How Can CMMS Assist Me in Managing Maintenance Information? (Martin Beckett)

No doubt, we are clearly in the "information age." As a maintenance manager, you're likely awash in information. For example, not only must you keep track of all of the details associated with vehicles, equipment, and/or facilities under your charge, you must schedule work according to prescribed scheduled maintenance schedules, assign appropriately skilled technicians to each task, order parts and supplies for pending work orders, and more. While using a spread sheet or database can help you stay organised on a smaller scale, the sheer volume of information can quickly overwhelm informal systems. If you're feeling swamped and disorganised - or even if you are not, consider moving to a computerised maintenance management system (CMMS).

CMMS is designed specifically for managing maintenance information. As such, tools relevant to your job are just a click away. By computerizing your assets and creating an integrated schedule, you can work more effectively. More importantly, much of your work (including preventative and predictive maintenance) can be scheduled automatically based on schedules or meter readings.

Advantages of CMMS

CMMS can help you manage maintenance information associated with:

1. Assets - Whether you manage a fleet of company cars, manufacturing equipment, machinery, or facilities, you can enter your organisation's assets into the CMMS where they can then be managed accordingly. Important details such as purchase price and date, serial numbers, insurance contracts, and maintenance schedules can be associated with each asset.

2. Work orders - Integrating work orders with your assets ensures that each asset has a detailed service history. Not only is this information useful on an asset-by-asset level, it can be used in aggregate to make smarter purchasing decisions in the future. For example, when it comes time to purchase a new fleet of forklifts, you can look at aggregate data for your existing fleet and find out which makes and models are the most reliable or have the lowest lifecycle costs.

3. Technicians/drivers - Each technician brings a unique skillset to the job, making it important to quickly determine who to assign to a given task. With the right CMMS system, you can do so with ease based on a number of criteria.

These are but a few advantages of using CMMS to manage maintenance information. While various CMMS systems are available, it's smart to choose one that puts this information into the hands of those who need it. With that in mind, it's smart to consider a cloud-based CMMS.

Cloud-Based CMMS

A cloud-based CMMS is ideal for organisations with a mobile workforce. If your technicians must travel across the country, city, or campus, being able to pull up information on a smartphone is invaluable. Rather than relying on a fax machine or a closed LAN, your entire crew can tap into the CMMS on their smartphones. Work can be assigned and techs notified instantly. In addition, with CMMS as a service, you can reduce your capital expenses by paying for your system on a per user, per month basis.

The information age is here, and so is CMMS. Why struggle with information overload when you can effortlessly manage it in the cloud?

Martin is the author of this article about managing maintenance information. He is an expertise in the manufacturing industry and specialize in managing maintenance management. He gathered his sources from this website, http://www.emaint.co.uk/, to write this article.