Creativity is at the core of every business’s growth and survival. Not only does it drive a business to innovate and be competitive, but also it helps businesses adapt to challenges. In the maintenance department, creativity is valuable in maintaining efficiency, quality, and safety. Keep reading to learn about cultivating creativity and its benefits in the maintenance department and maintenance processes.
What Does Creativity Mean for the Maintenance Department?
You may be thinking, “My technicians aren’t artists, actors, or singers, so where does creativity fit into the maintenance department?” Well, creativity can be defined as the skill of using ideas and imagination to make or generate new ideas or concepts. Creativity is also a process that involves the following steps:
1. Building Knowledge
Creating novel and innovative ideas require knowledge. This knowledge can come from experience, technical expertise, theoretical study, intellectual prowess, and interaction with others. Additionally, the more diverse these sources of knowledge are, the higher the chance of forming better and more ground-breaking ideas.
2. Mastering Creative Thinking
Creative thinking means having the skill, imagination, and flexibility to process knowledge from any source. A creative thinker can make new ideas, products, or concepts from any particular body of knowledge.
3. Finding Motivation
Motivation is what pushes and stimulates creativity to happen. It can be intrinsic, extrinsic, or both. Intrinsic motivation comes from the inherent need to be creative or solve problems for personal satisfaction. Extrinsic motivation comes from external and tangible rewards like money, recognition, or social acceptance.
Maintaining the ideal conditions of knowledge, creative thinking, and motivation is the key for creativity to thrive in the workplace.
Benefits of Creative Culture in the Maintenance Department
Any workplace with a creative culture has members that provide better solutions to problems, go above and beyond their expected duties, and take ownership of their work. Fostering a creative culture in the maintenance department can be beneficial in the following ways:
Closer Working Relationship
A maintenance department that incites creativity from its team members promotes collaboration and closer ties between these individuals. In turn, a closer working relationship promotes better working conditions, higher productivity, and increased cooperation for company success.
Improved Maintenance Department Leadership
A maintenance manager or leader who encourages creativity empowers their members. As a result, members gain more confidence to take initiative and trust their judgment. And in turn, leaders have more reliable and independent members to manage.
Increased Productivity and Efficiency
Maintaining assets requires a high degree of creativity. The maintenance team regularly faces asset problems and issues requiring creative solutions for faster and better results. So, the more creative the maintenance team is, the more tasks are accomplished in a shorter time and with lesser costs.
Reduced Outsourcing Expenses
A creative maintenance team needs less third-party assistance to accomplish their tasks. Maintenance team members encouraged to be creative can acquire and develop essential skill sets. Then, members having these skill sets can save the organization money in hiring outside technicians or consultants to do the job.
Improved Working Conditions
A creative culture in the maintenance department welcomes members to contribute their opinions and ideas. Creative culture also allows members to relieve stress and advise and support each other. Hence, members feel more valued, have better self-esteem, have more confidence in their abilities, and ultimately become valuable assets to the business.
Attract More Creative Talent to the Team
A creativity-friendly maintenance department attracts more quality professionals from inside and outside the organization to join its team. A forward-thinking and open-minded individual will want a workplace that is not instruction or protocol-driven but will value their abilities and welcome their creativity.
Better Learning Experience
Maintenance is all about learning from failures, breakdowns, and mistakes. A maintenance department that fosters creativity promotes a better learning experience and a healthier approach to problem-solving. Instead of assigning blame and punishing errors, a creative maintenance department focuses on the problem’s causes and solutions.
Open to New Technologies and Processes
Often, maintenance has a habit of sticking to the current way of doing things even when there are better alternatives. A creative culture allows the maintenance department to be open to new technologies, strategies, and processes and take advantage of these to benefit the company.
Tips for Promoting Creativity in the Maintenance Department
Creativity can transform any business area or industry. And promoting creativity can transform your maintenance department to its optimum capabilities.
Seek Leadership Support
Promoting creativity starts with the support of your organization’s senior leaders and managers. Creative culture is only effective when backed by these decision-makers.
Assess and Set Realistic Maintenance Department Goals
Assess the current state of your assets, maintenance processes, and management strategies. You can only devise creative innovations if you know what is effective and what needs to change. Also, setting realistic and defined goals helps motivate team members without the risk of overwhelming them.
Involve the Whole Team
A creative culture is a collaborative and interconnected one. A leader cannot do or impose tasks and expect their members to think and act creatively. Each team member has unique knowledge that must be collected and pooled together for the whole team’s and company’s benefit.
Weigh Risks and Benefits
Not all creative solutions are worth doing. Your team must look into the risks and benefits of any innovation to prevent any harmful consequences to your assets and business.
Collect and Document Maintenance Department Data
Creativity requires knowledge that must be properly collected and documented for reference. Creative solutions are less likely to arise if information such as maintenance schedules or machine specifications are missing or disorganized.
Keep Innovating
Creativity is not a one-time process but a continuous and evolving endeavor. The team must analyze and record key takeaways from the failures and successes of any innovative solution implemented. These takeaways should give birth to new ideas and concepts for future innovations.
CMMS Promotes Creativity in the Maintenance Department
A computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) is an essential technology for promoting creativity in the maintenance department. This software improves maintenance processes, collects and analyzes data, and helps optimize maintenance strategies. Its powerful computing technology frees maintenance teams from manual and time-consuming maintenance tasks, providing more room to innovate and get creative. For a demo on Redlist’s creativity-promoting CMMS, click here to schedule today!
