Highways, airlines, telephone networks, and the internet have helped us to gain easy access to different locations. 

This enabled businesses to operate from multiple locations. They were able to take advantage of the benefits offered by different locations to expand and support their business. But this comes with a fair bit of challenges.

Maintenance tracking for sustainability

Today we are facing global challenges due to the type of energy we use and the way we use energy. Proper tracking and management of maintenance not only saves costs, it also helps to use energy efficiently. Well-maintained equipment consumes energy efficiently. Tracking activities also creates a large pool of data which can be used for various other purposes. 

An obvious solution is to track the energy sources used at different business locations. Moving more activity to locations that use cleaner energy. Similarly, operations and maintenance of machines can also be optimized for conserving energy. Such efforts are cumbersome when the business has different locations. Traditional tools also make it difficult. With asset tracking using modern tools, artificial intelligence can be employed to calculate complex optimization problems. AI tools can also be used to determine the proper allocation of production with the aim of using less unclean energy, without interrupting regular operations.

Challenges for multi location businesses

Working across geographies has obvious challenges like geographical challenges, differing local regulations, and multiple cultures. Even with the infrastructure and technology supporting multi location businesses. Along with that, the company also has to face operational challenges. 

These include:

• Internal communication: Though technology enables communication between locations, it is not as efficient as in-person communication at a single location. Bridging the communication gap between different locations is a huge challenge.
• Time zone: When the different locations are in different time zones, ‌coordination and communication between locations becomes complex. Internal communication challenges are also exacerbated, with locations falling into different time zones.
• Customer service: All departments of the business will not be available at every location. This can pose customer service challenges in some locations of the business.
• Performance management: Tracking and monitoring performance of operations and employees from different locations is difficult.

Maintenance

On top of the challenges mentioned is the challenge of maintenance. Though not a daily activity, maintenance is a critical activity in business operations. Having dedicated maintenance staff at all locations of a business is not feasible. Different machines and layouts at different locations make asset maintenance difficult. Having a dedicated maintenance team at every location escalates operative and employee costs.

Businesses can choose to opt for managed maintenance. But such companies need not have service across all locations of your business. Some businesses have maintenance services provided by OEMs. They also might not service ‌all locations. Employee and raw material costs could also be differ place to place, adding to maintenance challenges.

Effective management of maintenance costs

The maintenance challenges of multi-location businesses add to the maintenance costs. The primary step to managing maintenance costs is in tracking them. For a multi location business, this is only possible with the help of cloud-based software. All modern computerized maintenance management systems (CMMS) support cloud functionality. For every modern business, having a cloud-based CMMS solution is an absolute necessity. It not only tracks maintenance activities, but also helps to improve business operations.

Businesses must take a look at the different locations they have and choose a mix of maintenance methods. This mix should include its own maintenance team, maintenance from the OEM, and managed maintenance. It should consider factors such as maintenance costs, availability, and uptime requirements at each location.

Predictive maintenance and maintenance automation has to be inculcated in the maintenance plans. This helps to avoid any unexpected downtime and reduce maintenance costs. Tight integration of accounting and finance software is also effective in tracking and managing maintenance costs. Analytics is also another avenue to be explored. Not just the maintenance activities, but maintenance costs also have to be analyzed with optimization functions to minimize costs.

A stitch in time

When a business adds a location to its roster, maintenance activity has to be part of the planning and design phase. This helps to create and maintain systems that help to reduce maintenance costs. When maintenance is tacked on to another plan, maintenance is bound to prove costly. Use cloud-based tools to manage and track maintenance activities and cost. Relying on technology is quintessential for management of multi location business.

Bryan Christiansen is the founder and CEO of Limble CMMS. Limble is a modern, easy-to-use mobile CMMS software that takes the stress and chaos out of maintenance by helping managers organize, automate, and streamline their maintenance operations.

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