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entusiastic about preventative maintenance


Why do I really care if my field technicians are enthusiastic or not? When you look at a person's work output, as directly related to workforce sciences, you come up with three primary ingredients required to achieve your desired results.  These ingredients are; attitudes, attributes, and capabilities and when mixed properly with enabling tools can yield unbelievable outputs. So what does any of this have to do with routine maintenance? If your maintenance routines actually become way too routine then pretty soon performance will be replaced with complacency. In order to keep any piece of equipment running as trouble-free as possible the maintenance performed, and the thoroughness of the inspection and tasks at hand, have a direct impact on the asset's life expectancy.  There are some strategies that help service organizations keep the enthusiasm at all-time highs.



Switch techs from time to time:  One of the best ways to ensure maintenance is being performed properly is to switch-up who performs the maintenance. Certainly there are arguments about job site and other points of familiarity, but those all seem a little silly considering the power of digital information exchange. There is no pressure as strong as peer pressure when keeping fellow workers in check regarding the integrity of their maintenance tasks and performance. While the relationship between a worker and the client is important, and should be balanced, periodically switch the worker to ensure that complacency has not replaced performance.  



Science-based matching of worker to maintenance contract actions:  The fact of the matter is everyone at some point during their week, month, or even daily may be performing tasks that they perceive as menial.  Understanding the skill levels of your workers as viewed by industry, service, and skill level; aligning those skills to the skill levels required by the piece of equipment during maintenance, will get you closer to providing the type of work opportunities that are most preferred by your field workforce. Years ago I would have said phooey to this type of thinking, they should be happy for the work that they get to begin with.  As time goes by and organizations realize the significance of workforce sciences we understand that balancing the right worker to the right job exponentially increases productivity and as importantly attitude.  Remember the field worker is often the perception your client has about your organization!



Right-sizing tasks:  Depending upon the organization, you will see varied levels of commitment to the creation of tasks to be performed during preventative maintenance. This has always been a bit bewildering as tasks have a direct correlation to the labor exerted and thus to your contract productivity. It is important to make sure that the tasks we perform are achieving the singular goal of preserving the assets life. Get your field workers, office-based service management, and sales, all in the same room to routinely go through and verify the tasks that you are performing are the right tasks.



All successful service businesses have a strong mix of preventative maintenance in their financial models. These three simple tips are guaranteed to increase contract profitability, increase contract acquisition, and contract retention.



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