Bad Actor Report: What does one look like?

Continuing with The Bad Actor Report series, in this article we go into detail about what a bad actor report looks like and how you can take advantage of this important data.If you missed my first few posts, you can check them out here ⤵  Before a Pareto-style report can be finalized, it is required to identify the sort metric as this is what provides the sort order on the report. A Pareto-style report is a type of chart that contains both bars and a line graph, where individual values are represented in descending order by bars and the cumulative total is represented by the line. There are many possibilities of which several could be of use, meaning, it may be beneficial to run the report using multiple sorts. The sort-metric options would be shown as report prompts, shown below: Those assets with the most work orders written against them.  This structured query language (SQL) selection would focus on completed repair work with functional failures.  Mean time between failure (MT

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john reeve
New Member
john reeve
New Member
john reeveNew Member
published in Supercharge your maintenance strategy
The Bad Actor Report: How are decisions made in your organization?

Continuing with The Bad Actor Report series, in this article we’ll go into the importance of how decisions are made with failure data and the impact it can make in your facility.If you missed my first or second post, you can check it out here ⤵  Some organizations want the CMMS to help them make better decisions regarding repair/replace, maintenance strategies, understanding which sensors to use, perform risk management, and identify recurring failures. Asset management also involves people, process and roles. With so much to worry about, it is critically important that stakeholders do the right work at the right time using the right staff. And when there is more work to do than resources allow, it is imperative to manage by exception.This is where failure data can help. Below are the most common ways these decisions are made in order from least to most effective.  Decisions can be Subjective – Ignoring the CMMS and its Failure Data: In this instance, leadership only wants a basic work

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john reeve
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Emma MuldoonRetired Team Fiix
published in Supercharge your maintenance strategy
Good, fast, cheap - You get all 3 with OT integrationsOn-Demand

The saying goes “good, fast, cheap, pick two” but when it comes to linking your operational tech to your CMMS, you don’t have to choose. Fiix’s open API has enabled customers to save hundreds of thousands of dollars per year. And realizing these efficiencies is easier, faster, and cheaper than you think.  Watch Fiix experts Alex and James as they demystify operational technology (OT) integrations by: Busting misconceptions around the cost, complexity, and effort required to get your equipment talking to your CMMS Showcasing the benefits, including how OT integration is the pathway to condition-based and predictive maintenance Providing real world examples of how quickly Fiix users have realized ROI When and how you can get started  

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Emma MuldoonRetired Team Fiix
published in Supercharge your maintenance strategy
James' Hot Take ​​on OT Integrations

“Having been a part of many of the integrations we've completed at Fiix, this is a topic I have a lot of excitement for!” James Binckly, Product Manager at Fiix.  Integrations are often seen as a daunting task, however, in James' experience it's quite the opposite. Watch to hear what an OT integration looks like in reality and how it can save you time, money and improve your asset performance.  Watch the full webinar recording! 

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Emma MuldoonRetired Team Fiix
published in Supercharge your maintenance strategy
Integrate Fiix with your operational technology without blowing your budget or doing any IT work

Huge shout out to @Tdufton  for participating in a case study with our team! It’s great to see Fiixers share and celebrate their success.Read the story of Perth County Ingredients, a food processor that integrated its PLCs with Fiix in two weeks and used this integration to save $40,000 in nine months. If you want to read the full case study check it out here.But first, what does it mean to integrate with operational technology (OT)?How it works Getting equipment data from a PLC, MES or another OT system into Fiix is hard to do manually. But, the good news is, there’s software that eliminates manual data collection. This software receives information from your OT systems and automatically sends it to Fiix. The connection between the three systems is an integration. What happens to the data in Fiix? Once equipment data is flowing to Fiix, it can be used to automatically create and schedule work orders based on your pre-set triggers. For example, if a machine runs for a certain number o

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Emma MuldoonRetired Team Fiix
published in Supercharge your maintenance strategy
Alex's Hot Take on OT Integrations

“It’s changing the game for maintenance in a lot of different ways.” Alex Topper, Customer Success Manager at Fiix. Watch to understand why Alex thinks operational technology (OT) integrations have been a game changer for his clients, saving them time and money by automatically triggering work orders in Fiix with real time data. Watch the full webinar recording!  

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john reeve
New Member
john reeveNew Member
published in Supercharge your maintenance strategy
The Bad Actor Report: Reasons Why Organizations Fail to Perform Failure Analysis

Continuing with The Bad Actor Report series, in this article we’ll take a deeper dive into the reasons why organizations fail to perform failure analysis. If you missed my first post, you can check it out here ⤵  There are a few different reasons why organizations fail to perform failure analysis: Many fail to leverage failure data from their CMMS due to bad data.  Some organizations simply do not believe the CMMS should be used for failure analysis.  In other instances, leadership teams do not believe the working level will consistently enter failure data due to a fear of being micro-managed by the data they enter.  Lastly, some administrators set up failure codes but they are too high a level to add value, e.g., “mechanical issue” which is too vague for analysis. As it is, many organizations capture nothing. But at the other end you have root cause failure analysis, which is quite extensive. Which leads to my next point of what is the right level of detail for failure data? The

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