A Plant Engineering study points out that almost half of Manufacturing facilities continue to use paper-based or manual systems to record and store their maintenance records. Entering these records involve dual data entry, a process where humans take the workflows generated in the field and type them into siloed computer systems where they aren’t accessible in real time. This entry process takes 15 to 30 minutes per work order and is prone to human error.  This means that your most crucial machine data isn’t actionable for management or your front line teams. While an optimized preventive maintenance procedure is beneficial for any manufacturer, this can no longer be achieved by paper-based processes, which can easily jeopardize your daily operations.

Today, instead of relying on static paper-based processes, manufacturing companies must build their preventive maintenance (PM) procedure to adapt to a changing and complex environment.  As plant machinery and equipment continue to age and degrade over time, preventive maintenance operations must evolve to take into account the specific needs of your individual machines. Companies can't rely on corrective or reactive maintenance. To do this your front line technicians need access to real time data to make informed decisions.

This has led companies to digitize their processes with a Front Line Worker or Connected Worker Platform that integrates workers into their environment through the devices they naturally use in the flow of work (laptops, mobile, tablets and Smart Glasses.)

How can a Front Line Worker Platform help in digitizing preventive maintenance procedures? Let’s discuss it.

How Front Line Worker Platforms digitize Preventive Maintenance procedures

Here are some ways a Front Line platform can help front line operators to follow and optimize PM procedures:

1. Enables a digital checklist.

‍Based on their end-of-life proximity, individual machines at any manufacturing facility have different maintenance-related requirements. Similarly, other machines have customized fixes only known to experienced technicians. A digital checklist captures these essential procedural steps and differences and makes them available to all operators through the digital worker platform.

2.Automatically schedules maintenance operations.

‍PM work can be automatically scheduled based on a fixed frequency—daily, weekly, or monthly. This ensures that maintenance schedules are adhered to and are completed before any major machine breakdown or malfunction. Visual work instructions are given out with the work order so that teams can watch videos, examine machine diagrams and written instructions to be fully prepared for the job at hand. This quality of training vastly exceeds what can be kept in a three ringer binder.

3. Notifies job completion to the management team.

‍With a Connected Worker platform, every completed job is digitally stored along with the job-related information. Real-time job information is now available for management teams to derive useful insights on how to improve the PM procedures. These insights can be easily integrated into systems like SAP or JD Edwards.

4. Facilitates faster resolution of detected issues.

‍Front Line operators can now capture complex and unresolved machine problems through photographs and videos, and escalate them to provide management with the information they need to order more preventive maintenance. With this visual information, detected issues can be resolved faster, thus improving the job completion process.

5. Rapid solutions from root cause analysis of deviations or inefficiencies.

‍For any major failures in preventive maintenance procedures, the maintenance team can now perform root cause analysis using the captured data. This helps in improving the procedures by finding and correcting any inefficiencies or any deviations from the set process.

6. Improves the overall PM procedure.

‍Using Front Line Worker platforms, manufacturing process audits can be improved using real-time data. This can improve the overall procedure by identifying the parts that are required for a better outcome.

Finally, self-assist tools in the form of visual training instructions for maintenance workers can improve the quality of their completed jobs and are much easier to learn from than paper-based training materials.

Conclusion

To extend their machine uptime and working life, manufacturers must look to digitize their PM procedures instead of relying on static paper-based processes.

With its low code/no code Front Line Worker Platform, Atheer has enabled many manufacturing companies to improve the quality of their preventive maintenance operations. Atheer's AR-powered digital platform can enhance the productivity and efficiency of your front line workforce by improving the quality of machine monitoring and related service tasks. Atheer is ideally built to enable Lean Manufacturing principles and eliminate non value adding steps from your production process.