Find out how a CMMS can improve your management and productivity.

If you're wondering why implement a CMMS, then this article is for you. To begin with, it's clear that introducing a new software solution into the workplace is not easy, because you have to spend time researching suppliers, going through the sales process, justifying the costs and training your team.

However, the benefits of a CMMS are definitely worth it and can help you save time and money, improve health and safety, and more... much more. What are those benefits? We detail them below:

1. Reduce downtime. It is often unavoidable to accumulate periods of maintenance. In fact, so many outages, scheduled or unscheduled, can send your operation into a tailspin. A CMMS balances resources and maintenance costs so that the build-up doesn't get out of control. The software captures small corrections that would otherwise go unnoticed and allows you to schedule, allocate and prioritise maintenance tasks so that no work is missed.
2. Increasing the reliability of obsolete assets. The average age of industrial equipment, for example in the United States, is the highest since the 1940s. Although age is not always the reason for failure, it is often a contributing factor. It is not always economically feasible to replace older models with a new one, which is why maintenance is so crucial. CMMS software provides a way to collect, access and utilise an asset's historical data. This data makes it easy to visualise trends in an asset's performance and to decide on the type and frequency of maintenance of an asset. This ensures that ageing equipment is as healthy as possible.
3. Schedule more preventive maintenance. The preventive maintenance detects defects before they become a major problem, reducing the number of breakdowns. Maintenance teams know that preventive maintenance is key to limiting downtime, but the question is, how do you schedule more time? One way a CMMS answers this question is through automated work orders. PM triggers can be created based on usage, time or condition in a CMMS. These triggers activate a work order, which is then scheduled and assigned. The work order becomes much simpler and preventive maintenance is easier to schedule, reducing downtime.
4. Make repairs and inspections easier. Downtime occurs when an asset needs to be repaired or inspected. This cannot always be avoided. However, if repairs and PMs are inefficient, downtime is prolonged. These inefficiencies can add up and cost your facility a lot of time and money in lost production. A CMMS makes it easy to repair and inspect assets, so downtime is minimised. The software makes it possible for technicians to log into a mobile CMMS app and view an asset's history, diagrams, spare parts locations and more so work can be done faster.
5. Controls the inventory. Not having control of inventory can lead to all sorts of costly problems. Overspending on inventory can add an additional 12% to 20% to the original purchase cost. If you don't have the right parts on hand when equipment breaks down (or can't find the parts in a cluttered warehouse), it results in downtime, rush shipping and risky stopgap measures, all of which are costly. Managing your inventory with a CMMS helps you purchase, track and organise parts so you can avoid these costly problems. Tools such as automated purchasing and inventory reporting can help you make data-driven inventory decisions and eliminate overstocking and out-of-stocks.
6. It avoids waste production and reprocessing. Both scrap and reprocessing require a huge cost in the form of energy, waste and lost production. The worst part is that it is extremely difficult to offset this expense without the production team working overtime. The best way to reduce the cost of waste and rework is to avoid unplanned failures by keeping assets in good condition with preventive maintenance. CMMS software excels at helping maintenance teams plan, schedule and execute PM. Not only can you automate tasks with a CMMS, but you can also prioritise and assign PM while tracking key metrics for optimisation.
7. Track maintenance costs and generate reports. CMMS software tracks everything related to completed work orders, including parts, labour and other expenses. This makes it easy to run a report on these costs, see where the budget was spent and make informed decisions about repairs or replacements. If you are looking to demonstrate the value of maintenance, you can even compare the cost of reactive and planned maintenance.
8. Energy saving. European manufacturers spend billions on energy every year, proving that any business can cut costs by reducing energy use. Well-maintained assets are more energy efficient and are key to reducing your overall energy costs. Reactive maintenance is a major source of wasted energy in production facilities because it leads to inventory problems, poor scheduling, rework and more. A CMMS can solve each of these problems by helping you to establish a better preventive maintenance programme with tools such as automated work orders and easier job scheduling.
9. Efficiency gains. Well-planned maintenance programmes waste less time, resources and money. Better planning is possible when you can anticipate all elements of maintenance, such as asset requirements, production schedules and inventory. Building a better maintenance programme starts with understanding your assets and resources. A CMMS helps you do this by capturing, tracking and analysing data on an asset's performance. From there, you can adjust the frequency of preventive maintenance tasks and ensure that your maintenance programme uses personnel resources as effectively as possible.
10. Automate work requests. It is common for maintenance managers to receive job applications by phone, sticky notes, whiteboard or word of mouth. None of these are ideal. These outdated processes force maintenance teams to waste unnecessary time creating work orders and entering data. CMMS software eliminates all the extra steps by automating the work request process. Employees can log work requests, set up PM triggers or connect to sensors that create work orders based on the real-time condition of an asset. No time is wasted translating work orders, tracking operators or checking a file cabinet.

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