How To Choose The Right CMMS For Your Team

Chances are, if you don’t already have a computerized maintenance management system (CMMS), then you’re probably using a paper or Excel-based system that works pretty well.

But just because your current system works, doesn’t mean it’s ideal. Going digital by adopting a CMMS can be a huge step towards making maintenance at your facility cheaper, more effective, and more efficient.

How to Choose the Right CMMS

Why do you need a CMMS Software?

A lot of maintenance teams get into the bad habit of reacting to breakdowns when they happen, rather than coming up with a plan to avoid them in the first place.

Move from reactive to preventive maintenance

The best way to move away from this kind of reactive maintenance is to work towards a preventive maintenance approach—focusing on fixing a machine before it breaks, rather than scrambling to fix it after.

Computerized maintenance software can help you implement preventive maintenance in two ways:

  • It’s more reliable than keeping track of maintenance in a paper calendar, or by scheduling tasks in Outlook. You can set time- and meter reading-based notifications in your CMMS, which makes scheduled maintenance a breeze.
  • The software lets technicians log a problem as soon as they spot it. This lets your team diagnose the problem and repair it before something actually breaks down.

Get more done with less

A CMMS keeps all relevant information—everything from reports, work requests, records, service warranties, and schematics—in a single, searchable database, which makes finding it much easier. By decreasing the time your team spends finding and filling out paperwork, you increase the time spent actually maintaining assets.

Prioritize work orders

You don’t always have the resources you need to get 100% of the work done. Instead, you’re forced to focus your energy on the most critical repairs and maintenance. A CMMS gives the maintenance manager a central view of all upcoming work orders and in-progress jobs, so they can figure out what their biggest priorities are and act accordingly.

Easily comply with regulations

CMMS software is a great way to help your business pass audits and meet certification and compliance standards, since it keeps a central database of assets and procedures and helps systems run efficiently. This lowers emissions and operating costs and can help make your business eligible for ISO and LEED certification. It can also help you comply with government and client maintenance requirements, pass audits, and even qualify for insurance policy savings.

Maintain accountability

A CMMS makes it incredibly easy to see who is responsible for what work in your facility. It lets you see all your maintenance information in one spot so you can immediately see what work is overdue and what’s in progress, which makes it easy to follow-up on work that’s taking too long.

Most maintenance software also comes with report-generating features that let you analyze the performance of the entire maintenance group. These reports can help you justify the investment in preventive maintenance, since they make it easier to show overall reduced downtime.

How do you choose a CMMS Software?

Now that you know the why, let’s look at the how. There’s no one size fits all maintenance and asset management solution. There are three big factors that should impact what kind of software you buy.

Your business size

Knowing where you fall in the market is big for understanding what software you need.

If you’re a small company looking for simple work order software, you don’t necessarily want to buy something that comes packed with thousands of features. On the other hand, if you’re a growing company, you don’t want to invest in software that you’ll outgrow in a year.

Usability, training, and price

Even if you find a product that’s perfect for your business size, it’s a waste of money if no one can use it. It’s very important to consider how easy the software is to use, configure, and implement before you invest.

Look at factors like what training and support is available to you, both during and after implementation. Instructional videos, in-software guides, and on-site training can all be life savers as you get your team up and running with the new software.

Another important factor to consider is price. This might seem obvious, but it’s not as simple as just looking at the initial cost of the software. When calculating price and ROI, you need to consider cost over the lifetime of the software, which includes:

  • The cost of the software or the monthly/annual subscription
  • The cost of importing data into the system and integrating it with other business systems
  • The cost of upgrades
  • The cost of training and support

Modernity

Technology is moving forward by leaps and bounds, and you want to make sure you get software that’s flexible and adaptable enough to change with the times.

To ensure you get modern software that will grow with your business, look for the following three factors:

1. Cloud-based

It’s really hard to overstate the benefits of cloud-based (SaaS) software. It takes away the complexity of on-premises software implementation, leaving you with a solution that’s instantly accessible via the web, has fewer upfront costs, is updated automatically, and is available anytime, anywhere.

2. Mobile

More than 71% of people aged 18-54 in developed countries own a mobile device, which means there’s a lot of hardware floating around for companies to leverage.

And the best way to take full advantage of mobile devices is with an app. In a maintenance context, mobile apps let technicians submit work orders on the fly and enable productivity tools like QR code readers that can quickly scan assets and access to their entire maintenance history.

3. API

An application programming interface (API) extends the power of your CMMS and lets it talk to other computers, applications, smart devices, sensors, and equipment.

For example, you can use an API to collect meter readings from equipment and transfer them to your CMMS, where they can trigger actions like emails, alarms, or service requests. Or you can use it to synchronize date from your CMMS to an ERP system in real-time.

Fiix has plenty of other tools and resources to help you choose software that’s right for your organization. Check out its blog for CMMS info, as well as tips, tricks, and industry news.

 

Author Bio: Jeff O’Brien was a product specialist, CMMS evangelist and industry blogger at Fiix. Jeff had over 10 years of experience as a customer service engineer, and a further 9 years managing all aspects of Fiix’s Client Support operations. He is a solutions-orientated engineer with solid experience in problem solving data analysis and continuous improvement.

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Comments

  1. Scott Adams says

    I’m glad that you talked about how helpful it is to have a cloud based service, because you can access it anywhere you are. I have been looking for a new service, and I wasn’t sure how to make a decision. I can see how it would be good to choose one that offers a cloud, because I am traveling often and need access to my software wherever I am.

  2. Sam Cohen says

    I’m researching CMMS systems for the Brewery Industry. Anyone have any recommendations or suggestions about where I could learn about systems most applicable to the Brewing Industry?
    Thanks,
    Sam C.

    • Arfa Farhan says

      That’s good to know that not every system would give you all the benefits. I would think that it would be worth the investment to get the nicer ones. That way you could get the maximum efficiency that the system could provide. CMMS system are found in Manufactiring, Oil and Gas Production, and also good work in construction companies and other industries where Physical Infrastructure is very critical. CMMS is good for every company because its has many benifits like Cost Reduction, Inventory and Asset management, Tracking and Reporting and workflow improvement.
      Especialy Eliminate unnecessary paper work and lower repair cost.
      https://www.marketdecipher.com/report/computerized-maintenance-management-system-market
      I above mentioned the link. I get this is very helpful for every on who want CMMS.

  3. Roksana Krysht says

    CMMS can help drive down the cost of maintenance, increase asset life, improve productivity, reduce downtime, and lower the total cost of ownership of assets. It can not only control and improve the way you do maintenance, but can also benefit facility managers in many other ways on a daily basis.
    https://perfectial.com/blog/predictive-maintenance-with-machine-learning/