Selecting and using computerised maintenance management systems

TECHS4BIZ Australia has written about the use of Computerised Maintenance Management Systems (CMMS) for asset preservation and minimising downtime.

CMMS is primarily used to manage, capture and track inspection, maintenance and repair activities. The systems provide work orders to cover repairs and maintenance of buildings, plants and equipment. They also provide scheduling facilities for planned preventive maintenance, as well as collate costs for labour and materials.

An effective system should automate administrative tasks, and gather relevant information for the necessary maintenance functions. It should also be able to develop and manage a strategic plan for the proper maintenance, replacement and upgrade of major assets.

Advanced solutions can help analyse maintenance and repair processes and trends, eliminate manual data entry, as well as drive alerts, triggers and escalation procedures.

By combining CMMS software with handheld devices, its power can be enhanced with barcodes, automatic and portable information updates, timestamp and signature capture, and automatic tracking.

When using the solution, technicians should consider the information they want to keep, as well as the information which needs to be kept according to legislative and management requirements.

Most important of all is the scheduled maintenance plan, along with labour, materials and costs for projecting estimated future expenditure. By keeping a corresponding record in the CMMS and using the job number as a cross-reference to the paper record, an organisation can streamline their reports.

This is important for workplace safety audits, which more often than not will require maintenance records as a matter of priority.

When selecting a package to use, check if there is an existing maintenance program already in place, as well as its functions and the information gathering process.

The maintenance personnel should prepare a brief on the facility’s minimum and optimum requirements, the resources they would need to manage the database, and a time frame for implementation.

Typically, companies choose between three and vie providers, who present their product. These products can be assessed on ease of use, functionality and how well they meet the requirements.