May 20, 2024
5 Maintenance Management Skills for Success in 2024
With every passing year the landscape of maintenance management changes. New technologies, new ideas, and new methodologies experimented with. However, the skills to oversee these changes—and be successful, seem to be foundational. In this article, let's explore five maintenance management skills for success in 2024 and beyond.
Why are maintenance management skills needed?
A better question is: What happens when a company lacks quality maintenance management skills? All businesses and all parts of a business need organization. Whether for a retail shop, an accounting firm, or a company's maintenance department, success comes with excellent managers. With maintenance, in particular, you're covering assets, inventory, work orders, and cost-saving.
Necessary maintenance skills.
I'll skip the obvious skill of technical know-how. That should be a given. He or she needs the experience of working with assets and inventory, the mechanical know-how.
A general heading of leadership skills includes:
Communication Skills:
You might argue that this is the only skill needed. Quality communications. This area covers so much. It acts as a foundation for every other skill.
Communications come in varying forms. Verbal, written, body language, email, or phone etiquette. It lends to a productive work environment and good relationships.
Effective maintenance managers communicate with upper management, employees, vendors, and stakeholders. Clear and concise communication is essential for conveying information, instructions, and expectations. Active listening, an integral part of effective communication, fosters a culture of respect, trust, and transparency within the team.
Maintenance managers constantly must work to improve communication skills for success.
Problem-Solving Skills:
Issues arise every day on the job. They include planning and scheduling, labor availability, inventory oversight, and priority.
Finding and implementing solutions to these challenges are part of ensuring operations stay organized and productive.
Maintenance managers need to solve present issues and anticipate future problems. For these, they'll establish measures to forestall or solve the issues before they occur.
Maintenance managers can enhance this skill by reaching outside the box, brainstorming ideas with coworkers, and trying new methodologies.
Time Management:
You have multiple projects, routine preventive maintenance tasks, and meetings. Other activities to occupy your time include upcoming deadlines, backlogged work orders, delayed inventory, and so much more. How well you prioritize and use your time is a key maintenance management kill for success.
Part of this skill is delegating and not losing sight of schedules (but being flexible to adapt to changes).
You're striving for improved productivity and efficiency. Learn when to say no to extra work, keep reminders in sight, take breaks as needed, and stay accountable to others.
Coaching & Mentoring:
One of your roles as a maintenance manager is to see the growth of the team members under you. You have to be aware of your labor force's success. Does anyone need extra training? What problems do coworkers bring to your office?
You have to guide workers, provide substantive feedback, acknowledge real effort, and celebrate success.
Review the point about quality communications. See how important that skill is in this particular role. Proper assistance ensures success for your department and everyone who works in it.
This means understanding different methods of training people. Some are visual, and some take verbal directions and run with them. Some need hands-on experience. Observe, praise, adjust, observe, praise, etc.
Decisiveness:
This fifth maintenance management skill for success could be part of the problem-solving point. As an effective leader, you could choose to discuss challenges with others. Or, you may take them on yourself.
Either way, there comes a time when you deliver a decision. "This is what we're going to do and how we're going to do it."
You gather as much relevant information as you can. You analyze the what-ifs of each decision. Then you analyze the what-ifs two or more steps down the line. Then you make a decision and stand by it.
You can find more details on other leadership skills at Coursera.
Conclusion:
For maintenance management skills to succeed in 2024 and for years to come, you need constant analysis. The foundation of the above five skills won't change. The intricacies of how you use them will. These skills not only ensure individual excellence but also contribute to the overall success of the organization.
For excellence in maintenance management systems, look no further than Mapcon Technologies. For over forty years, they've developed a superior CMMS. 800-922-4336