November 11, 2014
How CMMS Saved Your Thanksgiving
It was the night before Thanksgiving (or was it Christmas?), and all through the manufacturing plant, not a problem was to be found, not even a mouse, all thanks to a computerized maintenance management system. Holiday fables aside, there is a lesson to be learned in our ill-begotten holiday tale above. The right CMMS can indeed save your Thanksgiving. Don't believe me? Keep reading and learn, young grasshopper.
Reliability managers who work in a food production and manufacturing environment have to maintain a balance of uptime, efficiency, and heavy production levels while at the same time maintaining a high standard for quality control and food safety. After all, the public demands that their chicken nuggets be delicious and safe for consumption!
The role of a CMMS in helping you meet these exacting standards cannot be overstated. Below, we will discuss how a CMMS benefits food manufacturing and food processing plants and how it can help maintenance managers sleep a little easier, especially around the busy holiday season.
One key area where maintenance software can really benefit reliability managers is production levels. Because CMMSes help you track your preventative maintenance and proactive maintenance strategies, you will have more control over how efficient your equipment runs and how smooth your process flow is. This, in turn, will lead to equipment that runs better and outputs more products, a very important factor in the food and beverage industry!
Another area we tend to neglect (but certainly shouldn't) is energy consumption and energy waste. As machinery wears down and maintenance is neglected, machines tend to require more energy to operate and can quickly become energy hogs, zapping electricity and gas as well as your company"s profit margins. By tracking your equipment"s performance and your workers" PM plans/issued work orders, you have the ability to make sure this scenario does not occur, all thanks to our friend the CMMS.
From a food safety standpoint, maintenance software can also prove invaluable. Consider this: If the equipment you use to cook, sanitize, or store food at a given temperature is not running properly, how can you expect or guarantee that the food your plant prepares will be safe for human consumption? There are many families that will be enjoying the bevy of roasted turkeys, mashed potatoes, and wholesome vegetables (mmm, vegetables!) your plant is likely providing: You don't want to ruin their Thanksgiving (or worse). Again, a CMMS helps you keep track of the status of your machinery, and therefore, it helps you control the quality of food entering and exiting your building.
Finally, there is always room for improvement. Maintenance management software is great at helping you identify key areas that you and your staff can improve upon. For instance, maybe your food packaging line is not as streamlined as it could be. By analyzing the flow process and studying reports your CMMS can provide, you can pinpoint areas of improvement and look to achieve the same (or better) packaging goals with less effort. That, in turn, increases revenue, ramps up production, and reduces energy costs.
And that, my friend, is how the right CMMS can help save your Thanksgiving!