CMMS Software

Buyer’s Guide for CMMS

Facility and maintenance management encompasses everything from asset management in a global enterprise to the simplest upkeep in a single-site facility. It’s no surprise that there are a wide variety of applications available to assist facility managers in the control of their day-to-day operations. In 2019, the global market for facility and maintenance management is expected to exceed $43 billion, which will double its current value of $24.7 billion. Otherwise known as CMMS (computerized maintenance management software) these types of solutions differ in industry use, price, and complexity. It’s difficult to choose the right CMMS software for your business needs without the right know-how. This article will outline the benefits CMMS offers including how your company can use the software, how your search can be narrowed, and how you can compare the different CMMS software products that are available.

CMMS Overview

CMMS is a system that automates the management of reactive and preventive maintenance of a company’s assets and facilities. It provides lower-level workers with the tools they need to be able to work efficiently and also enter data about materials, parts, and repairs. The software gives managers visibility and control over the condition of the company’s property, compliance, and maintenance histories. CMMS is able to help organizations devote more resources and time for their bottom line as well as eliminating equipment downtime and improving workflows for back-end upkeep.

From a semantic standpoint, most people consider CMMS compatible with enterprise asset management (EAM software), especially since it has built-in tools that work well with asset management. However, there are several differences between them. EAM offers better functionality to handle any kind of assets such as IT equipment or physical machinery with centralized access for the entire enterprise. On the other hand, CMMS systems are limited to only physical assets in a smaller facility network or just one single site. With all of this said, EAM and CMMS are not jointly exclusive – they can work with other enterprise software like enterprise resource planning (ERP software) solutions or EAMs. In addition, there is a multitude of maintenance management solutions that are sold as modules, giving buyers the ability to custom-build their solutions by only paying for the specific features they need. The products available include basic work-order modules which are built into the property management system.

Common Features Included with CMMS Platforms

There are many common features buyers will see with most CMMS systems regardless of industry vertical or product packaging.

One of the first features you will see are work orders. These include allocating or scheduling jobs for breakdown, inspection, or repairs and tracking the progress of a job from the beginning to the end with built-in reporting features.

The next feature is materials and job costs which include standardizing and recording databases of materials and jobs expenses that can be used for prioritizing accounting, reporting, and work.

The third feature CMMS includes is asset management. This can aid organizations in controlling and tracking their digital and physical assets by condition and location and record data pertaining to parts inventories, technical specs, service schedules, and warranties.

The fourth feature is procurement and inventory, which guarantees that all levels of materials, tools, and parts are taken care of. Procurement and inventory also integrate with outside catalogs, allows for built-in order purchasing and placement, and tracks the exact inventory locations.

The fifth feature to look out for is regulatory compliance management. This stores all documentation and data to ensure that managers will comply with industry standards, permits, and safety and be able to respond to audit requests.

Preventive maintenance automation is the next CMMS feature. What this does is obstruct facility and equipment failure by using meter or time-based triggers to activate regular equipment servicing.

The seventh important feature is condition monitoring, which monitors voltage, flow, pressure, or heat triggers to provide performance insight or schedule materials or work orders.

Labor and resource tracking is another feature. This stores the skill profiles of all personnel for future skills/job matching and projection of additional labor needs.

The final feature is reporting. CMMS can report on a number of equipment-specific or facility metrics from peak use hours, work order history, and downtime or failure codes. There are also key performance indicators (aka KPIs) such as variable inventory or work order resolution.

Common Applications

CMMS is the smartest investment you can make for your business because it can manage a collection of depreciable assets as well as a high-traffic, high-priority facility. CMMS is used in a wide variety of industries including data centers, the public sector, utilities and energy, construction, healthcare, education, and manufacturing.

There are three tiers that the target market is divided into which we will discuss below.

The first tier includes simple facilities. These kinds of facilities are single-site and have basic maintenance management requirements that revolve around one-off troubleshooting and facility upkeep. Managers in these facilities prefer a CMMS that’s intuitive and simple to use for building compliance and tracking work orders.

The next tier includes asset and equipment groupings. Organizations with a large number of depreciable assets use CMMS systems as a central automation engine for feeding and caring for their assets. Fleet management is a common example. This can be found in public sector vehicles or school bus systems. Likewise, a company’s assets can include digital assets (servers), hardware (printers or fax machines), or stationary equipment (factory floor machines).

The final tier includes complex facilities. These facilities can typically span various locations or consist of multiple buildings within a campus environment including work zones or variable interference such as pedestrian streets, environmental hazards, or terrain. Some examples include global enterprises, industrial plants, medical installations, and college campuses. Complex facilities have more widespread maintenance software needs because they require tools to manage both assets and facilities across a broader geographic area.

Features to Consider

Mobile capabilities are certainly one important feature to consider. Because technicians often work in the field, the use of mobile devices has become more predominant in today’s market. These capabilities give personnel the know-how to update records immediately and make data available across the entire business. You can generate work orders directly from your mobile device, issue, return, and receive parts in real-time, and track inventory and labor usage.

There are several other mobile capabilities offered in some CMMS systems:

One of these capabilities is voice recognition. Technicians always use both of their hands while they’re performing their work. With voice recognition, technicians can record hands-free notes and allow notes to be converted automatically to text and entered into a CMMS. This saves technicians from having to write notes by hand for data entry.

Another capability is QR/barcoding. Quick response barcoding and coding capabilities are included with many CMMS systems. When you scan an asset’s code, it gives you a preview of its entire maintenance history and gives instant insight into the last task that was performed, when the next upkeep is due, warranty information, or troubleshooting notes. Quick response barcoding will let technicians include notes about assets that are promptly accessible all throughout the organization.

Benefits

CMMS Planning and Cash Flow

The accurate planning and budgeting of cash-flow is paramount to a successful company. The integrity of your projection models can be destroyed due to unexpected costs. It’s bad enough to have the burden of unexpected costs but when unplanned expenses sink a forecast or budget, issues can become worse. Budgets help set motivational goals and provide a roadmap or a plan for your company as a whole.

A major source of unplanned expenses can include equipment failures which are often among one of the costliest. Executing and implementing proper maintenance plans help eliminate burdensome or unexpected costs.

CMMS systems can remove cost bumps. They can help you spread costs more predictably and evenly and limit large, unpredictable costs. Whichever CMMS system you choose will have many sophisticated tools you can use to make a repair as opposed to replacing decisions based on trustworthy data alone.

Productivity and Quality Control Assurance

A huge selling point for your business is often based on the quality of your work. Providing top-of-the-line services and goods greatly impacts retention and customer satisfaction. CMMS systems not only help a company save money, but can increase your company’s overall revenue too.

It’s important to limit your breakdowns in order to reduce cycle times. If you keep your equipment in sub-par condition, your products and services that are produced will become inferior.

Lower Maintenance Costs with CMMS

Ensuring that you have a reliable equipment maintenance system will save money and time on unplanned or planned maintenance in the long run.

Before expensive repairs are needed, CMMS systems can help you plan maintenance by keeping accurate tracking on equipment maintenance. CMMS systems do more than just track required preventative maintenance when it’s needed. They can also figure out the best times to perform the maintenance. A more sophisticated CMMS system will consider production and forecast information to determine slow times that can be utilized for equipment maintenance.

CMMS systems provide centralized repositories for information and maintenance instructions such as what the process is, who is involved in the process, what parts are required, and what service firms may be needed to conduct the maintenance. The cost of maintenance can be drastically reduced with better organization.

Unplanned repairs are often needed even with preventative maintenance that’s performed on a regular basis. Any equipment failures that occur on the job site or during a production run can disrupt how your business operates. CMMS systems are consistent with managing, reporting, and tracking repairs which keeps the cost and disruption of equipment failures to a minimum.

Workplace safety is also very important, but extremely costly. If equipment is not maintained properly, that can increase your liability risk. According to OSHA, most American employers pay up to $1 billion a week in worker’s compensation claims alone. Having a CMMS system will protect your company against excessive safety-related expenses.