With the food industry experiencing its highest participation since the pandemic, the optimal functioning of assets such as fridges, freezers and coffee machines has never been more crucial. Without them, your business simply cannot function, and you risk frustrated staff and disappointed customers.
Food operators often outsource operational tasks, such as asset maintenance and repair to sub-contractors but managing multiple subcontractors across disparate systems can get messy, and that’s when money can start to slip through the cracks. Reactive jobs can stack up and end up you paying a premium to get up and running again.
Sometimes food retailers outsource the whole of the maintenance operation including managing contractors, but this can lead to a lack of visibility and control.
By embracing a robust service and asset management solution, including a scheduling system and in-house asset management, you could streamline operations, improve efficiency, and maintain control over your resources.
Having an asset management system is crucial in the fast-paced food retail environment we see today.
Systems like this can empower and support your facilities managers by providing comprehensive oversight of both assets and maintenance activities.
Whether you’re using subcontractors, internal engineers or a mix, the right system will give you the ability to schedule, track, and manage all maintenance tasks - planned or reactive - to ensure your equipment functions in optimal condition, and provides great service and customer satisfaction.
The benefits of an asset management system in the food retail industry
Maximise efficiency and reduce downtime
Equipment down? It’s every store manager’s nightmare. With staff left in limbo and customers queuing out of the door, it's a scenario you’ll do anything to avoid.
With a comprehensive asset management system that keeps track of all assets, you will be better equipped to plan for reactive and scheduled maintenance.
Equipment like fridges, freezers, and ovens are critical to the daily operation of a food retail business. When you have the systems in place to automate the scheduling of regular maintenance for these assets you reduce the risk of breakdowns, which can disrupt operations and lead to customer dissatisfaction.
Plus, with a clear view of maintenance needs, there is minimal downtime, which keeps your business running smoothly.
Support your fast paced growth
If you are a high-volume, fast paced retailer an asset management system will give you greater visibility over multiple stores.
In today’s fiercely competitive market, a scalable facilities service management operation is a vital backbone for all food service chains.
Using a single centralised platform for: asset management, dynamic real -time scheduling of planned maintenance and reactive work, integrated mobile workflows, GPS tracking and managing subcontractors the benefits are:
- faster response times
- more cost-effective for routine maintenance
- reduced downtime
- improve flexibility
- tailored service
If you are expanding your business, Aeromark’s cloud-based service and asset management platform can be customised to how you want to operate, rather than limit your performance or processes to fit the constraints of a vendor’s system.
Cost control and visibility
While it is common for food retailers to outsource their service and maintenance needs, outsourcing everything can inflate costs. And when those expenses are managed across multiple systems or through manual processes like spreadsheets, it’s easy to lose control, visibility and money.
A good asset management solution will centralise all that information, providing a clear, real-time view of maintenance activities, asset history, status of jobs and costs. This helps avoid overpaying for subcontractors or services and ensures a better handle on FM-related costs.
Streamlined communication
With an asset management solution such as Aeromark, there’s a clear line of communication between the shop/restaurant, facilities manager, and any external contractors.
When a new job is allocated to a subcontractor via the portal, they review the job – including all relevant information such as the SLA, full asset history and job details. If they can meet the SLA, they accept the job and schedule the work, and the site receives a notification to confirm the visit.
When the job is complete the subcontractor can update the system and close the job, providing a continuous feedback loop and up-to-date status on all assets, cost to serve and total cost of ownership. This seamless interaction saves time and keeps everyone in the loop.
Centralised asset tracking and maintenance history
Imagine something as easy as having QR codes for staff to identify and report problems with specific equipment.
If an asset breaks down the site need to create a support ticket. QR codes makes it easy for a member of staff to access vital information about the asset, confirm the asset and create the reactive job.
The store has access to their own site portal, listing all their assets alongside maintenance history, warranty information, service records, and repair histories.
The portal will also triage the issue by asking questions to prompt the store to self-diagnose and fix the issue.
This transparency can improve decision-making and prevent unnecessary spending on repairs or replacements.
Data-driven decision-making
An asset management system not only provides real-time information but also generates valuable data over time.
It will help you analyse trends on equipment performance, repair costs, and engineer efficiency as well as capture parts and labour costs for each asset. This enables you to monitor beyond economic repair (BER) levels and make informed decisions that reduce future maintenance costs and extend the life of assets.
Taking control of the FM Process
For food retailers who still rely on some manual processes or multiple disconnected systems to manage their facilities, there is an opportunity to save significant costs and improve efficiency.
With a comprehensive asset management system, you no longer need to rely solely on third-party vendors to manage your maintenance needs. The platform makes managing the whole process yourself simple and gives you back visibility and control of your costs, service standards and brand.
You can take control and streamline operations by managing your assets and maintenance processes in-house or with a mix of internal engineers and subcontractors.
Deploy an asset management system to not only help manage multiple sites more effectively but also improve operational efficiency, reduce costs, and create more transparency within your business.
Isn’t it time to take ownership of your facilities management and start saving money with a system that works for you? Book your demo today.
