TECHNOLOGY
What can a CMMS do for your Institution?

Many organizations are using their computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) as a record keeping tool. If that is all they want, a spreadsheet perhaps can suffice. A right CMMS is a “Tool” that goes way beyond record keeping. Basically, by not fully utilizing the CMMS, maintenance operations are missing out on opportunities to save time and money. As the utilization of CMMS increases, overall productivity and profitability also increases.

A CMMS provides comprehensive information and analysis to facility
managers that support fact-based decisions enabling enterprise-wide
optimizations and accountability.

Basic Functionality
A typical CMMS has the following modules: Equipment, Preventive Maintenance (PM), Work Order System, Parts Inventory and Purchasing.

• Equipment: Using this module, you enter information on assets into the system (such as asset ID, location, model, serial number, etc.).

• PM: Enter PM tasks list including material and labor requirements, frequency (calendar or run time), starting date etc. for each asset you want to perform PM on. This is usually a one time effort. After that, the system generates PM work orders when they are due on an ongoing basis.

• Work Order: This is where all the work orders are generated and completed (PM, repairs and projects, etc.). The actual time spent, material and tools used are recorded here. That is how you obtain a history on an asset.

• Parts Inventory: This module keeps track of items in stock, indicates when stock falls to a user defined reorder point and creates requisitions.

• Purchase Order (PO): This module enables you to create and process requisitions and POs.

A properly implemented CMMS will increase overall productivity by improving work process flow, helping you migrate from a reactive to a proactive mode. Here are a few examples of how a CMMS can help:

• A properly implemented CMMS will improve both efficiency and customer satisfaction by organizing, distributing and managing maintenance related information. Inefficiencies arising from information bottlenecks are eliminated.

• A CMMS provides all stakeholders with real-time information that is relevant to them. Maintenance technicians can obtain a prioritized list of open work orders. Requesters can check status information without distracting maintenance staff. Service managers can view reports of backlog work orders including total estimated backlog hours. Corporate management can produce comprehensive reports profiling resource utilization and compliance requirements.

• A CMMS produces reliable information to enable informed decisions at all levels of the enterprise, including requesters, maintenance technicians, service managers and corporate management.

• CMMS can be an excellent tool to identify non-value-added activities and shorten process cycle-time as part of a continuous improvement program. Maintenance spends a great deal of time waiting for parts, approval, instructions and equipment to be available etc. CMMS can help identify where exactly maintenance is losing most of the time enabling you to analyze the situation and correct it.

• Data Analysis: CMMS is a great tool for analyzing the data and making meaningful decisions based on that. For example, reviewing work order schedule compliance, ratios of PM and repair work orders compared to total work orders and taking necessary corrective action. Another example is reviewing a compliance report to investigate the failure rates and then taking corrective actions to minimize them.

• Maintenance operations frequently gather readings on a variety of equipment such as boilers, chillers etc. In a paper based system, forms are filled out and filed away (never to be found again). Some companies have started using their CMMS to record and save these readings say, pressure, temperature and the like. The purpose of this data is to identify abnormal readings and correct problems to prevent failures. A CMMS is just the tool to accomplish that. Once you have defined a certain range and criteria, the CMMS will flag a warning immediately upon meeting those criteria. For example, if the temperature reading falls outside of a certain range, it will notify you instantly so you can take corrective action. Maintenance planning can automatically incorporate usage and condition based preventive maintenance, predictive failure maintenance and corrective maintenance resulting from abnormal readings.

Implementing a CMMS
Doing a thorough “Needs Analysis” costs money. It is a good idea to seek help from outside consultants to do this if necessary. Besides considering core components such as work order request, work order tracking and inventory control, you need to explore the possibility (with justification) of incorporating planning and scheduling, mobile technology and interfacing to other systems to enhance your productivity many fold. The time and money spent on “needs analysis” will save you a lot of money and hassles in the future.

Implementation Services Resources
Statistics show 80% of CMMS implementations have failed. The definition of failure is either the CMMS was never used or tried for a few months and then stopped. The bottom line is unsuccessful implementation. Upper management has to realize the steps and costs involved in implementing a CMMS project. The cost of CMMS acquisition is only a small fraction of overall cost. A successful implementation can easily run 10 to 20 times the cost of the software. You need implementation experts to manage these kinds of projects, i.e. if you want proper return on your investment. A CMMS implementation is not just entering the data, work order tracking and generating a bunch of reports. CMMS is a tool that can truly improve your productivity. Facility managers need to plan implementation strategies. You need to decide equipment, location and inventory part numbering schemes, who will generate work orders, who will close work orders (administrative clerk or technicians), is there a need to interface your CMMS to other systems such as a building control system. Upper management should provide resources for this purpose.

If you are using only a fraction of your CMMS available features and are satisfied, it indicates wrong selection of a CMMS. It means you have so many bells and whistles in your CMMS that you do not need. This costs the company money in terms of software acquisition and training that could have been avoided by selecting the right package based on your needs.

Whether you are upgrading to a newer version or acquiring a new CMMS, selecting the right package is crucial to a successful implementation and enabling you to fully utilize your CMMS. Here are some guidelines to follow:

• Easy to use and flexible: A CMMS should be designed for end-users not computer experts. The system has to be flexible enough to accommodate the way you do business not the other way around.

• Queries and reporting: These are two important aspects of a CMMS. Once the implementation is complete, you retrieve the desired information and generate reports to make meaningful decisions. You should be able to retrieve any information you want, when you want and in
the format you want.

• Workflow: Proper workflow is very important, i.e. initiating and approving work requests, planning, scheduling, dispatching, completing and then following up for continuous improvement. An online work request system enhances the efficiency of the maintenance operation as well as the requester. Requesters have convenient access to the status of open and completed requests, which reduces lost productivity from identifying and disposing of duplicate requests. Enabling customers to enter and view their own work requests increases efficiency for both the requester and the maintenance department, by substantially reducing the number of phone calls to perform these functions. Phone calls are a significant drain on productivity, not only due to the time they consume for both parties, but also because of the unplanned interruption of work by the person who receives the call.

• Parts List: A CMMS has a provision for specifying parts and tools on work orders. Technicians go prepared with parts resulting in less downtime.

• Mobility: Modern hand-held devices add advanced software technology and mobility to bring the benefits of CMMS automation to technicians in the field. Here are some examples of what mobile technology can do:

• Readings: You can collect data for various assets on handheld devices such as pressure and temperature on boilers and chillers. If there is any abnormal data (based on user defined criteria), the system will flag a warning. You can also monitor security checks, perform inspection routes and record run time data (mileage/hour meter readings etc.).

• Work Order: You can dispatch work orders on a handheld device. The technicians can perform the actual work with instructions on handhelds; enter time taken and work performed details etc. on the handheld and close the work orders right on the handheld. All the information is transferred into the CMMS either real time or via a cradle. Work orders can also be generated on handhelds. You can establish a completely paperless work order system if desired.

• Parts Inventory: This is one of the major areas for potentially saving money. Parts receiving, parts addition and depletion, cycle counts, and annual physical inventory. All of these can be done very efficiently using handhelds. You can issue an item to an employee, work order or an account number. You can also return issued item to store.

With upper management’s commitment to stay involved with the project and to provide resources for training and implementation, leads to a successful implementation. A well utilized CMMS facilitates day- to-day operations resulting in efficiencies that are not possible with manual systems. A CMMS also provides comprehensive information and analysis to managers that support factbased decisions enabling enterprise-wide optimizations and accountability.

Kris Bagadia is a consultant and an educator with PEAK Industrial Solutions, LLC. He can be reached at: 262.783.6260 or krisb@peakis.com.

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