Why Digital Maintenance Plans Are a Must

A well-thought-out, clearly structured maintenance plan is very important for a company’s production and added value. Production plants and machinery often account for a significant portion of the company’s value, so maintenance also makes strategic commercial sense. The maintenance plan defines things such as maintenance work, additional work instructions, the schedule, required spare parts, and the employees and service providers used. It also supports your team in budgeting, cost accounting and controlling.  

The maintenance plan is considered the centerpiece of the maintenance strategy and is available to everyone—ideally digitally as part of a computerized maintenance management system (CMMS). Many experts even recommend integrating digital maintenance plans directly into the ERP system. Production, maintenance and management then work with a uniform, consistent database—and can directly access information on the condition and operation of the production facilities. Unlike linked maintenance management, this means that data does not get recorded twice. All appointments are clearly set and are binding. The system also ensures that production management is informed of all inspection and maintenance time windows.  

As well as scheduling appointments, digital maintenance management tasks also include scheduling the necessary work. This involves specifying on the work order schedules the qualifications needed for the individual maintenance tasks. The most suitable employees or service providers are selected for the respective work based on this information. Each member of the maintenance team is assigned specific areas in the system. It also specifies tasks which need to be carried out by external contractors.  

Maintenance appointments can be commissioned automatically using these digital work order plans. This ensures that maintenance and repair works are always carried out at the right time. 

Your maintenance team can accurately predict spare parts requirements based on the commissioned maintenance dates. It is easy to see which parts are in stock and which have to be ordered beforehand. They can also be alerted to special tools or measuring devices required. This information enables costs for labor, spare parts and tools to be calculated precisely and matched with the available budget.  

After completion of maintenance, overhaul or repair work, the team leader simply posts the actual workload for the serviced equipment into the ERP system. The same applies to used spare parts, costs, expenses and other expenditure. This information is then available to management, production management and controlling.