This tip can save you money in the long run. Ensuring all equipment is maintained regularly will help it last longer. You already know this, of course, but make sure to provide clear guidelines to your employees if there are certain maintenance procedures that you’d like for them to perform, and give them some means of recording maintenance tasks for accountability. Something as simple as a checklist with tasks performed along with the date might be sufficient.
What is maintenance?
Well, like any concept in the business world, it can mean different things for different industries.
Regular maintenance for office workers might involve keeping computers, printers, and office spaces clean and functioning as they should, whereas maintenance at a restaurant is likely to involve keeping kitchen equipment clean and hazard-free, and bathrooms sanitary and ready for customers.
If you’re in the construction industry, you probably already have a maintenance schedule in place for your vehicles, but what about other tools and heavy equipment.
Employ Checklists
No need to reinvent the wheel. You may find checklists online that will meet your needs perfectly.
For example, the Municipal Technical Advisory Service at the University of Tennessee has published a very helpful checklist for maintaining a construction equipment maintenance record. If your business happens around desks and computers, Microsoft has a handy template for Excel that you can customize for basic maintenance tasks for the office (or other indoor workspaces.)
Know when it’s time for a replacement.
Even when you’ve maintained equipment carefully and it’s still in good working condition, it can still be a good idea to update it if newer equipment will mean greater speed and efficiency, or even greater safety, in getting a job done. You obviously don’t want to burden your company’s bottom line with massive debt if you’re not in a position to upgrade to the latest, greatest equipment, but it may be a viable option if you sell your still-functioning, used equipment in good condition and use the funds to go towards buying new equipment.
A couple of examples might be updating a computer that is running an operating system past its prime. In some cases, software manufacturers stop releasing updates on older products, so it might actually be dangerous for your data to replace your equipment ”” particularly since there’s a good likelihood that if you’re running an OS that’s that old, it’s unlikely your computer will have the required processor speed and memory requirements to smoothly run one of the latest operating systems. Not to mention, if you’re spending a third of your day just waiting for the little hourglass icon on your computer to load things, it’s probably time for an upgrade.
Another example might be if you have a business in which employees drive company vehicles to deliver merchandise to customers. If you can afford it, it might be worth your while to upgrade to vehicles with rear cameras or other safety features that will help your driving employees prevent accidents. The upfront cost of the upgrades could save you a pile of money on down the road if it keeps someone from being injured or a vehicle from getting wrecked.
You can get started today.
Have you seen some ideas here that might be worth implementing in your business? No need to wait.
Get started today by jotting down some ideas to create maintenance checklist(s) for your unique type of business.
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