Computerised Maintenance
Management Systems
David Baglee
School of Computing and Technology
What is a CMMS?
► Computerized Maintenance Management
System
► Very important operational and management
tool
► Management of assets, improving reliability,
reducing downtime.
► CMMS functions:
automating administrative tasks
gathering relevant information
develop and manage a maintenance strategy
plan schedules for maintenance, replacements,
upgrades.
Why use a CMMS?
► The primary purpose of a CMMS is to manage, capture, and
track inspection, maintenance and repair activities of an
organization.
► Basic CMMS functionality
providing work orders to cover repairs and maintenance of
buildings, plant and equipment.
They provide a scheduling facility for maintenance for planned
preventive work on maintainable assets.
And they also generally collect costing details for the labor and
materials related to the work performed.
► Advanced CMMS functionality
analyse maintenance and repair processes
visualise trends
eliminate manual data entry
incorporate alerts, triggers, and escalation procedures
shift focus from administrative tasks to maintenance activities.
assist in planning and predicting future needs, prolong asset life,
manage processes.
Requirement for CMMS
► Regularly scheduled equipment inspection and
maintenance prevents sudden and unexpected
equipment failure and reduces overall costs
► The management of these programs, in particular
reporting their current status and future needs, requires
a CMMS. Managing the operation of on-site maintenance
staff and contractors is a daunting and difficult task,
however, if there is a corresponding record within the
CMMS then this tracking and management is much
easier.
► Even if you are duplicating data to what is in your
contractor’s CMMS (the contractor’s CMMS may not be on
your premises), it is extremely important that you have
your own copy of data. Your contractor may cease to
exist and for the sake of future reference and reporting it
is essential you have your own CMMS populated with
your own data.
CMMS Information
► Consideration what information is stored – what do we WANT to
keep, and what do we HAVE to keep?
► manufacturer’s specifications
► management requirements
► , there are many statutory requirements and regulations that
impact on this question such as fire, health and safety, and
environmental legislation.
► Statutory requirements (programs) could be entered into a
CMMS as a scheduled maintenance plan with labor, materials
and costs for projecting estimated future costs. By keeping a
corresponding record in the CMMS and using the job number as
a cross reference to the paper record, the organization is able
to quickly report on the status of the statutory work in
preparation to annual signoffs and/or audits.
► Those of you who have had work place safety audits are aware
that the first question asked is ‘Where are the maintenance
records?’ A maintenance plan that includes estimated costs can
be compared with the actual costs to ensure the effectiveness
in the cost of asset preservation.
Selection of a CMMS
► There are hundred of CMMS software packages on the market.
► A major problem is to select the most suitable package for the
organisation.
Look within your own organization and determine what is
happening with the maintenance.
Determine what maintenance is required to be performed
on the assets.
Research between 3 and 5 providers. Have them present
their product to assess the package in terms of ease of
use, functionality and ability to meet your requirements.
Evaluate each proposal for specific CMMS functionalities:
Does it address your specific requirements?
Does it minimize unnecessary or duplicate data entry?
Can you automate administrative tasks, reminders and
notifications of upcoming events?
Can you incorporate inspections, and other activities in
your CMMS?
Can you manage and track inventories?
Web accessible?
PDA version
Benefits of using CMMS
► Guarantee that all required tasks and activities are completed on time.
► Incorporate various mechanisms to ensure execution of tasks, including
automatic listing of activities, reminders, alerts, escalation procedures,
and easy access to information.
► Improve reporting and analysis capabilities.
► Comply with Health and Safety Regulations.
► Improve Business Planning and make informed decisions.
► Improve operational efficiencies.
► Increase productivity and profitability.
► Perform activities effectively; simplify repeatable tasks; provide your
staff with easy to use tools that focus on performing tasks.
► Let your staff spend more time performing service activities and less
time on paperwork and data entry.
► Improve strategic and business planning; Analyze records, needs and
patterns.
► Ensure that service is performed according to warranties, guidelines and
regulations.
► Receive customized reports delivered to your email.
► There are many additional benefits of using a system using handheld
devices, in comparison with manual or paper-based processes:
minimizing errors, increasing accountability, and having the ability to
quickly turn data into useful information. Last, solutions must be cost
effective and providers must be able to demonstrate their business case
and ROI (Return-On-Investment).
Need for a CMMS
► Requirements depend upon the size of the organization,
type of assets, number and quality of staff available.
► Should data be kept on computer - can it all be done on
paper?
► Often preparation of reports for management is difficult and
time consuming because the raw data is not readily
available
► Well-designed and easy-to-use CMMS solution can improve
daily activities as well as index and sort through years of
information related to the maintenance, cleaning and
strategic planning of buildings, plant and equipment.
► Regardless of the size of an organization a database of the
work performed must be maintained.
► Automation includes improvement of daily activities,
automatic tracking of inventories, better work assignments,
and shift of your focus towards exceptions, not routine
matters.
Further Work
► Read the article
Shibi, E. (2005) Common-Sense CMMS:
Combining Software and Handhelds.
Maintenance Technology, Vol. 18, No. 1, pp
47-49.
www.cmmscity.com/articles/common_sense_cmms.h
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http://www.maintenanceonline.org/
maintenanceonline/
