We know that construction losses need to be eliminated. We hear of DOWNTIME, Lean, Six Sigma to reduce waste and increase efficiency, but what can we do on the ground to improve processes? Start by looking at a key performance indicator (KPI) to see how your company is meeting your performance goals.

In industries such as manufacturing or construction, a KPI or metric is a well-defined measurement to monitor, analyze, and optimize production processes. KPI dashboards provide management with valuable business insights to meet their manufacturing goals.

For example, overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) is a metric that indicates the physical condition of the equipment being used and is an important target KPI for most industries because it involves three key indicators:

• Availability: Percentage of time a piece of equipment can operate
• Quality: Percentage of good produced parts
• Performance: Percentage of maximum operation speed used

These KPI play a huge role in a company’s ability to compete and depend completely on the peak performance of the company’s facilities, equipment, and workforce. Asset and resource availability play key roles in optimal production.

Improving the performance of construction processes means that overall equipment and worker effectiveness needs to aim at measuring types of production losses and indicating areas of process improvement.

What does industry process improvement look like? How does your company’s business performance affect your bottom line? As you read the list below, keep in mind that with a modern CMMS/EAM and strategic goals in place all of these are possible:

• Reduced time spent filing work orders and locating equipment information
• Increased preventive maintenance and decreased production downtime
• Reduced unplanned reactive maintenance and reduced time waiting for spare parts
• Reduced time collecting information for audits, checklists, reports, and inspections

IN OTHER WORDS: increase what is good and works, decrease what is bad and doesn’t work.
And increase worker performance, equipment longevity, and reliable real-time digital trails of equipment, inventory, work hours, and supply costs.
Industry 4.0 is a data-driven paradigm in which the smart use of data provides all sorts of competitive information about key performance indicators such as productivity, quality, and efficiency.

We know that these days, amid a jittery economy, a company’s competitiveness can hinge on integrating and implementing a computerized maintenance management system (CMMS). A modern CMMS supports construction companies and large-scale builders in many ways. Here are just three that will directly impact both overall equipment efficiency and KPI availability, quality, and performance:

1. to move from reactive machine maintenance to preventive maintenance,
2. to shift from ordering spare parts when needed to running real-time supply-chain inventories, and
3. to move hardcopy machine documentation and guidelines into the cloud.

With modern CMMS that collect data available on our mobile devices in real-time, you can calculate KPIs to drive your day-to-day standard operating procedures, work order management, and preventive maintenance plans.

Once implemented, computerized maintenance management software empowers and enables workers out in the field via a mobile app. These connected workforces can easily report in real-time completed standard operating procedures and preventive maintenance work orders, update inventory management checklists, and communicate with foremen and bosses from the spot of the work.

A comprehensive computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) is crucial to KPI success and solves many of the primary challenges faced in construction operations. Additionally, these systems enhance overall performance and reduce building costs.

Construction companies that implement a modern CMMS system can easily perform preventive maintenance, avoiding costly breakdowns and downtime and increasing control of maintenance spending to meet optimal performance KPIs.

In fact, downtime reduction is the highest priority for many construction companies. Unplanned downtime has a high associated cost and directly impedes delivering quality products and earning client satisfaction.

Accelerating the service request process and minimizing the time from request to repair completion, along with improving planning and productivity, is the backbone of KPI efficiency metrics. As technicians become more efficient, the ability to make real progress in shifting toward proactive, preventive maintenance strategies becomes more achievable.

Modern CMMS simplify managing the data and metrics required with easy-to-access asset and maintenance history. Operationalizing KPIs is next to impossible and incredibly time-consuming with paper-based systems, spreadsheets, and other older approaches to construction business practices.

There are many reasons why a CMMS is critical to companies achieving their building and construction goals, but two stand out: asset and maintenance metrics and efficiency gains.

1. Asset and Maintenance Metrics

Construction companies can analyze asset and maintenance data to identify key areas for improvement. The need for historical and real-time information that is readily available and easily searchable is fundamental to maintenance improvement. Searching within paper-based systems to identify trends regarding equipment failures, etc. is labor-intensive and, with the help of Industry 4.0, becoming a work habit of the past.
For example, if data reflects that a paver is failing every 150 hours of service, place it on a preventive maintenance (PM) program. The right PMs can help business owners avoid the unplanned downtime event completely. With a modern CMMS, managers can easily call up failure data on the paver, look at service hours, check out replacement costs of spare parts, and make an informed decision on whether or not to replace the paver.
A CMMS is not just about the collection and analysis of asset and maintenance data. It also enables customizable dashboards that report KPIs in real-time. In the right hands, these dashboards help managers and foremen make informed business decisions—once again extending the ROI on the CMMS.

2. Efficiency Gains

The second core element that makes a CMMS critical to maintenance improvement is efficiency gains. A user-friendly CMMS simplifies the maintenance planning process, streamlines workflow, and increases production efficiency.

For maintenance planning, consider the drag-and-drop calendar function and the capability to see a calendar with all employee tasks and availability from one view in a CMMS.

In addition to planning efficiency, overall workflow efficiency also has a significant impact on industry performance. It starts with the maintenance request process. With a modern CMMS, this request process is simple, straightforward, and fast. The work request is immediately routed to the right individual for review.

The work order workflow is also simplified with a CMMS. For those using mobile CMMS functions, the work order can be sent to the technician in the field. He has to come back to the shop before even beginning a repair.

A modern CMMS, like MaintainX, can make all the difference in achieving your goals. Let us show you how!

Caroline Eisner, Content Writer at MaintainX, is a writer and editor with experience across the profit and nonprofit sectors, government, education, and financial organizations. She has held leadership positions in K16 institutions and has led large-scale digital projects and interactive websites, as well as running her own business writing consultancy.
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