Maintenance is critical to any factory, industrial facility, or other comparable organization’s long-term operation. Despite how far modern technology and machines have progressed, they face the same dangers of deterioration and depredation over time. The only significant difference between then and today is that developments in component and raw material production as well as advances in best maintenance practices have aided in extending the life cycles of components, machines, and overall systems.
Preventive maintenance (PM) is one of the most efficient modern maintenance procedures, with unique advantages over less comprehensive and more primitive alternatives. We’ll take a detailed deep dive into the critical elements of a preventative maintenance program down below.
Computerized Maintenance Management System
A CMMS (computerized maintenance management system) is an application that centralizes maintenance data and simplifies maintenance operations. It aids in optimizing the use and availability of assets such as machinery, vehicles, and other assets.
In a nutshell, a CMMS is a software system that centralizes maintenance information, simplifies procedures, and automates some jobs to increase productivity. CMMS software enhances asset management by removing the need for manual spreadsheets and centralizing all maintenance team tasks.
Features of a Computerized Maintenance Management Software
- Preventive Maintenance
With preventive maintenance software, you may obtain a bird’s-eye view of all the facilities and locations to ensure that effective preventative care is arranged in compliance with the standard operating procedures. You face the danger of having several production mistakes, asset damage, or labor injuries if you do not carefully manage and maintain your equipment.
You may significantly speed the organizing process by using preventative maintenance technologies such as automated triggers, email integration, reminders, equipment information, and auto-assigned tasks. Having preventive maintenance application in place will be less expensive than having to repair or replace damaged equipment.
- Maintenance Request Portal
If the procedure of submitting requests for maintenance is cumbersome, employees will be discouraged from submitting requests at all. Suppose you do not have a request portal to collect and answer maintenance requests. In that case, you may wind up neglecting essential requests, and these unsolved issues may become significant hitches if they go undiscovered for an extended period.
A CMMS system with a request portal will save time and enable staff to forward requests as needed.
- Work Order Management
The work order is the foundation of any CMMS program. The maintenance manager may rapidly allocate work orders to technicians or teams, whether it’s an order for planned maintenance, an inspection, or a breakdown repair. When an order is allocated to a technician who has an account, they will be alerted. Orders can also have locations, assets, components, wrench time, costs, and other information added to them. Orders that have been completed enter data into the CMMS for future reporting and analysis.
- Checklist for Maintenance Work
Sometimes technicians are so stressed up that they forget to do fundamental tasks. The checklist will let the maintenance team know what actions need to be completed so that they do not neglect anything. An excellent program should allow you to update the status of each task on the work order checklist so that the management can keep everyone else up to date.
- Maintenance Log
Maintenance records are crucial for technicians since they help them identify the real problem with the asset. It is also useful for saving time and determining the best or alternate solution to the asset’s problem. Everything that has happened to your assets and what has been done to remedy concerns must be recorded in maintenance logs.
Breakdown, repair, preventative maintenance, MTTR (Mean Time To Repair), MTBF (Mean Time Between Failures), and so on are examples. This capability and capabilities are required for successful maintenance management software.
- Asset Management
A practical and profitable firm is dependent on organizational assets. They not only assist in the production of items but also service consumers and provide value. Any equipment failure has the potential to disrupt your business. Other elements that significantly impact the efficiency of a company’s assets include asset loss, misplacement, and theft. Keeping track of these data will be highly beneficial to you.
- CMMS Mobile App
Mobile communication devices are an essential element of every individual’s and business’s life. If your maintenance management system does not have a mobile app, you will lose a lot. The mobile app component will allow a technician to remain updated on maintenance requests whether they are working at the head office or at a remote location. Check to see whether your vendor has a responsive mobile web interface or a native mobile app.
In Conclusion
When choosing new CMMS software, it is critical to examine function, technology, and support. Of course, a maintenance management software solution should instantly address all of your functional requirements. Other maintenance tasks, such as sensors or online condition monitoring, should be addable to the technology.
Solution suppliers should also provide extensive training and support services before, during, and after software deployment.