Some equipment repairs may involve considerable research just to identify the problem.
When downtime costs $450,000 an hour, you don’t want your techs trying to find phone numbers or websites. So identify which failures of critical equipment fall outside of generic repair ability. For each asset, gather “repair useful” information; add that to the asset entry in the computerized maintenance management system (CMMS). Consider adding the following:
- Manufacturer’s phone number, preferably with the name and direct number of the support engineer.
- Technical support URLs (e.g., manufacturer’s website).
- The complete library of related technical bulletins, tip sheets, and other information the manufacturer has issued.
- Contact information for any local support services that may be needed to expedite repairs.
If the equipment is critical, contact the manufacturer’s support engineer and ask for a Skype address you can use in case a video support call will be needed. That will be one less thing to set up during an emergency. If the support engineer doesn’t have a Skype address for this purpose, ask to have one set up and stress that your company loses money every minute this equipment is down.
It may also be helpful to create an information packet on paper and store it near the equipment.
