Last week we discussed ‘Why You Should Upgrade Your Legacy System to a CMMS’, now let’s examine what information and data a new CMMS could manage for you.

Complete List of Current Assets

For a CMMS to function properly, it needs to contain a complete list of the company’s assets. But it isn’t simply a one-dimensional list, as is often the case with a typical legacy system. An average CMMS can also provide easy access to a vast array of information about the asset, including manuals, purchase dates, costs, and maintenance cycles. As the IIOT continues to expand, having all assets connected through a central database will help managers plan ahead and create appropriate workload assignments.

Schedule for Preventative Maintenance

For many companies, tracking the various preventative maintenance scheduling for different assets can be difficult. Making sure that machines are offline at appropriate times to avoid disrupting workflow can have unanticipated consequences. Your CMMS can track what machines need maintenance at what times, and help you schedule maintenance at times that will have the least impact on workflow.

This can also help managers track what preventative maintenance has occurred and make sure that all necessary supplies for maintenance are stocked.

Unplanned Work Events

Unless both your legacy system and your maintenance staff are scrupulously careful, tracking unplanned work can be haphazard at best. Because a CMMS alerts maintenance to problems with assets as they arise, and tracks when problems are resolved, supervisors can accurately track how often machines are breaking down, and how much money is being spent on unplanned maintenance. This can help companies make data driven decisions on when to purchase new equipment or replace worn out systems. This is one of the primary ways that a CMMS can drive ROI, or return on investment.

Who Completed the Work

Too many legacy systems track the work that was completed, but fail to accurately record who completed the work. This can leave companies vulnerable to training issues or communication failures, which can be difficult to manage. If a supervisor realizes that one particular staff member needs retraining on a particular machine, making arrangements for that session is simple; if the manager first needs to figure out who is making the mistake, then the issue becomes much more complex.

This can also help employers identify any patterns of internal loss or theft.

How the Problem Was Solved Last Time

Maintenance staff often needs to manage assets which have been in service for as many as thirty years. When problems have occurred in the past, maintenance staff can take the time to track down the person who solved the problem last time and hope that they have an accurate memory, or a CMMS can begin to develop an institutional memory. When technicians make notes about how they solved a problem, that knowledge becomes something that future technicians can access. If the problem requires multiple attempts to solve, it will be easier for the support staff to understand what has already been done.

Predictive Maintenance

Preventative maintenance can help keep problems at bay, but a great strength of the newest wave of CMMS is the ability to identify when a machine is likely to break down before it happens. By tracking slowly building errors or problems, the CMMS data can alert a tech to a potential problem. A technician can then conduct a repair at a time which is convenient for the company instead of interrupting the workflow with an unscheduled problem.

While a CMMS can be an expensive capital investment, it can provide a significant return in CMMS data and alerts which help to reduce downtime, better asset life, and better use of payroll hours. If you want to know more about how a CMMS can benefit your company, visit us at Eagle Technology or contact us by email: sales@eaglecmms.com or phone 1-262-241-3845. We will help you find the best CMMS for your needs.

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