Maintenance technicians face innumerable challenges every day- missing parts, cost overruns, backlogs, and breakdowns. Increasingly, asset-intensive industries have been turning to technologies in their effort to increase the reliability and availability of their equipment, while keeping maintenance costs under control. Using digital tools and advanced analytics capabilities alongside traditional lean techniques, they aim to predict and prevent equipment failures, increase labor productivity, and streamline the management of external contractors. While this might sound like a mammoth task in itself, the best part is that your organization might not necessarily need multiple tools to accomplish this. By deploying a robust software application, the individual modules would be able to handle almost all the operational maintenance problems which your technicians and service agents often grapple with.
Now the software suite to tackle these maintenance, repair, and operations issues could often be tempted to think that we are talking about the CMMS or the EAM solution. Interestingly, No-Code MRO has is fast emerging as the preferred option for companies looking for maintenance, repair, and operations for their asset-intensive operations. If you want to know more about how the No-Code MRO alternative compares to either CMMS or EAM, this would be an interesting read.
Through the course of this article, we attempt to outline some of the key pointers one should keep in mind while considering adopting the No-Code way to digitalizing maintenance operations.
Customization- With a new system comes new processes, and while it’s important to make sure your workflows are updated to make the most of your software application, it is seldom the case. Items such as entering work order information, automating routine tasks, and incorporating the system into maintenance planning should be worked into your maintenance processes, which are often unique to your organization or your industry. Failing to implement these workflows or job templates may indeed lead to your maintenance team abandoning your new software and reverting to less effective processes.
Hence you must understand your industry’s specific needs and have the job template tailored to fit that requirement. Understandably, an out-of-the-box MRO solution might not be the best alternative in this case. A No-Code-based MRO application would not just help you customize key aspects of the software solution to the exact needs of the organization, but also allow you to be on top of any process alternations which you might need going into the future.
Modularity (ability to progressively implement one module at a time)- Companies have often struggled with getting their software implementation right. Since it’s extremely difficult to digitize operations effectively. A company needs to invest—massively—in change management, new technical skill sets, cross-functional collaboration, strategic investments, and access to pricey talent. It must also evaluate a daunting array of new technologies which each needing stakeholder change management, training, and deployment. The entire digital transformation could be daunting that it could leave some of the most capable managers feeling overwhelmed. This is where the modularity of your MRO suite comes into the picture. By progressively implementing one module at a time, the champion can chunk the mammoth transformation initiatives into smaller and achievable milestones which could be achieved. It would also be helpful to showcase the progress to executive management and have their buy-in on the implementation of the next modules. By ensuring a modular adoption, the organization can manage the entire transformation by milestones and have all the key stakeholders on board with the direction the teams intend to execute.
Easy onboarding and end-user training and support- When a new asset comes to a facility, maintenance staff need to be trained on usage and maintenance tasks. The same is true of MRO software, but research suggests that most organizations continue to overlook this step. Training should not be a one-time thing either; continuous training is incredibly important, especially if a modular roll-out of the MRO software is planned. When an organization skimps on training, maintenance staff won’t know how to use the system that’s supposed to make their jobs easier. Illustrating the purpose of your software will help head off any misconceptions that may arise concerning its intended usage. It’s also vital to get employee buy-in. By showing how the application will make their jobs easier, you will get the support you need to make sure they use the new software properly.
Integration and automation- By integrating the MRO Suite with the core systems like accounting and ERP, brings everyone on the same unified platform and would facilitate the flow of data and information between systems. Being a single and fully integrated system helps in reducing the time and effort applied for getting a job done. With the proper categorization of tasks, it saves the facility managers from wandering and keeping away the redundancy. The entire idea of the integration with Core systems is that the MRO suite becomes a part of the organization’s larger digital ecosystem and would help in furthering the organization’s digital transformation objectives.
Intuitive UX for technicians and other end-users: With software applications that cater to technicians or other end-users, easy navigation of robust platforms is critical to business success. The MRO application with poor UX creates barriers to adoption among technicians, making it very likely that employees abandon the application if it’s not intuitive. Poor UX, no matter how feature reaches the application is, creates inefficiencies in processes, and slower, more time-consuming processes don’t empower employees to do their best work. This results in significant lost ROI that could be avoided with great UX. UX optimizes every touchpoint of the user journey, regardless of the scenario UX is improving. Efficient UX is seamless, invisible; you only notice the UX is bad when it is broken. While deciding your preferred MRO application you might want to deploy for the organization, a good UX (apart from the modules and features) would be a critical factor in weighing options between different product vendors for enterprises.
Scalability - Ideally, the no-code application platform you should choose must allow for any scalability requirements your organization might have in the future. This implies that it should have features that allow built-in automated testing, proactive quality monitoring, and real-time performance management. Ideally, you should be looking for solutions that allow for rapid and continuous provisioning, deployment, instant scalability, and maximum utilization of resources. Verify whether the platform supports building custom software stacks and deploying microservices-based apps and orchestrates IT infrastructure effectively to ensure optimum scalability.
QuickReach - The no-code way to digitalize maintenance operations
The MRO Suite is built on top of QuickReach's proprietary No-Code platform uses pre-built templates which you can easily configure to launch custom applications in a matter of minutes that fit like a glove. The QuickReach No-Code MRO Suite has several modules which would cater to various aspects of digitalizing maintenance operations. The modules in the Quickreach No-Code solution include work order management, inventory management, preventive maintenance, AI predictive maintenance, dashboards and reports, and the purchase requisition module. These modules allow companies like yourself to bid goodbye to unnecessary paperwork through faster scheduling, greater control over costs, and a crystal-clear visibility of the entire asset management & equipment maintenance operations.
Connect with one of QuickReach's customer success teams HERE for a demo to gain an overview of how QuickReach No-Code MRO suite is the ideal way to digitalize maintenance operations.