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 * Question: ** .** Explain the importance of routine maintenance of office equipment to ensure the smooth running of a business enterprise. **

Routine maintenance of office equipment is very important to ensure a business enterprise will run smoothly. Routine maintenance can be defined as cleaning and keeping all office equipment in a condition that is efficient for work. Ways to look after equipment in an office environment are to regularly check all equipment, replace any consumables, cleaning when required, keeping a log book for faults and servicing and following guidelines and policies. Maintaining all office equipment will ensure the smooth running of a business as deadlines will be able to be met, there will be no time management issues, employees will be able to communicate internally and externally and employees will not have increased stress levels due to their workload.

Routine maintenance can reduce the amount of equipment faults in an office environment. To reduce any equipment faults the routine maintenance programs should be carried out by checking the equipment, replacing consumables, cleaning the equipment, recording faults and servicing in the log book and following guidelines and policies. For example a photocopier should be checked each day, the consumables (paper and toner) should be replaced if required, the equipment should be cleaned including the scanning glass, the log book should be filled with any faults and servicing and the policies and guidelines should be followed. Whilst on workplacement it was routine and part of the equipment maintenance to turn off the printers and photocopiers at the end of the day and shut down the computers.

A number of organisations will have a maintenance program that is prepared to ensure that all equipment is kept in order to work efficiently. A businesses maintenance program should consist of a checklist of procedures such as cleaning the equipment, adding toner/replacing paper, checking on the consumable stock levels and the contact details of suppliers and servicing companies. It is every employee’s responsibility to clean the equipment if it is dirty, replace and check consumable stock and to contact the servicing companies if repairs are needed so that there is no added stress on other employees. For example in the workplace if toner and paper are not replaced in the fax machine and an urgent fax is being sent in, the organisation will not be able to receive the fax. This can make the business look unprofessional and will put more stress on other employees as they will be trying to work but also fix the problem.

Employees must be able to identify any faults in equipment and report them to the appropriate person within the business. Faults in equipment can be simple and complex. If there is a simple fault such as a paper jam the employees should remove it to ensure that this piece of equipment can still be used. For more complex faults such as computers freezing or printers making grinding noises employees must inform the appropriate person so the equipment can be serviced as soon as possible. The servicing of equipment involves contacting the businesses servicing company for the equipment. The servicing company will ask for details such as your address and location, account details, model and serial number of the equipment and a brief description of the fault. When equipment requires servicing it can interfere with the smooth running within the workplace because that piece of equipment may be used regularly every day and will affect the completion of tasks employees have been given.

Instructions and signage should be placed around the business and near equipment so that employees can be educated and informed on the correct ways to maintain office equipment during use. Signage around the business will outline the correct procedure to follow such as how to correctly replace toner and will also outline what not to do such as force paper out of paper jams. In the workplace specific signage will be placed near the corresponding piece of equipment. For example a sign of how to replace toner safely and correctly would be placed near the printer and fax machine.

The smooth running of a business depends on the routine maintenance of office equipment, effective maintenance programs, the early identification of faults in equipment and signage around the organisation. Each of these points will ensure the smooth running of a business when they work together as they should minimise the amount of fault occurrence and the need for servicing. This will enhance the businesses productivity as time will not be wasted unnecessarily on fixing avoidable faults in the equipment that is essential for everyday business use.