Businesses turn to maintenance software when they need help to improve their maintenance operations. These are all great reasons to use a CMMS. However, the real benefits of a fully-functioning computerized maintenance management software system go far beyond these.
What Is CMMS?
The CMMS software maintains a computer database that contains information about an organization’s assets and its maintenance operations. This information can be used to assist maintenance technicians in their work (e.g., determining which machines require maintenance and advising them on the availability and location for spare parts) and to give management reports that will help them make informed decisions (e.g., calculating the cost to repair each machine versus preventive maintenance, potentially leading to better resource allocation).
Benefits of Maintenance Management
Reduce Overtime
A lower downtime means less overtime. Your assets will be in a better state of health, so your employees won’t have to work overtime to keep them running. A computerized maintenance management system allows your team to communicate more efficiently, meaning work can be completed faster and within the deadlines set.
Simplified Recordkeeping
Using a CMMS to manage inventory, you can easily track spare parts costs and run reports to analyze the data further. This allows for efficient part ordering and usage. CMMS simplifies maintenance and repair tracking, making it easier to keep track of compliance audits. This allows you to have all your essential materials in one place.
Efficient Maintenance Processes
Optimize and streamline maintenance operations to reduce inefficiencies. CMMS software automates specific time-consuming tasks and processes that require constant attention. This allows your employees to focus on other essential tasks and responsibilities without worrying about potential bottlenecks.
A CMMS offers many functions and tools, including the ability to schedule appointments or monitor the condition of your facilities. It can also streamline purchasing processes by automatically creating, sending, managing, and tracking work orders. It also allows you to easily connect with vendors to order parts or replacements and manage your employees.
Consistent Maintenance
CMMS will ensure that your facilities get the care they need. This solution tracks all maintenance activities to ensure that your equipment and assets are in top condition.
You can schedule regular maintenance and plan with some solutions. This feature makes it easy to remember dates and time frames. Notifications about upcoming appointments can be sent to you so that you don’t miss any necessary preventive care for your assets, equipment, and systems.
Increased Reliability
One of the essential benefits of CMMS is the improved reliability it provides. As CMMS technology has advanced through the years, newer CMMS systems offer additional capabilities that better management and planning of maintenance work. This includes features that allow maintenance manager to schedule preventive maintenance based on specific criteria or diagnostic data rather than time, date, or equipment usage.
This data-driven approach allows you to ensure complete coverage while optimizing your spending on preventative maintenance. CMMS can also help analyze past failure events to determine if common factors lead to an increased risk of failure, allowing managers to prioritize preventive activities across assets for maximum impact (and minimum cost). CMMS systems also offer built-in alerts that alert staff when a failure risk threshold is reached, allowing for quick identification and correction of potential issues before they become failures.
Organized Maintenance Scheduling
Another CMMS benefit is organizing maintenance work into a schedule that is presented in a logical format for easy access by technicians and managers alike. CMMS allows companies to classify assets or categories based on their similar needs in terms of PM activities. Once this is done, you can create a schedule that allocates tasks among your skilled technicians in an organized way. This makes it easier for them to know their upcoming assignments, how long they’ll take to complete, and what kind of skills or expertise may be required.
Reduced Cost
A CMMS can help reduce costs over time by making maintenance activities more efficient. CMMS uses the information collected on assets and equipment to schedule future PMs based on age or usage patterns. This means fewer resources are spent rotating PMs before they’ve reached their expected lifespan, allowing you to extend the lifespans of your most expensive assets.
Enhanced Performance
CMMS solutions have several advantages related to safety and efficiency. They enable organizations to meet regulatory requirements and gain real-time visibility into their operations. Safety features within a CMMS can monitor systems and devices and report anomalies directly from a central location. While this information isn’t always actionable, continuous monitoring gives managers greater insight into their organization’s performance.
For example, CMMS users can detect trends like increased fuel consumption, poor fuel economy, worn brakes, etc., then act accordingly. When combined with predictive maintenance tools, CMMS can automatically alert technicians when a component is nearing its end of life, giving them enough time to perform timely preventative measures before breakdown occurs.
Increased Productivity
One advantage of implementing CMMS technology is the increased capacity for employees to spend less time managing paperwork and more time doing the things they were hired to do—making sure important business gets done quickly and efficiently. CMMS makes it easier to track work orders and ensure that all project details get appropriately documented.
Employees can access detailed reports about every task performed, while managers can analyze this information to understand better how different teams are working together. By utilizing analytical models built into a CMMS platform, companies can also identify whether their projects are on track and make adjustments where needed.
Comply with Regulatory Standards
Facilities management systems and maintenance must comply with applicable national and international regulations. Maintenance managers are subject to periodic audits and random inspections from regulatory agencies. CMMS can help you demonstrate compliance with regulatory requirements and decrease the paperwork required to pass an audit. Maintenance managers can quickly generate reports detailing the maintenance work done on critical machinery. This allows compliance to be easily tracked and reduces the chance of being penalized for non-compliance.
Predictive Maintenance Via Data Collection
Your CMMS will collect data about inventory usage, maintenance, repairs, and inventory usage to determine when maintenance projects should occur because it alerts maintenance teams of impending problems before they happen, a data-driven manufacturer like this practice. This results in less downtime and maintenance that addresses the issue instead of just occurring according to a schedule.
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