Planning Ahead for CMMS Implementation

Anyone familiar with computerized maintenance management systems (CMMS) knows that simply buying into a program and hoping it works its magic is a pipe dream. Only through detailed planning and execution will companies experience the full benefits of CMMS. Companies that overlook this aspect will often see significant losses in both time and revenue. To avoid this, make sure you follow these guidelines for executing a perfect CMMS project.

Equipment Data
Tracking equipment data is the basis of CMMS, providing a good foundation of data for the program to analyze. If your company's old equipment tracking system is flawed, or has no system at all, it's crucial to start developing one for the CMMS system. In most cases, the machinery businesses uses is made up of various components and parts that need to be tracked just as much as the machine itself. It's helpful to think of the relationship as parent/child (individual parts being the children, the machine being the parent). These "relationships" need to be noted so that the company doesn't spend money on outdated or irrelevant parts.

Preventative Maintenance
Much like equipment data, preventative maintenance (PM) is a cornerstone of CMMS. To effectively schedule PM tasks, several questions need to be answered first. For example, will PM be scheduled around a set time period (day, months, etc.) or run time (i.e. miles, hours etc.)? Another possible question might involve mapping out route-based PMs (i.e. inspection of buildings fire alarm triggers). Questions about PM will differ from company to company based on specific needs, so explicit research on areas of maintenance that would benefit the most is crucial.

Procedures/Labor
The beauty of CMMS is that it allows you attaching many different types of documents to machines electronically. Items like operation manuals, videos, pictures and documents created by employees can be stored in the system and accessed at all times. Before associating procedure documents with a machine, take the time to go over them and make sure they are up to date with safety codes and the machine itself. Along with those documents, include information on each operator/technician such as name, address, phone, employee number, etc. This way a maintenance history log can be created to show who worked on the machine and what they did to it.

Responsibility Assignment
When implementing the CMMS program itself, it's important to delegate the various tasks efficiently so that the programs runs as well as the machines they keep tabs on. Tasks that include hardware installation, computer hardware maintenance, data archiving, report generation, data entry, ongoing program configuration, and work order tracking need to be handled in order for CMMS to do its job. A key component of the success of CMMS is tracking every piece of data possible, not just data on maintenance. With a lot of the focus going toward maintenance, it's easy to overlook so of the aforementioned tasks but they are just as critical to the CMMS process.