An equipment maintenance plan is a well thought-out and documented approach to maintenance planning and scheduling.
Maintenance plans should be well organized, complete, accessible, and flexible. They should enable for maintenance planning and scheduling with advance notification. They should accommodate operational procedures to maintain key information for decision makers to receive advance maintenance notifications. They should reference normal operational procedures and usage, as well as certification requirements by technicians.
The degree of detail to include in your plan will depend on the size of your organization and the type of tools and equipment deployed. Companies with larger and wider range of tools and equipment will have a more complex and comprehensive maintenance plan as compared to those companies with less diverse fleets.
However, despite the size of the organization, a documented and followed maintenance plan should be considered as just another tool in your shop used to maintain your equipment. Even companies and organization with small fleets often have a variety of tools and heavy equipment with very specific inspection and maintenance requirements that warrants an equipment maintenance plan.
Developing a comprehensive plan takes consideration and for some can be overwhelming. However, following a systematic approach will make it easier. If you do not have fleet maintenance software, a fleet maintenance spreadsheet is a good place to start. The entire process can be broken down into 3 basic steps:
Categorize each type of tool and equipment that is to be included in your equipment maintenance plan.
Compile a list of maintenance tasks to be performed for each category. While it is generally a best practice to follow the manufacturer’s recommended maintenance guidelines, the equipment’s operating environment and usage must also be taken into consideration.
Reference the list of categorized maintenance tasks to each piece of equipment.
For each maintenance task, you should assign a title and note the frequency that the task is to be performed (i.e. 40000 km) and when you would like to be reminded (i.e. 30000km).
Additionally, note any specific procedures, tools, skills, number of technicians, or an associated fleet maintenance checklist required to complete the task.
While it’s great to have documented procedures for each task, you must also have the ability to quickly retrieve and reference these details. If you are using fleet maintenance software that does not have this feature, or if you are using a fleet maintenance spreadsheet, it will be difficult to track this information in your equipment maintenance log.
If maintenance planning and scheduling is based on odometer readings or hour’s meter, you will need to track equipment usage in order to receive notifications of upcoming maintenance. This is especially important for those organizations not using an integrated satellite GPS system on their equipment. Having a plan as to who does what and when will help ensure consistency within your equipment maintenance log.
How you are going to implement your maintenance plan and incorporate it with your existing equipment maintenance log must also be considered. Staff training and additional computer hardware and/or fleet maintenance software may be required to successfully accommodate your maintenance planning and scheduling goals.
A fleet maintenance spreadsheet can be cumbersome and is not the most efficient and cost effective method to manage maintenance scheduling. Affordable fleet maintenance software, including cloud fleet management software options are now available making the fleet maintenance spreadsheet literally obsolete as a maintenance scheduling tool.
Fleet Harmony Cloud Fleet Maintenance Management Software for small business includes not only maintenance planning and scheduling, but also fleet accident management and IFTA Software. Plus it enables you to create SAGE compatible invoices.
Contact the software design services experts at Fleet Harmony us to learn more.
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