The importance of maintenance activity within a production lifecycle cannot be underestimated. Whether reactive, preventive, or predictive, maintenance activity should be well planned, and adequate resources need to be deployed for smooth functioning of your machines. In this perspective, organizations are more interested in knowing the value of their investments on their maintenance activities or more precisely the return on investment (RoI). RoI is an important metric that an organization uses to assess the value that they accrue out of their investment.
From a maintenance context, one metric that is frequently discussed is the wrench time that is used calculate the RoI on your maintenance activity. Wrench time refers to the time your technicians spend on repairing or inspecting the equipment from the total time available.
In this blog, we will understand wrench time is all about, why this metric is not a reliable parameter to assess your RoI, what other factors should be considered and how a mobile enterprise asset management (EAM) solution helps in improving the productivity and RoI.
As mentioned earlier, wrench time, also known as tool time, is a measure of the actual number of hours, your maintenance personnel are involved in productive tasks. Productive tasks here refer to repairs, inspections or servicing the equipment, but excludes the time spent on other, non-productive tasks like commuting to the job sites or attending meetings.
Though wrench time can be good metric to gauge the efficiency of a technician, it however, does not offer a comprehensive picture of your complete production activity. Let's take an example. Though a technician who might experience high wrench time, since he/she is involved in maintenance of a pump or motor for long hours may not guarantee timely completion of the tasks. This could be due to wrong planning or lack of right resources. Hence, wrench time can serve as one pointer of productivity only but doesn't provide a comprehensive or a reliable measure.
As discussed, wrench time is not a definitive measure and cannot be relied for calculation of RoI for several reasons that include:
To move beyond the wrench time to assess your RoI, take into consideration the following factors:
OEE is a metric that determines the efficiency of your manufacturing processes, taking into consideration various parameters like availability, performance efficiency and quality rate. When you concentrate your efforts more on OEE instead of relying more on wrench time, you can avoid challenges and optimize overall productivity.
TCO aggregates the overall costs related to acquiring and operating an asset over its lifecycle. This is a good measure to get an accurate metric of your investment potential rather than concentrating only on initial costs or wrench time.
Employee training and human resource management is also one of the key indicators to define your RoI related to your maintenance activities. When you suitably invest on training, your technicians can gain good skills and efficiency. With efficiency and skills, they are in a better position to properly maintain and repair the assets, thereby optimizing the productivity, positively impacting the RoI.
Predictive maintenance is gaining traction across all organizations. When you implement predictive maintenance by leveraging data analytics, you can predict failures beforehand. This way, you minimize unplanned downtime and optimize RoI, since you can efficiently distribute resources.
Propel Apps, a leading supply chain transformation company has developed a mobile EAM solution that transforms plant maintenance and asset management operations using Oracle EAM, SAP Plant Maintenance, design thinking, and enterprise mobile implementations. This solution offers real-time data access, streamlines workflows and fosters effective communication across all the team members of your maintenance team.
Apart from that, this solution offers data-driven insights by leveraging advanced technologies like AI and IoT that lets you track performance metrics and make informed decisions. This way, you can effectively allocate resources and minimize inefficiencies, supporting a superior maintenance planning and execution. To know more about this solution and how it can generate superior RoI on your mobile adoption, schedule a free demo with us.
Though wrench time can be attributed as a useful metric in assessing certain aspects of maintenance productivity, you cannot solely rely on this metric for generating the right RoI. By adopting a comprehensive approach considering other factors like OEE, TCO, employee training and predictive maintenance approaches, you can achieve a more accurate evaluation of your investments.
Statistics indicate that many organizations experience wrench times averaging between 25% and 35%, with those employing best practices achieving rates above 60%.
Moreover, adopting a mobile EAM solution like that offered by Propel Apps delivers better superior outcomes, positively impacting your RoI. Hence, it's time for you to adopt the right mobile EAM solution that works for you and your organization!
