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Try for freeKey Takeaways:
- Workers across industries agree that training boosts their performance and confidence.
- Tracking work orders is the most time-consuming task in facilities management.
- Companies that overmaintain their assets risk damage and operational disruption.
Maintenance inefficiencies often hide in plain sight, draining your time, money, and team morale.
Luckily, there is a fix.
So, if you’re ready to transform your maintenance operations from reactive to highly productive, keep reading.
In this article, we’ll explore five keys to unlocking higher operational efficiency, cutting costs, and empowering your maintenance personnel to tackle any challenge that comes their way.
Effective Employee Skill Development
Your maintenance productivity is directly tied to the efficiency and capabilities of your staff.
When your maintenance personnel have the right technical knowledge, safety awareness, and diagnostic skills, they can perform their jobs more effectively and safely.
That’s where you come in, ensuring they receive all the hands-on training, simulations, and certifications they need to thrive.
Here’s how that helps with your maintenance productivity:
| Faster Repairs | Skilled technicians can diagnose and fix issues more quickly |
| Fewer Errors | Proper training minimizes mistakes, rework, and potential equipment damage |
| Better Use of Tools | Well-trained employees use diagnostic tools, software, and modern equipment more effectively. |
SurveyMonkey research shows that even employees recognize the true value of skill development.
As it turns out, 59% of workers across industries say job training improves their overall performance, while 41% report improved time-management skills.
Additionally, 51% believe training boosts their self-confidence, another important factor in carrying out tasks accurately and independently.
That said, you may find it difficult to determine how to ensure adequate training without wasting too many resources.
After all, your time and money are finite. You want to make sure they are properly allocated.
Ashley Donohoo, Sales and Marketing Director at Multi-Skill Training Services, a company offering customized, targeted maintenance training, offers this advice:
In other words, you need to determine what skills are mission-critical within your organization and focus only on those.
From there, you’ll want to assess individual skill levels.
This will enable you to place workers in training that fits their current capabilities.
Donohoo explains:
“We want to meet them where they’re at.”
Avoiding a one-size-fits-all mindset will ensure you don’t waste time on something they already know or aren’t ready to tackle.
With such a customized approach, you gain a much clearer understanding of your team’s and your company’s requirements.
In turn, you become much better equipped to meet those needs.
Efficient Communication
In addition to proper training, your workers must be able to communicate clearly and efficiently throughout every shift.
Most organizations already understand this to some extent.
According to the 2024 Grammarly survey, 64% of business leaders report that effective communication directly boosts productivity.
This isn’t surprising at all.
Clear, timely, and accurate information sharing between teams, shifts, and departments helps prevent unnecessary back-and-forth, misunderstandings, delays, and rework.
However, achieving that kind of seamless communication doesn’t happen by chance. It takes the right tools.
With digitized, centralized systems, you enable real-time information exchange and ensure that everyone is on the same page at all times.
Take work orders—the heart of maintenance workflows and productivity.
Without a solid work order (WO) system, teams waste hours chasing down info, fixing preventable mistakes, or simply trying to figure out what needs to happen next.
The 2024 JLL Technologies survey backs this up, revealing that 44% of facilities managers say tracking work order progress is their most time-consuming task.
That’s because manual WO processes don’t support effective communication.
They make it difficult to understand who has to do what, by when, or even how.
With a centralized WO system, on the other hand, technicians and supervisors can instantly assign tasks, monitor status updates, and track progress, as shown in the example below:
Everybody is kept in the loop without relying on multiple phone calls, emails, or trips to the office.
Technicians can use these digital tools to share real-time updates, ask for support, and coordinate activities even when off-site.
This enables them to keep the work moving, no matter where they are.
In short, efficient communication is non-negotiable for those who want to boost their maintenance productivity.
When the right information reaches the right people at the right time, you minimize downtime, reduce errors, streamline workflows, and ultimately work smarter.
Strategic Maintenance Planning
Effective maintenance planning ensures each asset gets timely and appropriate care without wasting resources on unnecessary repairs.
This is the best way to maximize equipment performance and reduce unscheduled downtime.
In fact, research consistently shows that those who implement proactive maintenance strategies experience significantly fewer defects and reduced equipment downtime.
That’s because frequent inspections and minor routine repairs help catch small issues before they escalate into major failure—a strategy known as preventive maintenance.
However, remember that there is such a thing as too much maintenance. This can be just as damaging as neglecting upkeep altogether.
Tien Ha, Associate Expert at Hanwha Corporation, a major South Korean conglomerate spanning industries from explosives and energy to aerospace and finance, cautions:
That’s why strategic planning matters.
Not all equipment needs the same level of attention.
Some assets are mission-critical and expensive. Some aren’t.
So, here’s a quick rundown of different maintenance types and when to use each:
| Reactive Maintenance | Performed only after the equipment fails. | For low-cost, non-critical assets where downtime is acceptable (e.g., lightbulbs, garden tools) |
| Time-Based Maintenance | Scheduled at fixed intervals regardless of condition. | For assets with predictable wear patterns (e.g., HVAC filters, vehicle oil changes) |
| Usage-Based Maintenance | Triggered by actual equipment use or runtime. | For assets with variable workloads (e.g., forklifts, production robots) |
| Condition-Based Maintenance | Initiated when indicators show signs of wear or failure. | For high-value or complex assets where monitoring is feasible (e.g., turbines, elevators) |
| Criticality-Based Maintenance | Prioritized by the asset’s role in operations and risk of failure. | For systems with high safety, environmental, or financial stakes (e.g., hospital generators, fire suppression systems) |
| Seasonality-Based Maintenance | Aligned with environmental conditions or seasonal demand. | For climate-sensitive equipment (e.g., snowplows, irrigation systems, HVAC units) |
Yes, you read that right: even reactive maintenance has its place, though it should be used sparingly and strategically.
Ultimately, a one-size-fits-all maintenance plan never works.
Take the time to understand what each asset needs, build your plan around that, and you’ll keep everything running smoothly, without overspending or overmaintaining.
Smart Lifecycle Management
Deciding whether to repair or replace an asset improves maintenance productivity.
On one hand, clinging to outdated, unreliable equipment can drain resources, increase maintenance costs, and slow your team down.
On the other hand, you don’t want to retire a machine that still has life left in it and continues to generate value.
That’s why productive businesses lean into strategic lifecycle tracking and management.
You gain a full picture of your assets’ performance and risk by keeping an up-to-date asset registry, complete with all key details like age, service history, condition, and technical specs.
You can see an example of such a registry below:
With that insight, you can perform effective lifecycle cost analysis and decide where to invest your maintenance resources.
At Bruneel Point S Tire & Auto, a 12-store chain based in Boise, Idaho, this is exactly how they manage shop equipment like tire changers, balancers, and vehicle lifts.
They continuously monitor equipment performance and identify repair needs to guide their decisions.
Craig Bruneel, President of the company, explains:
If a manager thinks it might be time to replace instead of repair, the request goes to corporate for a full review before any green light is given.
It’s a process that balances logic, cost, and long-term value.
If you are currently unsure about some of your assets, take a look at the simple cheat sheet below. It might help you make a decision.
Repair If:
- Repair costs are significantly lower than replacement costs
- Spare parts and support are readily available
- Failures are infrequent or isolated
- Downtime impact is minimal
- Equipment is relatively new
Replace If:
- Repair costs are 50–70% (or more) of replacement cost
- Efficiency and performance have noticeably declined
- Equipment has reached or exceeded its useful life
- Compliance or safety is compromised
- Equipment is technologically obsolete
- Breakdowns are frequent
By investing a little extra effort in lifecycle optimization, you can ensure that your maintenance efforts are focused on areas that will provide the most value.
Because knowing when not to repair an asset is just as important as knowing when to repair it.
Process Automation
Those who successfully implement automation can coordinate the many moving parts of a business process, and in some cases, even integrate multiple processes into a unified workflow.
This is known as process orchestration, and it brings significant productivity gains.
For instance, a 2025 Camunda survey found that 44% of companies saw a boost in process standardization and efficiency as a direct result of process orchestration.
Additionally, 42% reported faster decision-making.
In terms of maintenance in particular, many automation tools help unlock such benefits.
Let’s explore some of them.
Firstly, IoT sensors are game-changers when it comes to real-time condition monitoring.
They can track asset temperature, vibration, humidity, pressure, and more, detecting anomalies that could indicate early signs of failure.
Bryan Siafakas, Director of Product Management at DwyerOmega, a manufacturer of tools for measuring pressure, air velocity, flow, and more, praises the technology:
Ultimately, IoT enables faster issue detection and resolution while minimizing unnecessary inspections.
It’s perfect for just-in-time or condition-based maintenance.
Secondly, IoT sensors are often paired with digital twin technology, which creates a real-time virtual replica of physical assets.
This tech allows you to simulate various strategies on the digital twin before applying any changes to the real asset.
Lelio Di Martino, General Manager at Nokia, explains that this significantly improves decision-making:
“The primary role of digital twins […] is to offer AI-powered data correlation, quantifying and predicting the impact of operational decisions across various dimensions to achieve planned business goals […].”
As a result, you minimize trial-and-error and benefit from more accurate maintenance planning.
Lastly, let’s talk about Computerized Maintenance Management Systems (CMMS).
They have been around for some time, unlike the previous two technologies, though they’ve evolved significantly.
Take our own CMMS, WorkTrek, for example.
It digitizes, organizes, and automates all important aspects of maintenance, including:
| Asset Management | Access detailed asset metadata, track downtime, and monitor asset conditions using meter readings |
| Inventory Management | Standardize parts tracking across unlimited warehouses, receive low-stock alerts, and integrate with ERP systems |
| Preventive Maintenance Scheduling | Schedule recurring tasks based on time intervals or usage criteria (e.g., mileage, temperature). Set up automatic workflows in response to failed inspections |
| Reporting | Choose from 50+ customizable reports or schedule them for automatic delivery via email |
Most importantly, WorkTrek automates work order management.
You can create, assess, prioritize, track, and record all work from a single platform—anytime, anywhere.
With customizable fields, all key data is captured consistently.
As shown in the example below, technicians have everything they need, including task descriptions, photos, step-by-step instructions, and necessary parts.
No more missing information, confusion, or miscommunication.
Overall, a CMMS is ideal for automating the repetitive, time-consuming, low-value tasks and boosting accuracy and efficiency.
As a result, your team gets more time to focus on what truly matters: delivering high-quality maintenance work and helping you get the most out of your valuable assets.
Conclusion
There are no shortcuts when it comes to maintenance productivity.
It’s all about intention, precision, and the right tools in the right hands.
In other words, if you want real results, you must commit and invest in your people, processes, technology, and assets.
The payoff is well worth it.
Greater productivity leads to higher profitability, cost savings, and the agility to adapt to rapid technological change in the maintenance industry.
Put simply, better maintenance means better business.
