Maintenance and repairing costs are the considerable factors of facility management, but as the budget tightens facility managers feel the pinch immediately. Well planned maintenance is important for cost-effective facility management and maintenance programs. In this blog, we will discuss 6 cost saving ideas for facility management and maintenance that would be beneficial to the maintenance budget.

6 simple cost-saving ideas for facility management and maintenance

• Use facility maintenance software- Being in control of significant information is important to manage a facility effectively. Using efficient facility maintenance software like CMMS would allow you to track incoming work requests, determine resource allocation, schedule preventive maintenance and prepare budget wisely. You can make better business decisions using this kind of software with the help of available critical information and the corresponding analytics. These decisions help in running the business and facility maintenance in a cost-effective way.
• Proactive Testing and routine inspection- Performing proactive testing and inspections improves the availability of equipment. Condition of equipment can be monitored through IoT integration with the CMMS software  which in turn allows it to detect the trends of wear and tear and also impending failures of equipment. CMMS notifies the maintenance technicians to perform maintenance tasks while emergency situations arise.
• Scheduling preventive maintenance- Performing preventive maintenance is important for successful facility management and maintenance as it reduces risks of component or system failures. You need to perform preventive maintenance by following a regular schedule which includes different check-point activities done on the equipment. Preventive maintenance jobs include lubrication, filter replacement, mechanical adjustments etc. Thus the preventive maintenance extends the life cycle of the equipment. If the organization loses focus on preventive maintenance and reduces budget, it may increase the number of downtimes and in the long run it would incur additional expenses which will exceed the original budget. When you are short of resources, do not put all of your assets under preventive maintenance; rather focus on your most critical assets or systems whose risk of failure must be eliminated immediately.
• Manage your facilities proactively- Proactive maintenance one of the best cost saving ideas that helps to identify the root cause of the equipment failure proactively and then actions can be taken to remove the cause. Potential causes of equipment failure include defective parts, defective installation, unsuitable design and improper operation. If you eliminate the root cause of machinery defects you can reduce the number of downtimes.  If the problem is fixed proactively, then it reduces the chances of it being repaired in future and also ensures lower annual maintenance cost.
• Streamline and standardize facility maintenance and management- Be strategic in identifying opportunities to change the system in order to work together on one Building Management System(BMS) or under one contract of maintenance. By doing so, you can save on your initial investment multiple folds by reducing the involvement of your facility staff. The staff consumes much time to administer a pile of contracts regarding legacy maintenance and also the process of manually storing data from differing systems is inefficient. Standardization would allow facility staff to become experts on the systems which would save time and costs and increase productivity. It will also increase their ability to leverage knowledge while negotiating with vendors.

• IoT and CMMS can be game changers in the facility management sector- Facility management companies can use IoT solutions to manage the emergency situations remotely and improve the maintenance of the facilities. This in turn reduces cost by easing the process of operation and maintenance and also by opening the scope of service availability to building owners. Facility management organizations can create organic digital capabilities to outperform their competitors’ operating methods and meet latest customer demands. IoT and CMMS can be very useful in facilities management because of the following 2 features:
  • IoT uses smart energy meters in the buildings. Installing these devices would eliminate or reduce the frequency of site visits done by technicians saving both time and money. You can collect data remotely and use them to regulate and optimize energy consumption.
  • CMMS can access real time information regarding the condition of each machine to decide where repair is needed. This feature unlocks optimization opportunities, reduces the budget and consequently helps in raising the profit margin.

By implementing effective facility maintenance software and developing a maintenance program optimally, you can ensure that your equipment is at peak operating conditions and overall maintenance cost is reduced. Contact DreamzCMMS for more details