How does a CMMS work to meet the requirements of the maintenance managers and assist them with the planning and organizing of the maintenance operations? The CMMS is a software that helps companies to optimize their maintenance operations. It becomes an essential tool for any organization that has a lot of equipment that needs to be serviced.
How does a CMMS work?
In this article, we’ll discuss the working of CMMS and how it benefits companies. Every feature in the CMMS supports various working functions of the system, they are as follows,
Scheduling features
When you have multiple employees working on different sites for maintenance, then your system needs to be accurate, otherwise, your maintenance work will be inefficient. The CMMS gives you the task calendar for maintenance that can be easy to view and update. You can also filter particular information in the software for your focus work. You don’t need to stress out with the overwhelmed calendar.
Preventive maintenance
The large machines have a recommended time frame for maintenance. With the CMMS programs, you can automate those work orders with the preferred preventive maintenance schedule. These tasks are already scheduled in advance to avoid missing the maintenance work. This preventive maintenance helps to extend the life cycle of the machines and supports the maintenance team for efficient working.
System monitoring
System monitoring is as important as preventive maintenance. The CMMS monitors and determines when something is wrong with the machine and alerts you to catch the problem earlier before they rise. System monitoring works when the machine is connected to the CMMS solution via an internet connection. If you don’t have any machines like this then this system monitoring won’t be necessary for your organization.
Mobile Management
Every maintenance staff needs to update the information in real-time to get accurate data, so you need a CMMS application that is compatible and operates on mobile devices. Mobile CMMS features allow technicians to update information about repairs while they’re on-site, to keep the information more accurate. This mobile CMMS application will be easy to use and saves time.
Inventory Management
The feature of inventory management in the CMMS lists the inventories of maintenance supplies and repair parts to the service department and checks for any shortfalls to avoid maintenance scheduling impacts. This function enables the manager to find the availability and cost of any equipment instantly. The software will also provide information about the parts vendor, location, and other needed requirements.
The CMMS inventory module updates its total count automatically, according to the usage of parts and materials. When a particular item counts below a minimum availability, the system notifies your purchasing department about the shortfall. This avoids the additional costs happening during last-minute purchase orders.
CMMS and automation
The automation with CMMS software avoids human error, and your staff doesn’t need to remember how often each machine needs maintenance. The CMMS will automatically assign work based on the skills and availability of technicians and notifies them about the tasks. Finally, the work order will be created and let technicians know what they need to do with the required guidelines.
The CMMS will have tons of features that support your maintenance team to run smoothly. You can also calculate the amount of time spent on each task, parts availability, and expenses. This helps to find the time taken for each asset, and which one is draining more expenses than the planned one. The modern CMMS software with automation and artificial intelligence analyzes each work order to identify any abnormalities and alert the employees to take corrective measures.
Enterprise asset management
The enterprise CMMS maximizes the productivity of your company by managing assets across various departments and locations. The successful CMMS enables the tracking of the overall maintenance history. This supports managers to make accurate data-driven decisions. The simplified way of managing assets is scheduling and managing preventive maintenance properly. The software should also include the capability to track the meter and its reading and the duration of equipment warranties.
Vendor Management
The well-designed vendor management in CMMS will assist any business to handle its assets and its vendors. The CMMS will easily manage vendors and costs with vendor tracking. Additionally, it tracks the activities to know when they start the work and when they close the work. You can easily generate reports on costs, work order performance, and response time easily. This will be more advantageous to the maintenance managers because it provides rapid access to the vendor data including contact information.
If your company has assets that require continuous maintenance and administration, then the CMMS tools are an invaluable addition. It works with you to guarantee your equipment is easily accessible, in good condition, and can provide correct maintenance for an extended period.
Example of CMMS process flow
This explanation will let you understand the CMMS overview and how the features of CMMS software work together to complete a maintenance operation. Here’s an example of a maintenance problem that might arrive and how CMMS resolves the process.
Let’s take a manufacturing organization that has a milling machine. You have already noted the preventive maintenance of the machine that should be performed every 3 months. The CMMS program will automatically schedule the preventive maintenance tasks to the calendar and assign the work to the available technicians.
In some cases, before the service time arrives, you will get an alert from the system monitoring feature of the CMMS, that one of the milling machine cutter is not working properly due to some issues. Once you receive the notification, you can send a technician to solve the problem before it gets bigger. For this, you need to look at the availability of skilled technicians in your maintenance calendar.
After you assign the work, the technician will head out to the particular unit of your industry and inspect. Using a mobile CMMS application, the technicians can get full information about the machine, its parts, and the maintenance history. This helps to resolve the problem more quickly. Once the work is completed, the technician can use the mobile CMMS to mark the work as completed from the field, this sends a notification to the maintenance manager that it’s done.
What CMMS should deliver?
The CMMS concept has been a chattering topic among many industries, so everyone is keen on the new updates from the CMMS. The new system should provide users with specific benefits in a user-friendly way. These include,
Streamlined integrations
A decent CMMS should integrate with other systems, so teams can effectively utilize, capture and analyze data.
In-built navigation
The success of CMMS lies in user adoption and implementation. The easy-to-use CMMS solution is more likely to be adopted, so look for the CMMS process flow suited to the employment process and needs.
Security
The top-tier CMMS is equipped with high security to keep confidential information more safe and secure, including sign-in options, cloud storage, and other access to controls, authority, and restrictions.
Data migration
For the implementation of a CMMS system, data migration is required from disparate systems. This needs to be straightforward so that the organizations can collaborate and ensure the data is comprehensive and up-to-date.
Work order management visibility
Effective maintenance work requires smooth work order management and execution. The software simplifies the workflow by allowing maintenance managers to review, assign, schedule, and track work orders with associated maintenance tasks. This will provide complete visibility of the work order and its history.
Reporting
Customized analytics and reports allow businesses to get full information about the process so that they can get the preventive maintenance needed to optimize the process and performance.
Audit records
The CMMS software helps to maintain employee compliance, and work records and generate the audit logs needed to demonstrate consent with regulatory, industry, and other legislation.
The applications of the CMMS concept
Most CMMS systems provide a similar set of features and solutions. The key difference between them is how they are implemented. The main work of the CMMS is to collect all relevant information from the database and simplify the workflow.
Some of the distinctive CMMS applications are,
- It helps companies ensure that they are meeting all their needs with the maintenance operation. It also supports them to predict future maintenance of an equipment so that they can make decisions about the purchasing of new inventory.
- Helps a business to meet its objectives by collecting information from different sources such as maintenance reports and equipment information, then organizing it into relevant reports that provide visibility into your work order at both the individual level and the enterprise level.
- The CMMS provides the central hub through which you can access all the relevant information regarding the equipment, suppliers, customers, and inventory levels. This makes it easier for your equipment operations by reducing communication time between departments and eliminating redundant processes.
By simplifying all the features of computerized maintenance management systems, it is designed to provide the following advantages:
- Improve maintenance efficiency
- Reduce repair costs
- Decrease equipment downtime
- Increase the lifespan of the equipment
- Provide maintenance history record to assist in planning
- Provides accurate maintenance reports
There are numerous advantages to using CMMS. When selecting the software, it is crucial to find and filter out the best parameters for your needs.
CMMS for Every Business: The Verdict
An effective CMMS software can save money and time by creating an effective maintenance plan. Surveys show that around 70% of organizations don’t know when their equipment is due for maintenance. And the CMMS that resolves problems before they arise. For some businesses, the CMMS concept will be new. Still, the good factor is that the system is designed to work automatically with minimal training to create a significant return on investment. There are numerous providers available to get started with the CMMS programs. Trusting the CMMS tools will ensure the uninterrupted productivity of your business.
