Maintenance Terror!

I’ve never known a Finance Director or Comptroller to enjoy a business conversation with maintenance personnel. In fact, in my past life as an HVAC technician, I could feel the breeze of the comptroller fleeing their office long before I could make it within eyesight. I remember the terror and frustration in their eyes as I tried to answer what they thought was an easy question. It wasn’t until I was in their shoes in business that I experienced their irritation firsthand. Boy, was I sorry!

Why Can’t I Get A Straight Answer?

Technicians are… well technical. They are hired to communicate with machinery, not humans. But let’s face it, finance isn’t the easiest language to learn, either. Finance people and technicians may talk, but neither really understand each other.

Example: A Finance Director wants to know the operational condition of an asset so he or she can forecast the replacement cash flow: “Can you tell me if it is economically feasible to keep repairing this equipment and what is the replacement cost?”

The technician hears: “Why can’t you keep this asset running — what am I paying you for? When can we replace this asset so it doesn’t need repaired in order to get rid of you?”

The technician begins to prattle on about intricate detail and justification for their maintenance role. Even a well meaning technician will attempt to communicate the timing of when they think the asset will fail and what the real costs will be. Unfortunately, this comes out as “jargon, jargon, jargon, engineering detail, jargon, jargon, detail, detail, nauseating detail” giving the Finance Director a massive migraine. As a result, no one gets any closer to resolution.

Where Did We Go Wrong?

First, all parties seem to forget that we are not dealing with greasy, “nuisance” equipment, but we are managing revenue-generating fixed assets. If the fixed assets are not kept in peak operating condition, the business runs the risk of revenue loss.

Second, a technician whose day-to-day job centers around how many service request and maintenance items are completed is going to have a difficult time monetizing operations numbers. They are more familiar with item numbers of repair parts, time consumed during repair, what’s the utility’s consumption rate, etc. Calculating payback, return on investment, or any other financial measure is not an inherent skillset of maintenance technicians.

Finally, though the ultimate goal of business success is generally common ground, finance people and technicians define and measure success differently. Take, for instance, a commercial electrical bill with separate kW demand and consumption charges. To the Financial Director, increasing kWH consumption may lower the peak kW demand, therefore, producing a lower total cost — a financial success. In contrast: the maintenance technician knows that simply lowering the consumption (without regard to the total charge) is a measurable technical success. Their goals are not aligned.

The Solution

1.) Everyone from the filter changer to the CFO should know the value of each asset. This starts with the tangible replacement cost, but this should also include a revenue at risk indicator so that the asset’s importance to the revenue generation of the facility can be compared and prioritized. I’ve always found people pay more attention to items after they see a big dollar figure attached to it.

2.) All calculations and financial measures should be automatically set up using the raw data that the technician collects. This data becomes extremely useful when it is input into a common database that updates as the technician performs their duties. A simple heuristic algorithm (a quick, close approximation rather than a lengthy complex one) works best with age and life expectancy values. Assigning a multiple choice condition value that the technician can fill out each time constantly corrects the algorithm giving indication of whether you are on target or not.

3.) Synchronize all clocks. Everyone should use the same success metrics. If the goal is 10% utility cost reduction, the data collection system should be set up to generate a minute-by-minute or hourly cost clock. When everyone is on the same page, goals can be met.

Technology Is The Answer

The solution above assumes a mobile platform for the technicians and a cloud integration for the financial department. Metering and IoT (Internet of Things) monitors are required in order to produce a near real-time cost clock. Otherwise, this clock would be updated as meters are physically read. Nothing like closing the barn door after the horse runs out. Technology has to be implemented correctly to allow streamlined collaboration between these departments. I completely understand financial departments do not want to allow other departments into the internal financial reporting. However, without a certain amount of integrational transparency, the communication headaches will continue unchecked. The assets are the ones that ultimately suffer.

The inter-departmental translation system’s time is now. This is what we at ROI Numbers have built.