Set SMART Maintenance Goals: How to Reach Your Maintenance Goals With a CMMS

This is a guest blog by Lindsay Walker

Maintenance Goals

Keeping equipment and resources in good shape is a major part of running a business smoothly. Maintenance management is all about making sure everything works as it should, avoiding unnecessary downtime, and getting the most out of your resources. However, setting clear goals for your maintenance team can feel like a challenge, especially if youโ€™re working with limited staff, outdated tools, or stretched resources.

The best way to tackle this challenge is to set SMART goals โ€” goals that are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. These types of goals give you a clear direction and make it easier to track progress.

A well-organized maintenance plan can help minimize breakdowns, improve reliability, and keep operations steady. Itโ€™s not just about fixing things when they break โ€” itโ€™s about creating a strategy that helps prevent problems before they happen.

Maintenance Goals

In this article, weโ€™ll explore how using computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) software can support your maintenance goals and make it easier to achieve them. Whether itโ€™s scheduling tasks, tracking performance, or reducing downtime, CMMS tools can simplify your maintenance efforts and help you stay on track.

Are Your Goals SMART?

Before setting goals, letโ€™s take a moment to think about what makes a good goal. Whether you create them yourself or receive them from management, goals should be practical and actionable rather than vague or unrealistic.

One helpful method for creating goals is the SMART framework. Letโ€™s break down how it works:

  • Specific: Your goal should be clear and focused, leaving no room for confusion. Ask yourself exactly what you want to accomplish and why it matters.
  • Measurable: There should be a way to track progress. A measurable goal allows you to see how far youโ€™ve come and what still needs to be done.
  • Achievable: The goal should be realistic enough to accomplish but still push you to grow. It should feel challenging without being impossible.
  • Relevant: The goal should matter and align with your overall responsibilities or priorities. It should be something worth your time and effort.
  • Time-bound: Every goal should have a timeline. Setting a deadline helps you stay on track and adds a sense of urgency to your efforts.

While not every goal will perfectly fit into this framework, using these elements can help you create goals that are well-thought-out and meaningful. It also gives you a way to review your current goals and adjust them if needed.

Why SMART Goals Matter for Maintenance Management

Maintenance often gets viewed as an area where companies can cut costs. This leads to smaller budgets, fewer staff, and more work on older equipment. As a result, it can be tough to keep things running smoothly.

Using SMART goals helps focus maintenance efforts and ensures that resources are used wisely to support larger company objectives. By setting clear, manageable goals, maintenance teams can prioritize tasks and work more efficiently. Over time, as maintenance costs decrease from reaching these goals, the savings can be put toward hiring more staff, buying tools, or improving equipment, making the whole process run better.

Maintenance Goals

Maintenance Goals

1. Focus on Planned Maintenance

One of the best practices in maintenance management is ensuring that most of your maintenance efforts are planned. Aim for around 80% of your maintenance to be proactive, with just 20% for fixing issues as they come up. This approach helps your equipment run smoothly most of the time while still leaving space for those unexpected breakdowns that are bound to happen. By staying ahead of issues with regular maintenance, you can create a more organized, less stressful environment. If you haven’t already, setting up preventive maintenance using a checklist could be a good place to start.

2. Boost Equipment Reliability

A major goal for many businesses is making their equipment more reliable and cutting down on unexpected failures. When equipment runs without frequent breakdowns, it helps meet production goals, keep sales steady, and ultimately improve the bottom line. To make this happen, most businesses turn to a preventive maintenance program, which involves regular tasks like inspections, lubrication, cleaning, and replacing parts that show signs of wear. These actions help technicians catch small issues before they become big problems, allowing you to schedule downtime when it works best for your production needs.

3. Reduce Unexpected Downtime

Unplanned downtime is costly. According to a Forbes report, industrial manufacturers lose about $50 billion each year due to things like missed sales, overtime pay to cover delays, and repair costs. To cut down on this, having a reliable system for maintaining equipment is crucial. A solid preventive maintenance plan is one of the most straightforward and affordable ways to reduce unplanned downtime. It just takes discipline and some forward-thinking to stay on top of routine maintenance, but the effort pays off by keeping your equipment in better shape and reducing costly breakdowns.

4. Reducing Work Order Backlog

Work orders can pile up quickly, especially when equipment breaks down unexpectedly or when there’s a rush to catch up after repairs. Another reason for this backlog is simply inefficiency in the maintenance process. To stay on top of things, facility managers should focus on improving regular maintenance routines and reducing equipment failures. By keeping operations running smoothly and addressing issues before they get worse, a business can stay on schedule and within budget, ensuring timely deliveries to customers.

5. Maximizing the Life of Equipment

Replacing equipment is expensive. Rather than rushing to buy new machines, most companies would prefer to get the most out of their current assets. By tracking performance and maintaining regular upkeep, organizations can extend the lifespan of their equipment. This approach saves money in the long run, as it helps avoid unnecessary replacements and ensures that assets are working at their full potential.

6. Keep Product Quality Consistent or Improve It

When your equipment is well-maintained, the quality of the products you make improves. Think of it like setting performance goals for the machines that produce your goods. Good maintenance goes beyond just preventing breakdowns. When the equipment is running smoothly, youโ€™ll see better product quality, happier customers, and higher sales.

7. Stay on Track With Regulations

For maintenance teams, following the rules is a big deal. There are lots of regulations they need to stick to, from OSHA guidelines to rules set by local, state, and federal authorities. In industries that are heavily regulated, like healthcare or food production, staying in line with these standards is important. This means making sure all maintenance work meets the specific rules set by organizations like the FDA or ISO. By keeping up with these requirements, businesses avoid penalties and stay in good standing when audits roll around.

Maintenance Goals Examples

Example 1: Reducing Equipment Downtime

In the next year, our goal is to cut down equipment failures by 30% to help boost production without raising costs. To achieve this, we will follow the preventive maintenance plan outlined in the operations manual for each machine. Every technician will be responsible for maintaining 11 pieces of equipment. Weโ€™ll keep track of how often equipment breaks down and how long it takes to fix it to see if the maintenance efforts are making a difference.

  • Specific: The goal is clearly defined, aiming for a 30% drop in equipment failures, with a clear plan to achieve this through scheduled maintenance.
  • Measurable: The success will be measured by tracking the number of equipment failures and downtime.
  • Achievable: The workload is realistic, with each technician assigned a manageable number of machines to maintain.
  • Relevant: This directly supports the companyโ€™s broader goal of increasing production efficiency without additional costs.
  • Time-bound: The target is set to be achieved within a year.

Example 2: Reducing Energy Usage

In line with the companyโ€™s push to cut down on its carbon footprint, the maintenance team aims to reduce energy usage by 15% over the next six months. Weโ€™ll adjust our work schedule so equipment doesnโ€™t have to run nonstop and make other energy-saving changes, like installing motion-sensor lights and raising the temperature by 2 degrees in the summer. Weโ€™ll check the impact of these changes by tracking our energy bills every month.

  • Specific: The goal is focused on reducing energy use by 15%, with specific actions outlined, such as adjusting work schedules and installing energy-saving features.
  • Measurable: Progress will be measured by reviewing monthly energy bills.
  • Achievable: The plan doesnโ€™t require extra resources โ€” just adjustments to current procedures.
  • Relevant: This aligns with the companyโ€™s overall goal of reducing its environmental impact.
  • Time-bound: The goal is set to be achieved in six months.

How to Reach Your Maintenance Goals With a CMMS

Reaching your maintenance goals starts with having the right tools in place, and a good CMMS (computerized maintenance management system) is one of the best ways to do this. A CMMS is designed to make maintenance tasks easier and more organized, helping businesses improve how they manage their equipment and maintenance activities. Hereโ€™s how it can help:

1. Organizing Equipment and Maintenance Tasks

A CMMS helps you keep track of everything โ€” your equipment, work orders, and scheduled maintenance. This makes it easier to automate tasks and stay on top of what needs to be done.

2. Centralizing Maintenance Schedules

With a CMMS, you can set up a single, organized schedule for maintaining all types of equipment, from machinery on the shop floor to HVAC systems, fire alarms, and more. This central schedule ensures everything gets the attention it needs when itโ€™s due.

3. Streamlining Maintenance Procedures

A CMMS can help you set up checklists and clear instructions for your team to follow. These guidelines cover everything from daily maintenance tasks to safety procedures, ensuring everyone knows what to do and when to do it.

4. Using Data to Track Progress

By collecting and analyzing data, a CMMS allows you to track your current maintenance goals and make improvements as needed. You can spot patterns, identify areas that need attention, and adjust your approach to make things run more smoothly.

5. Staying Compliant and Ready for Audits

A CMMS also helps you keep a digital record of all maintenance activities, which is useful for meeting local and federal regulations. These records are important if you ever need to undergo an audit or prove that you’re meeting compliance standards.

6. Managing Inventory and Vendors on the Go

With a CMMS, you can manage your spare parts inventory, order supplies, and even coordinate with vendors โ€” all from your mobile device. This makes it easier to stay on top of everything without being tied to a desk.

Setting clear maintenance goals and using the right system to manage them can have a big impact on your business. With a solid CMMS in place, you can make sure your team is well-equipped to meet those goals and keep your operations running smoothly.

Closing Thoughts

In the end, setting clear, manageable maintenance goals can make a difference in keeping things running smoothly. By using a CMMS, you can stay organized, reduce downtime, and get more out of your equipment. Itโ€™s all about staying ahead of issues and making smart choices that help your business thrive.

About the Author Lindsay Walker

Lindsay Walker is the marketing manager for NEXGEN, a Sacramento-based industry leader in designing advanced computerized maintenance management systems and asset management software tools for utilities, facilities, public works, manufacturing, and fleet industries.

In her free time, Lindsey enjoys traveling and reading, which allows her to gain new perspectives and inspiration for her work. She is committed to creating content that connects well with her readers, enhancing their digital experiences.

She contributes to magazines and blogs in the industry, such as MRO Magazine, Reliabilityweb, ReliablePlant, and many more.

We would love to hear any questions you might have or stories you might share about setting SMART maintenance goals.

Please leave your comments, feedback or questions in the section below.

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To your success,

Anthony Fasano, PE, LEED AP
Engineering Management Institute
Author ofย Engineer Your Own Success

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