Computerized Maintenance
Management Systems (CMMS) strategies help enterprises analyze, track
and report on labor, equipment, tools, and materials requirements
according to maintenance and asset management plans. They further
help calculate and keep a check on the machinery and resource
requirements to maintain the best possible levels of workforce
productivity. Since the introduction of CMMS solutions almost two
decades ago, the focus has been primarily on work order management
and tracking the history of costs for maintaining assets. It was only
later that CMMS solutions included the budgeting aspect as well. Thus
personnel in charge of maintenance could easily track their
anticipated budget expenses with such a CMMS solution. In most
enterprises, the operating budget, especially in the maintenance
department, includes labor costs, material costs and other
maintenance related costs, such as equipment rentals and 3rd party
vendors and contractors. An effective CMMS strategy can handle these
costs - both forecasted and historical reporting - with great
efficiency.
A
pertinent and relevant CMMS strategy helps in correctly gauging the
values of assets and ensures that they have been accounted for. The
strategy also ensures that in large maintenance projects where
repairs and replacements are part and parcel of an asset’s
retention and preservation process, all logistics and workflow
associated with these process elements are factored. Computerized
maintenance management
tool
should be able to budget for projects and also help control costs. It
should always take into account the enterprise’s KPI structure and
based on that, ensure that routine data collection and asset
inspection identifies problem issues and facilitates modification of
processes to resolve the issues. The tracking and reporting of
conditions and attributes of equipment and facilities and how their
location in the asset hierarchy affects operations, is a key goal of
any cmms
solutions
software
deployed
in an enterprise.
A
core part of this goal is visibility and resultant forecasts of
resources required and the ability to notify and alert personnel and
key suppliers or partners to ensure that they are aware of workforce
plans, labor schedules and materials requirements.
The
perfect enterprise asset
management software
should
be able to account for vendor/contractor lead times, be it SLA’s or
even historic realities. Additionally, it should take into
consideration resources that can be technical as well as those that
can be impacted due to seasonal issues, like vacations or holidays.
The software should empower enterprises with enhanced visibility into
forecasted process management and inspections to understand if there
is any requirement for technical resources, skills sets, tools or
instruments, etc. The inclusion of functionality and processes that
forecasts or address advance work demands, blanket PO’s and
delivery time SLA’s for critical components should be incorporated
within the CMMS strategy. This means repair and condition or
situation triggered work orders will also be included. An ideal CMMS
strategy would necessarily take into account any impending
certification expirations or training requirements.
Armed
with such a perfect CMMS strategy solution, enterprises are sure to
enhance their maintenance management to ensure maximized system and
therefore Asset ROI.
