If you have worked in the field of maintenance for a while, you have likely encountered many methods of organizing and tracking maintenance work. While pen, paper, and spreadsheets can do a lot, organizations using these methods are missing out on many of the benefits of CMMS software.
The advantages of using a CMMS are numerous, but they are not limited to your maintenance team. Let’s review all the ways this technology can benefit your maintenance program, but also your company as a whole.
Benefits to the maintenance team and maintenance operations
Maintenance teams will clearly be the main users of maintenance management software at any organization. The primary benefits focus on improving the efficiency and effectiveness of maintenance activities.
1. Efficient maintenance scheduling and coordination
A CMMS will drastically reduce most of the administrative work needed to run an effective maintenance strategy, from streamlining documentation to automating task scheduling. It also makes documentation faster and easier for maintenance technicians and provides quicker access to the information teams need to do their work effectively.
In addition, most systems will provide modules to facilitate workflows such as purchasing, work order approvals, and more.
2. Work request and work order management
With a CMMS, all work requests and work orders are received and coordinated in a central location. It also provides easy visibility to workloads for individual team members, allowing managers to quickly change priorities, assign work orders, and adjust due dates as needed.
A good CMMS will also have a dedicated mobile CMMS app to make all these features accessible from anywhere. Not only does this make managing work orders more efficient, but it makes completing maintenance tasks a whole lot simpler too.
3. Accurate and timely asset information
When maintenance histories, asset information, and task notes are available with the click of a button, maintenance teams are enabled to perform their best work. Quick access to O&M manuals and established best practices ensures that repairs are completed to the highest standard, which reduces the need for rework.
A CMMS’s centralized repository of maintenance data also greatly improves the reporting capabilities of maintenance teams. This helps provide insights into spare parts inventory costs, maintenance planning, budgets, and other metrics/KPIs.
4. Reduction in maintenance costs
When maintenance workflows take less time and are more efficient, labor costs go down. Not only that but by enabling improved asset management practices like preventive maintenance and inventory forecasting, CMMS systems reduce the costs associated with emergency repairs like overtime and emergency shipping for spare parts.
CMMS solutions also enable improved inventory management which reduces parts costs, and proactive machine maintenance which prolongs asset lifespans and reduces the frequency – and therefore costs – of asset replacement..
5. Improved team communication
In addition to having a central repository of asset information at your fingertips, most programs will have functions dedicated specifically to facilitating team communication.
Most mobile CMMS systems are cloud-based, meaning that they can be accessed from anywhere with an internet connection. As a result, when team members are in the middle of a repair, input from team members and supervisors is only a few clicks – or taps – away. And the best part is that these communications can often be saved to the asset record for later reference.
6. Easier vendor management
Most modern CMMS systems include features that enable easier management of vendors and contractors. By streamlining the contract process and providing your vendors with the information they need – but only the information they need – the administrative work involved is reduced.
Benefits to the organization
While the maintenance team is the primary user of any maintenance management solution, the benefits don’t stop there. Improved equipment maintenance enabled by all the features and functions of a CMMS can have far-reaching effects.
7. Increased productivity and uptime
A computerized maintenance management system helps automate sophisticated predictive and preventive maintenance strategies that help organizations avoid equipment failures. In the case of predictive maintenance, CMMS systems serve as a central repository for data that helps predict breakdowns, enabling maintenance teams to take action to prevent them.
The effects multiply from there. With fewer breakdowns and repairs, overall repair costs will drop. It means less labor and fewer parts. In the long run, this can add up to significant savings.
8. Reduction in costs associated with planned and unplanned downtime
Unplanned downtime costs industrial manufacturers an estimated $50 billion every year. Even if you’re not in the business of industrial manufacturing, when you encounter an equipment failure the lost revenue adds up quickly.
A well-organized maintenance program that is supported by a state-of-the-art CMMS can drastically reduce breakdowns and unplanned downtime, ensuring asset health and uninterrupted productivity. And by facilitating more proactive approaches to maintenance, CMMS systems help teams minimize disruptions caused by planned maintenance.
9. More efficient and effective safety and compliance
Healthier equipment is safer equipment. In industries that rely on heavy equipment, worker safety is not just a practical and human concern, it is a legal one as well. By providing an airtight platform for automating required maintenance and documenting safety protocols, CMMS software significantly eases the administrative burden that comes with regulations and compliance activities.
By having a central location for all asset maintenance histories, standard operating procedures, and more, maintenance software is increasingly becoming a valuable tool to ease compliance audits and support risk management efforts.
10. Improved employee productivity and morale
This may be one of the most significant, yet least talked about benefits of a CMMS. As a CMMS provider, our team hears repeatedly about the impact that adding a CMMS has on their teams. And it makes sense. All the benefits combine to create the foundation for a great working environment that includes:
- Less overtime due to fewer equipment emergencies
- Employee recognition made possible by reporting
- Greater team collaboration through simplified communication
- Dashboards and analytics that make resource allocation easier
- Clearer work expectations and guidance through easily accessible manuals, checklists and SOPs
Outside of the maintenance team itself, impacts on employees focus primarily on productivity.
- Lower costs and improved productivity positively impact the company’s bottom line and financial stability
- Fewer safety incidents increase worker confidence and well-being
- Work request portals provide quicker and more effective responses to maintenance issues
So much to gain and nothing to lose
With all there is to gain, it isn’t hard to earn a return on investment in a CMMS. With benefits that touch everyone in your organization and drastically improve maintenance processes and outcomes, a CMMS can be a key to organizational success.
To learn more about what a CMMS has to offer, start a free trial or request a product demo.
