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INSTALLATION AND APPLICATION OF CMMS INSTALLATION AND APPLICATION OF CMMS Maintenance professionals are presented with more difficult challenges today than ever before. Maintenance departments must deliver superior service, comply with regulatory requirements and standards, and provide detailed financial accountably all within the confines of limited budgets. In order to meet these challenges, maintenance professionals are arming themselves with economical Computerized Maintenance Management Systems (CMMS). Definition: CMMS are management information systems that utilize the technologies of computers, telecommunications, etc. , to execute the maintenance management processes, and provide management with information for the decision making process.
The Maintenance Management Process consists of work identification, planning, scheduling, analysis, history recording, and work execution. Like any other computerized information system, it is made up of the following: hardware, software, databases, peripherals equipment, and a trained staff. CMMS are not for every organization. Current research shows that as much as fifty percent of all CMMS start-ups have failed to pay back a meaningful return on the initial investment after two years of operation.
It is mostly because companies jump in with both feet instead of gradually transferring over into a CMMS. A CMMS itself will not cure all the problems of a company. In a rush to automate every job function that affects organizational efficiency and bottom line profits, many managers are overlooking important limitations inherent in all information technology implementations. This highlights the point that an organization needs to know how to find the right CMMS and how to implement and maintain the system. Many maintenance professionals, in their haste to keep up with contemporary information management technologies, unwittingly, neglected to evaluate these important questions before automating: Do we have an information management problem, or a business management problem? Have we thoroughly evaluated the real benefits and cost of a CMMS implementation?
Do we have the internal knowledge and commitment to complete the CMMS effort? The purpose of a computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) seems to change constantly. The software initially was designed to assign maintenance tasks to the staff within a company in a more organized manner than the paper method. More recently, its purpose has expanded to include assuring the higher quality of equipment, facility condition, and out put, as well as, assisting administration and management in increasing production and overall efficiency. To deliver maximum benefit to a company, a CMMS has to be efficient, address a wide range of demands, and be able to expand with evolving needs.
With technology exploding throughout the CMMS market, planning that maximizes your system is essential. The decision-making process managers go through in selecting an ideal computerized maintenance management system has to be formal and logical. A resource analysis is also required for the introduction, startup, and continued support of the system. The best way to find the right CMMS is to look at your current situation.
Consider the following areas: Organization: Well-trained people with positive attitudes can make an excellent system world class. You will need to know how many people are requesting maintenance services, who the most frequent requesters are, what their needs are, and how many and what kinds of maintenance people you have. Equipment: Maintenance workload is determined by equipment and facilities. Find out about the numbers and kinds of equipment. Find out from the client what their top 10 equipment or facility problems are. Operation people will tell you what equipment problems they have, and maintenance people will know the most frequent building system problems.
Work Orders: You need to know how many work orders you generate each week. A rule of thumb is that the average work order takes an hour. From this and the number of workers you can estimate the number of work orders per week. After you have determined your current status and needs for computerization you can start specifying a CMMS that can deliver these benefits. Software: New applications and upgrades of existing CMMS appear regularly, and each new generation offers more in the way of flexibility, power, and user friendliness.
When evaluating CMMS software there are eight major factors that should be considered. Comprehensive maintenance management functionality Management reporting capabilities PM (preventative maintenance) Procedure Library Reliability centered maintenance integration Harness the power of Microsoft Windows Proven expertise and on-going support Comprehensive Maintenance Management Functionality: The main factor to consider when selecting a CMMS is the core product. It should be made up of three major elements: Work management, physical asset management, and resource management. The Work Management component of the CMMS optimizes day-to-day operations, manages corrective work orders and supports a preventative maintenance program. In addition, some CMMS's offer an added feature for detailed management of short duration on-demand work. The Physical Asset Management component acts as the "filing cabinet" of the CMMS, providing quick and easy retrieval of important information, warranty and service contracts, nameplate data, scanned documents, libraries of CAD drawings, and complete descriptive information.
After all, what good is all of the extensive information if you cannot access it easily? The Resources Management component of a CMMS supports a full inventory and purchasing system. Furthermore, it tracks in-house labor and contracted service costs. Premier CMMS suppliers have field proven experience in data transfer of inventory, purchasing, and time card information to external financial systems. Management Reporting Capabilities: A CMMS is only as good as the information that can be retrieved from it. CMMS provide extensive management reporting capabilities that include detailed and summary reports, graphical reports, and easy to use report writing tools that do not require programming knowledge.
PM Procedure Library: Select a system pre-loaded with mechanical and building PM (preventative maintenance) procedures. This PM procedure library will minimize the start up necessary to establish and implement your PM program, and provide conformance to generally accepted PM inspection schedules. Support Regulatory Compliance: Select a CMMS with tools that will assist in achieving compliance with an array of regulatory standards. To achieve compliance, Premier Maintenance Management Systems support the work flow process necessary to record, assign and account for both the work and the measures taken to correct and / or prevent maintenance related problems.
Look for quick one button access to equipment histories and a flexible, detailed, and graphical reporting mechanism for problem and resolution trending (quality assurance) analysis. Multiple System Interfaces: The type of CMMS to look for should be capable of working together effectively and transparently with multiple systems. Direct interface between the CMMS and other diagnostic and monitoring systems such as building automation, predictive maintenance, etc. can assist greatly in streamlining the maintenance process by allowing maintenance personnel to respond to early warning signals before they escalate into critical repair problems. CMMS build upon these types of interfaces to automatically create work orders and update facilities histories based on alarms and test results received through these interfaces. CMMS are also capable of interfacing with other technologies such as bar coding for quick and accurate data entry.
Reliability Centered Maintenance Integration: Select a CMMS system that fully integrates and takes advantages of Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM). RCM uses the full capabilities of the modern PC and Microsoft Windows software development environment to provide an interactive method for problem resolution. RCM provides maintenance professionals with an easy-to-use library of possible problems for major capital expenditure assets, problem diagnostic techniques, and a recommendation to repair the cause of the problem, and avoid wasting money fixing its symptoms. Harness The Power of Microsoft Window: Select a PC based CMMS solution that is compatible with Microsoft Windows. Look for a CMMS design that is founded on an industry standard programming architecture like Microsoft Visual Basic or Microsoft Access. Today's CMMS objectives are fully reliable using the Microsoft Windows environment.
User-friendly, yet powerful features such as: one button access to history, pending work orders, future PM, electronics file folders for organization information, and notification of duplicate work orders, now allows the maintenance professional to maximize time and effort. SYSTEM INSTALLATION: The goal of the installation process is to position and activate new information management tools and methodologies into the work place. All encompassing and overlapping action steps provide activities to assemble as a complete and full functioning CMMS. Developing the Database: Developing the database is one of the action steps that never appear to have a distinct beginning or final ending.
The reality is that the database is a dynamic medium that continually changes, usually growing with the increasing proficiency of system users. In terms of overall effort required to complete the CMMS installation, the database is generally the most resource intensive task. For this reason, consideration must be afforded to insuring that all requisite data is collected and entered into the CMMS database. Most maintenance department functions have been affected in some way by the arrivals of CMMS. Among those functions affected the most are: generating work orders, tracking inventory, setting up preventative maintenance (PM), and producing reports. The CMMS can provide can both be short and long-term benefits.
Some of these benefits are: Standardized work order will reduce time, and paper work All information combined into a central location decrease work time Permanent, accurate records will help reduce equipment down time Standardized format aids organization and collection of information Parts and materials availability will be increase Maintenance labor effectiveness will increase More regulated preventive maintenance will increase equipment life and help to reduce emergency maintenance costs Production saving will increase as unscheduled downtime decrease Purchase costs of parts and materials will be reduced Outside contract costs will be reduced Regular report gives a more effective and up-to-date record of inventory / stores reports, work orders and physical maintenance reports, which will reduce cost of parts, inventory and labor. Setting up Preventive Maintenance (PM): Maintenance departments are realizing the benefits of PM, and CMMS are essentials in helping establish such programs. The PM module reminds the maintenance department each time routine work is needs to be performed and alerts the department when a task is coming due, helping reduce the risk of missing regular maintenance work and lengthening the life of the equipment. Developers of maintenance software, who keep a close watch on the many changes that are taking place in the maintenance management profession, say that their products in the future will continue to address and anticipate the many problems related to keeping commercial and institutional facilities operating both efficiently and cost-effectively.
Decisions support system data that is collected by the CMMS, including; hours worked, failure codes, equipment and system downtime, repair costs, and repair time are being used to support operational decisions, such as reliability analysis to compare manufactures, maintenance effectiveness, and justification of outsourcing specific maintenance functions. The latest crop of computerized maintenance management systems (CMMS) tend to reflect the general advances in software that have been occurring at an exponential rate. Ten years ago, Windows-based programs were the exception rather than the rule. Larger multi-user systems were at best served by mainframe or mini-systems. Handheld data collection units and pen-based computer transferring data to and from a central database via the Internet are readily available, and historical data is analyzed for maintenance reliability information, and for management and budgetary support. Bibliography:
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Research essay sample on Decision Making Process Microsoft Windows
