In an earlier post on computerized maintenance management systems (CMMS), we did a deep dive into how CMMS came to be and what its core capabilities are. Now that you understand the fundamentals, we’re going to dig a little deeper into the benefits of CMMS and how exactly it can transform your maintenance operations as part of your enterprise asset management (EAM) strategy.

When considering if a CMMS is ideal for your maintenance operations, you can start by answering the eight questions below.

1. Would you benefit from having insights from historical data on your maintenance processes?

A CMMS can act as a repository for all the data associated with your assets. It can track things like when it was purchased, when maintenance was performed, frequency of breakdowns, parts used, efficiency, etc. This enables you to make better decisions about each asset – rather than trying to make sense of a bunch of scribbles in a notebook or sift through filing cabinets for old records.

2. Would extending the life of your assets provide significant returns?

Like anything, the longer we can keep a piece of equipment running without major repair, the more money we save in the long run. By introducing a data-driven preventive maintenance strategy to your organization, this becomes a reality. A CMMS can send alerts when maintenance is due – reducing the number of reactive situations and major breakdowns.

3. How much money would you save if you always had the right part available for the repair needed?

By evolving from a reactive maintenance model to a proactive one, planning inventory becomes much more effective. Having to rush-order parts for a specialized piece of equipment quickly becomes expensive, as does maintaining unneeded inventory. Wondering what parts you do have available? A CMMS allows an instant snapshot into your inventory levels at any time.

4. Is your staff overworked or clocking too much overtime?

Improving maintenance operations means less unpleasant surprises for your workers. Say goodbye to having to call in workers at odd hours to fix a leaking pump. No more inconsistent workloads. Each day your technicians have visibility into their workloads – and supervisors can rebalance quickly – so you can stay on top of repairs to avoid unhappy workers. They will also spend much less time doing admin work and more time focusing on their core job roles.

5. Is your industry impacted by specific maintenance standards that you must adhere to?

Audits are about as fun as getting a tooth pulled. But they are a necessary evil that you must prepare for. With a CMMS system, you won’t need to spend hours digging up paperwork and plowing through spreadsheets. Rather, you can generate a simple report with all the answers and data that you need to rock your audit.

6. Is knowledge transfer an issue for your organization?

Everything about the work you do is getting more complex and requires more knowledge and skills. As employees leave the organization, how do you bottle that information and context so new employees can take over with minimal loss of productivity? When it comes to maintenance tasks, a CMMS system provides the structure needed to ensure consistency over time, no matter who is doing the work. You can even add videos, guides and photos to each task to enable proper execution.

7. Would productivity skyrocket if you could streamline the work order process?

Work orders can be simple with CMMS. Rather than a disorganized process that leads to ineffective use of time for you and your staff, you can create a trackable work order in the system. This makes it available to all involved users on any device.  There is no risk of losing a key piece of paperwork or forgetting to fix a pump because you spilled coffee on the post-it that you wrote the task on.

All of this is achievable with a CMMS system. By streamlining all of your asset information, work orders, and historical data into one system, it is possible to improve productivity, extend the life of your assets, and improve the bottom line. Plus, providing mobile capabilities to field service resources allows for real-time tracking of WIP and completed tasks.

Maximo Application Suite has the benefits of CMMS you’ve been waiting for.

With Maximo Application Suite, you get the combination of the world’s leading enterprise asset management system with all of the benefits of CMMS. It’s market-leading technology offered on multi-cloud deployment for greater flexibility.

Explore the world of enterprise asset management

Learn more about CMMS, enterprise asset management (EAM) and asset performance management (APM). Then learn how you can get the most value from your enterprise assets with Maximo Application Suite.