Embrace the Future of Maintenance with Aetos Operate

While the general public admires the external appearance of large buildings, facility managers and those intimately connected with the built environment focus on the intricate workings within.

Behind the scenes, facility and maintenance personnel diligently work to ensure seamless operations, unwavering system reliability, and the prolonged life cycle of assets within the structure.

Inevitably, equipment errs and machinery malfunctions, leaving Facilities Managers (FMs) with the task of providing a solution for their assets and workers. Various systems are currently in place for troubleshooting and getting a facility operating at optimum performance.

Organizations around the world are being asked to solve more complex problems with less support: like cutting energy use across a portfolio or training new staff without having enough critical data or operational clarity to execute. 

The Importance of Preventative Maintenance

The age-old challenge of efficiently managing maintenance tasks while minimizing downtime persists. Again, organizations and their teams are asked to do more with less. Non-productive spans can be a significant variable in the overall equation of resource allocation and operational optimization.

Preventative Maintenance (PM) involves regular, planned maintenance activities aimed at mitigating breakdowns and failures of equipment. The goal is to keep assets in optimum operating condition and extend their useful life. Effective PM aims to reduce the need for corrective maintenance and the costs associated with equipment downtime. 

In industries like healthcare, manufacturing, and commercial real estate, preventative maintenance can be crucial for not only sustaining operations but also ensuring safety and compliance with various regulations. The best FMs have strong, systematic strategies for effectively addressing and maintaining PM tasks.

PM has become an essential part of facilities management; preventive maintenance should be viewed as both a standard operating procedure within the built environment, as well as treated as an investment in the equipment, systems, assets, and facilities that utilize PM.

The All-Too-Common Obstacles of PM

Several roadblocks and preconceived issues can hinder the successful implementation and execution of preventative maintenance. After discussing with multiple FMs regarding preventative maintenance challenges, here are the top impediments expressed:

Lack of Comprehensive Data: Without detailed data on equipment history, usage patterns, and failure rates, it's challenging to develop a more predictive and effective PM schedule.

Inadequate Resources: This can include a shortage of trained personnel, insufficient budget allocation for maintenance activities, or lack of necessary tools and equipment.

Poor Communication: Inconsistent communication between departments or teams can yield missed maintenance schedules or overlapping tasks.

Outdated Technology: Relying on outdated management systems or manual tracking can lead to inefficiencies, missed schedules, and increased chances of error. This makes FM jobs harder and more frustrating.

Lack of Training: A huge problem on the horizon, yet already here throughout the built environment. Maintenance personnel need ongoing training on the latest equipment, technologies, and best practices to ensure they can carry out PM tasks effectively. 

Resistance to Change: Established organizations may resist adopting new technologies or methods, preferring to stick to traditional maintenance routines, even if they are less efficient, potentially to the detriment of their facility and equipment.

Complexity of Modern Equipment: As equipment becomes more technologically advanced, the skills and knowledge required to maintain them also increase, making tasks more complex.

Inconsistent Documentation: Without standardized documentation procedures, it can be challenging to ensure all personnel are working with the latest and most accurate information. 

Failure to Prioritize: Some business entities don't prioritize PM, seeing it as an unnecessary expense, until a significant breakdown occurs, which often results in higher costs in the long run. This could easily become a fatal flaw in operational efficiency.

Reactive Mindset: A few FMs reported that their company waits for things to break before fixing them, rather than anticipating and preventing potential problems. It’s clear to see how this is problematic when managing any type and size of facility.

Inventory Challenges: Not having the necessary replacement parts on hand can delay maintenance activities. Conversely, overstocking can tie up funds and result in waste if parts become obsolete.

Regulatory and Compliance Issues: In some sectors, PM activities must comply with regulations. Keeping up with these regulations and ensuring compliance can be challenging to implement.

Cost Concerns: Some management teams are hesitant to invest in PM because they see it as an upfront cost, not realizing the long-term savings from avoiding major breakdowns and extending equipment life. Many FMs know that investing in effective PM measures gives a company incredible ROI on equipment, energy-savings, and even retaining facility personnel.

It’s clear to see how organizations struggle with tackling PM effectively. To try to solve these obstacles, FMs start to mix-and-match their softwares and systems, leading to a disparate assortment of tools and creating complexity rather than streamlining operations.

Aetos Replaces Roadblocks with Clarity & Confidence

With Aetos Imaging, which implements a Visual Maintenance Management System (VMMS) for facilities management, many of these challenges can be alleviated. 

By using 3D scanning, AI-driven analytics, and immersive training modules, Aetos helps FMs unlock a broader perspective when managing their building. Aetos does the heavy lifting: gathering comprehensive data, housing virtual training modules, ensuring accurate documentation – and more – yielding more efficiency, productivity, facility understanding, and confidence.

Preventative Maintenance is now embedded in one all-inclusive digital home with Operate, Aetos’ powerful platform. Organizations and their facilities are complex; there’s incredible opportunity for optimized operations with a visualized platform that has site-specific training, collaboration, data aggregation, PM scheduling, and task management. 

How Exactly Does Aetos Operate Assist FMs? 

Asset Management: Aetos provides a 360-degree view of all assets in a facility through its advanced 3D scanning. This creates a 'digital twin' of the physical space, enabling real-time remote inspection and analysis. Furthermore, by digitizing assets, facilities can easily (and visibly) track maintenance schedules, asset lifespan, and potential vulnerabilities.

Immersive Training: Aetos offers virtual, immersive training modules specifically tailored to your assets and systems. This ensures that personnel is well-equipped not just to perform maintenance tasks but to understand why they are crucial for sustainability and operational efficiency. Leveraging site-specific scans, these visualized trainings are conducted in a controlled, replicated environment, leading to more support and better results in the field.

Precision Maintenance Scheduling: Say goodbye to outdated spreadsheets and cumbersome paper-based systems. Aetos empowers Operations Managers with an intuitive digital platform that automates maintenance scheduling based on real-time data. Tasks are intelligently structured, ensuring every inspection, check, or tune-up is executed with pinpoint accuracy and digitally documented.

Visual Task Management: Maintenance tasks come to life through immersive visibility technology. Organizations can utilize a comprehensive 3D representation of their facility, allowing technicians to identify equipment, access manuals, and view maintenance history at a glance. This visual approach streamlines task management, reducing confusion and enabling swift decision-making.

Minimized Downtime: Downtime is a nightmare for any facility, causing disruptions and financial losses. Aetos Operate's Preventative Maintenance feature reduces unplanned downtime by preventing (and even predicting) issues. Data-driven insights enable FMs to address potential problems before they impact operations, resulting in significant cost savings.

Extended Asset Lifespan: Well-managed assets last longer. Aetos’ platform equips teams with comprehensive historical data and maintenance records. This knowledge allows for precise maintenance, ensuring assets are operating optimally and extending their lifespan. The result? Enhanced ROI on valuable investments.

Data-Driven Decision-Making: Data is the currency of modern maintenance. Aetos Operate's analytics provide deep awareness into asset health and performance trends. With real-time information readily available, companies can make informed decisions, optimize resource management, and allocate budgets effectively.

Unlocking ROI - The Numbers Don't Lie:

• 25% Reduction in Maintenance Costs: Facilities using Aetos Operate's Preventative Maintenance feature have reported a substantial reduction in maintenance expenses within the first year of implementation.
• 30%+ Improved Technician Efficiency: With guided work orders and visual instructions, technicians experience increased efficiency and effectiveness, translating to more tasks completed in less time. Some FMs even reported a percentage as high as 50%! 
• 40% Increase in Asset Lifespan: Well-maintained assets lead to a longer lifespan, and Aetos Operate's proactive approach ensures optimal performance and longevity – reportedly up to 40% from some of our users.
• 50% Decrease in Onboarding Technicians: Although seemingly tangential to PM operations, FMs have reported a significant drop in the time it takes to onboard field-ready technicians, yielding smoother PM tasks and management.
• 80% Decrease in Unplanned Downtime: Real-time monitoring and early issue detection mean less downtime, fewer disruptions, and more productive hours.

BONUS Operate Applications  

Industry 4.0 is here: a new revolution in how the built environment manages its assets. Interconnectedness is now vital for more productive operations, data gathering and aggregation, giving organizations the information they need to make critical decisions.

Aetos is a pioneer of Industry 4.0 concepts and utilization: 

Predictive Analysis: While preventative maintenance is about planned checks, Aetos leverages IoT sensors for enhanced predictive analytics. By monitoring asset data continuously, the platform can predict when a machine is likely to fail, thereby scheduling timely maintenance and preventing unexpected breakdowns.

Remote Collaboration: Team members can remotely access the digital twin to review the current state of equipment, which facilitates easier decision-making around what needs preventive work, when, and by whom. This virtual platform fosters streamlined communication, reducing downtime and ensuring that all stakeholders are aligned in their maintenance objectives. Additionally, team members can meet inside the scan, leading to more understanding and optimized visual framework. 

NYSERDA Compliance: In the context of New York’s aggressive sustainability goals, preventative maintenance isn't just about keeping machines running: it's about running them in the most energy-efficient manner. Aetos implementation is currently helping facilities stay in line with NYSERDA guidelines – one of the most stringent set of standards in the built environment. 

Embrace the Future of Maintenance:

Aetos Operate's Preventative Maintenance feature is at the forefront of this revolution. Facility Managers, Maintenance Managers, Plant Managers, and Chief Engineers now have a powerful ally in their quest for seamless operations, cost savings, and enhanced asset management. 

By transforming the traditional (often reactive) PM approach into a proactive, data-driven one, Aetos is setting new standards in facility management and operation. And at our core, we are championing sustainability and compliance goals for better buildings and a better world. 

Organizations can make the jump to Industry 4.0 and the transformative PM platform with a solution that simply delivers more support, precision, and assistance to on-site technicians and FM decision makers. 

Contact Aetos today and replace PM obstacles with Operate – the revolutionary VMMS your facilities and technicians need.