CMMS:
Improve Your Maintenance and Asset Management

When Paul Swasey became Director of Facilities six years ago at the K-12 co-ed college preparatory school Lake Ridge Academy in North Ridgefield, Ohio, one of the first items of business was to select a CMMS, or Computerized Maintenance Management System, to help efficiently maintain the 85-acre campus and school. Mr. Swasey, a 30-year veteran of the construction business, understood that he needed a program proficient enough to manage a site with multiple buildings and large grounds yet affordable enough to fit within a private school's budget.

What is a CMMS?
What faced Mr. Swasey six years ago is an issue faced by most education and healthcare facility managers today: whether they want to install a CMMS or upgrade from their current system. A CMMS is required in both schools and hospitals to manage and control assets, plant and equipment. Good data is necessary to make informed decisions and it provides that: A CMMS not only can schedule preventive maintenance —i.e., regularly scheduled work done to keep equipment in good working order—but it can record the history and cost of an asset, create work orders either automatically or manually, create managerial reports describing the status of work orders and scheduled maintenance, and even close work orders by using a handheld PDA / barcode scanner. A CMMS can also track employee time, asset downtime, and inventory and purchase orders. When properly maintained, it provides management a snapshot of the condition of all assets including past repairs, current conditions and future preventive maintenance. And the cost savings reaped from a CMMS can be contributed toward education or health care—i.e., the core purpose of the entity.

The developers of CMMS are continually adjusting and improving their IT products.

But Can We Afford It?
Costs are one issue to take into consideration for hospitals and schools. However, the costs of a highly effective CMMS now vary from extremely affordable basic systems to more costly customized versions. As Abdul Rani Achmed, CEO of CWorks Systems, an international provider of CMMS, explains, "Twenty years ago, all CMMS were customized and were very expensive, as they were customized for each individual facility and customer. With the creation of smart computing, costs have been dramatically improved and a CMMS is available for all different price points and suitable to any given budget." CMMS expert David Berger of Western Management Consultants added, "Over the years, vendors of these systems have been building in flexibility as opposed to telling a programmer what they need." In response, system prices have been dramatically reduced.

Mr. Swasey of Lake Ridge said cost was an overriding issue for the school. He researched CMMS via the Internet and solicited quotes from several vendors. "I received one bid for $40,000. Luckily, I was able to find a CMMS at a fraction of the cost. Comparisons with other vendors is imperative."

What Are My Options? Basically, there are two types of CMMS models that a facility manager in education and healthcare can choose, with variations found within each model.

1. Purchase under a Licensing Agreement—Under this model, you buy the software from the CMMS vendor by paying a user fee based on the number of users, either by seat or concurrent user.
2. SaaS: Software as a Service—Historically, to benefit from CMMS, companies had to purchase, install and administer the system internally, and invest in the IT infrastructure needed to support the application on the customer's own network. Under SaaS, the CMMS is delivered as a service to multiple customers simultaneously and securely, via the Internet.

Looking Specifically at Schools and Hospitals—What Do You Need?
Mr. Berger advises that there are several other factors that you need to consider besides costs when looking at a CMMS system. First of all, facility managers of schools or hospitals must always be aware of the core purpose of their operations. For instance, the core business purpose of a health care facility is to provide premium healthcare; similarly, a school's function is to educate its students. So although cost is always in the forefront, other competing goals need to be addressed, such as health and safety factors.

Mr. Swasey commented that, keeping education in mind, they are always looking for ways to reduce costs—especially energy. "As energy costs make up ½ of our budget, any savings that we can create can go toward the classroom," he said. Many CMMS systems include a module to track energy usage.

Common Functions of an Optimal CMMS Most facility managers should consider a CMMS system that has these types of functionalities. (Note that a good CMMS program will also offer add-on modules (such as incorporating the use of hand-held computers) that should be taken into consideration.)

Common functions include:

Asset Management—Tracks the history of an asset through cost, depreciation and warranty. Inventory

Management—Tracks spares and parts used in maintenance.

Personnel Management—Captures employee details and employee hours and costs by work order.

Preventive Management (PM)—Schedules maintenance on specific work or equipment based on time intervals (e.g., monthly, quarterly, etc.); meter (e.g., every 5000 miles for an oil change), or event (e.g., every snow storm).

Purchasing Management—Generates purchase orders and tracks purchase orders by vendors and requesters.

Work Order Management—Allows the user to request work orders and track work orders through completion.

Compatibility with Other Systems
For schools operating within a school district and hospitals working within a network, good CMMS packages should be compatible with the district's or hospital's other operating systems and software and integrate a wide range of facilities management components—including facilities (structures and spaces including grounds and equipment), staff, users, work orders, scheduling, and compliance and regulatory issues. The choice of technology should fit within both the current architecture and that operations' long-term strategic plan.

Delineate Your Expectations
In addition, managers would be wise to delineate their expectations for the new system. One vendor created a spreadsheet or "wishlist" for a potential CMMS, listing the "needed" attributes vs. the "optional." Such requirements as ease of use and running quick reports, as well as other attributes such as integration with RFID and automatic alerts and recalls, could be required options. By prioritizing attributes, the managers were able to narrow down the specific CMMS packages that would best suit their operations.

Partnership with Vendor
Often not considered is the vendor of the CMMS. A seasoned veteran that is at least 5 years old with a proven track record is preferred over the newest, slickest version of a CMMS. A longterm partnership with a reputable vendor ensures that the software is configured to best meet your needs. Vendors should provide high quality, easily accessible support, maintenance, upgrades and training. It is an added bonus that the vendor has knowledge of healthcare or education facility management's best practices.

For Hospitals—Expensive Assets with Legs
A distinguishing characteristic of hospitals vs. school facility management is that healthcare facility managers must manage expensive medical equipment contained within. Many of these assets "have legs," i.e., can be moved from room to room. Assets such as defibrillators, electrocardiograms, fluoroscopies, dialysis machines, fetal monitors, endoscopy equipment, etc., are expensive and portable—and knowing their location can mean the difference between life and death.

To answer the need for managers to track and locate their assets, some CMMS now have real-time asset locating and tracking systems that allow users to find an asset at any given time and monitor its movements. Such visibility allows an organization to improve asset utilization and employee productivity by providing the current location of existing resources.

Loss of these assets can have a dramatic affect on the bottom line. "The growing importance, risk, quantity, and/ or cost of corporate assets have sparked a corresponding rise in interest by management to better maintain control of their assets," Mr. Berger commented. "The higher the risk or opportunity cost in not knowing where an asset is located, the greater the incentive for management to implement an asset tracking system."

Some Trends in CMMS
The developers of CMMS are continually adjusting and improving their IT products. As a result, education and healthcare facility managers need to be aware of the following trends and innovations in CMMS.

One of the main trends in CMMS is seamless connectivity both horizontally across departments and multiple locations and vertically from frontline workers to higher management. Vendors have even incorporated Google Maps™ to allow users to visually see hot spots in real-time at multiple buildings so that they can economize and prioritize work orders. Another trend in CMMS is a CMMS focused at a certain industry with niche features, modules, and whole product lines that cater to such industries. Finally, clients are also demanding simpler tools; many CMMS are simpler and more easy to use than ever before.

Dave Griffiths is a Senior Management Consultant with CWorks Systems and a partner and business owner in several CMMS and related business ventures.

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