Computerized Maintenance Management Software Trends

Meeting the needs of business in today’s economic climate encourages CMMS provider to enhance the functionality and usabilty of their products.

1. Leading CMMS do more

Today’s maintenance systems have a broad range of sophisticated functionality, and the more powerful systems provide:

• Work schedules produced systematically
• asset type maintenance schedules
• Control of inventory levels and materials over extended periods of time
• Equipment monitoring with alarm generating capability
• Flexible asset register creation with component audit possible
• Program management functionality
• Shutdown planning functionality
• Immediate access to AV training aids etc
• Real-time distribution of information by email, SMS and Internet

2. Greater systems integration A clear sign that maintenance management is acknowledged to be a key driver in business profitability is the rise of maintenance management functionality in a wide range of productivity and efficiency tools. The Alphabet spaghetti that is CMMS, ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) and EAM (Enterprise Asset Management) systems, all claim to deliver maintenance management capabilities. EAM and ERP systems provide enterprise wide data and are complimentary to CMMS. Combining a competent maintenance management system with ERP and EAM systems results in greater visibility for managers across the business and effective maintenance management.

3. Enhanced mobility

Today Technicians are on the move more than ever. Recently the meteoric increased availability of wireless communications has enabled CMMS suppliers to enable remote electronic access to the CMMS. To support greater mobility and flexibility, new PDAs have been introduced. PDA systems. The following points are where CMMS advantages are most obvious:

* Monitoring of assets
* project schedules
* Stock movements
* Alerts advising key personnel of production breakdowns

4. Easy access for personel

As a vital tool in the battle for lean manufacturing processes, a CMMS should be fully adopted by all relevent personel. We inhabit a world with a multi-ethnic workforce where employees come to work with different IT skills and languages.
Intuitive, simple dashboards encourage all employees to contribute to and “own” the system. There is considerably less need for training when the interface is “familiar” to staff. Where manual data entry is required, text editors and pop up calendar scheduling makes text entry straightforward. Functionality on up-to-date systems allows job completions and adjustments to be changed all at once.

A considerable advantage of computerised mainenance management systems is their ability to easily trap and disseminate data. With an aging workforce, documenting and collaborating on procedures for the next generation of maintenance engineers is ever necessary. The more capable CMMS packages enable staff to locate and attach several files to both work orders and tasks and link multiple standard texts with a task. User passwords allow personel access to information which may be pre-configured. This is only available on some CMMS.

5. Visible reporting

Being able to see at a glance the status of the key assets, the progress of your maintenance team and the current hot issues is a significant step forward for Maintenance Managers. Effective management of maintenance departments is promoted through developing a shared industry culture. Clear reports and dashboards show managers and workforce the effectiveness of the maintenance department. In the current business climate, the efficiency and effectiveness of the maintenance operation is more important than ever. The maintenance team holds the key to maximising assets, minimising downtime and controlling costs.

CMMS investment is vital if asset management is to move in a proactive direction, driven by effective equipment maintenance.