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An EAM Improves a Lack oCommunication

The Efect o Poor MaintenanceCommunication

Poor communication between asset manage-

ment and maintenance teams, between main-tenance staff and just poor communication

in general can lead to a variety of operational andcustomer service problems. If communications is-sues are not addressed, operating margins declineand the organization is likely to see an increase inemployee turnover.

Communication is something that must be workedon and improved whenever possible. We all knowthis from our personal lives where each of us has

learned that most problems are caused by a lack of communication.

“What we got here is… failure to communi-cate.”

Source: Paul Newman and Strother Martin in the 1967 lm “Cool Hand Luke”

It is a failure to communicate instructions, goalsand objectives that leads to unnecessary anguish forcustomers, staff and management. Communicationsproblems occur in all industries and at all levels.The cause is simple the effect can be devastating.The solution is effort.

Examples of Organization

Communications Problems and Their

Consequences

• Inspection checklists for extreme weatherare not disseminated properly. A suddensnowstorm arrives and unprepared assetsare exposed to the elements. This may cause

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assets to not function correctly or even fail,increasing repair and capital expenditurecosts.

• The training date for a new asset was notposted or sent to everyone who would helpinstall, maintain or use it. The asset sitsunused until training is nally completed.

• A system wide defect or change on an assethas been discovered. The new standard

operating procedure is not communicatedeffectively throughout the organization.Maintenance teams waste time trying to xthe problem by recreating the knowledgealready available.

• The contract renewal date is up for boilersor other high value assets. Administrativeor maintenance management is supposedto contact vendors to implement new termsof engagement by a specied date. Thedeadline passes because the information

was caught in an administrative bottleneck.• Work requests and work orders are lost.External customers such as hotel guests, orany other type of client waiting for actionbecome frustrated and take their businesselsewhere. Internal customers develop wor-karounds that endanger health and safety.

The list is almost endless. The point is that withoutgood communication, if anything can go wrong itwill (also known as Murphy’s Law). To improvecommunication it makes sense to understand howcommunication is and can be done.

Facility and Plant CommunicationMethods

From oce facilities to industrial plants, commu-nication generally falls into 3 categories:

• Verbal: Meetings, training, telephone callsetc.

• Written: Emails, text, post-it notes, memos

etc.• Computerized: Computerized training

programs, software programs such as CRMsoftware or EAM CMMS programs, compu-terized alerts, instant messages and so on.

In the course of a normal work week we may useall of the above communication vehicles. The pro-blem is that none of the methods are perfect and

that each person in an organization communicatesdifferently.

The result is incomplete, lost, misunderstood andoften ineffective information ow. To complicatematters, two people can see or hear the same in-formation and walk away with different interpre-tations. This makes the opportunity for improvedcommunications a problem that requires constantattention and effort.

Better OrganizationalCommunication with an EAMSystem

Communications skills are learned. At the sametime there are tools available to help facilitate thelearning process in asset and maintenance mana-gement. One such tool is an Enterprise Asset Ma-nagement (EAM) system.

An EAM system combines the core functionality of CMMS programs (maintenance management) withtools for asset, document, contract and administra-tion management. Quality EAM software such asTranscendent® facilitate communications throughuser friendly dashboards where messages can beplaced.

In the photo below you can see that messages suchas a reminder to perform inspections on speciedassets that can be sent to all locations or staff. Wi-thin the message you can attach any document that

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has been uploaded to your EAM system includingphotos, pdf les, blueprints or an example of theactual inspection checklist to be used.

Other communication tools include the ability toproduce management reports and to receive workrequests, work orders etc. without the use of paper.

This reduces the amount of lost documents as wellas the amount of time spent searching for them.

In addition, because everything is computerized,there is always a record of what information wasdistributed, when and who should be receiving it.EAM doesn’t x management and staff that havetrouble communicating but it does increase theamount of clarity.

Tell us what your organization does to improvecommunications. If you liked this article you mayalso enjoy reading:

Asset Management, EAM, facilities management

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