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10 Ways a CMMS Benefits your Business

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Rima Chandra
10 Ways a CMMS Benefits your Business

Imagine constantly putting out fires while keeping up with the maintenance schedule and work orders. That’s a day in the life of a maintenance manager. As a maintenance manager, you might often be plagued by complex maintenance issues that a mere cookie-cutter approach will not solve. In such cases, a Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS) software can be the solution you’ve been looking for. It helps you achieve efficiency and control in any sector you are working, ranging from healthcare and education to sports and athletics.

What is a CMMS?

A CMMS is software for maintenance management that digitally stores all the information related to assets, work orders, inventory and more information that will help the maintenance and operations team. The information empowers the user to easily track, manage, report work orders and perform other tasks like asset maintenance and preventive maintenance. However, if you have been used to doing things in a certain way, you might be wondering why you need a CMMS. The article can help you understand how a CMMS can help your business.

Why use a CMMS? 

The following are the benefits of implementing a CMMS in your business:

 

1. Schedule Preventive Maintenance 

One of the most important benefits of using a CMMS is that it enables you to practise preventive maintenance. Before CMMS solutions, maintenance data used to be manually recorded; maintenance was mostly reactive, which means repairs were done only when something broke down. Practising reactive maintenance comes with a host of problems like unexpected downtime and short life expectancy for assets. On the other hand, preventive maintenance can help you identify defects in equipment before they lead to a breakdown. When you schedule preventive maintenance instead of resorting to reactive maintenance, you can expect to see increased asset life span, decreased repair costs, and breakdowns. 

 

2. Effective Utilization of Assets

The importance of a CMMS can be chiefly attributed to streamlining crucial data about asset history like the date of purchase and number of repairs done in the past. It also helps track the asset in terms of location, user, and hours used that can help in ascertaining an asset’s performance trends and the current stage of its lifecycle. Technicians can access this information to schedule preventive maintenance, decide the frequency of maintenance routine, or troubleshoot a failure. In the long run, this will not only extend the asset life but also keep ageing equipment reliable and at its best shape. Overall, it will reduce the cost you will spend on replacement or renewal.

 

3. Dwindling Repair Costs 

A sound CMMS will help users from identifying a piece of equipment requiring repair to assigning a technician to fix it. Since all the information about an asset is available in the CMMS, the maintenance team can easily access it to schedule repair or inspect the assets. Although repairs are unavoidable, businesses using a CMMS can significantly reduce the repair costs because a well-maintained asset rarely breaks down or leads to significant repair. 

 

CMMS benefits extend beyond reducing repair costs. Since a CMMS allows for preventive maintenance, an asset’s maintenance routine can be well-planned at a time that is most beneficial for the business. For example, you can schedule repairs when the asset is not in use or when the facility is empty.

 

4. Reduced Downtime 

When the equipment or machinery you use in your business requires repair or inspection, downtimes occur. A poor maintenance schedule leads to longer downtimes that affect productivity and work hours. With a CMMS being a repository of information about assets, maintenance or operations team can reduce downtime by easily inspecting and repairing the asset at the right time or before it breaks down. Sometimes, downtimes due to repairs are unavoidable. In a business that uses a CMMS, the spare parts required for the repair can be easily tracked, thereby reducing the time spent on repair.

 

5. Helps in Increasing Efficiency 

One of the best benefits of using a CMMS is that it makes maintenance management easier by providing a wealth of information to its users. With the available data, maintenance managers can not only make informed decisions but also run the business operations efficiently by optimizing maintenance schedules; creating maintenance checklists, manuals, workflows; generating and accessing accurate reports. Without CMMS solution, you are looking at cumbersome paperwork, lost work orders, and lost assets.

 

6. Provides a Consolidated Source of Information

A CMMS should be used in businesses because it is a consolidated source of digital information on asset information or work order that can be accessed by all employees. A lack of such consolidated data may result in spending hours tracking down a technician or rectifying breakdowns. Such a large volume of information also makes it easier to prepare for an audit, random inspections, or ISO certifications.

 

7. Cultivate Safe Working Environment

Accidents or risks arising from equipment malfunction or lack of maintenance are a nightmare for any administration. When preventive maintenance schedule is followed, risks and chances of workplace-related accidents are considerably reduced. A sound CMMS ensures the assets meet the required safety standards, thereby promoting a safe work environment.

 

8. Accessible Through Mobile Phones

In a world where smartphones are very prevalent, it will be difficult to adapt if CMMS software can be accessed only through desktops but not through mobile phones. One of the benefits of CMMS is that a user can conveniently login to the mobile app to manage operations. 

 

9. Efficiently Manage Work Orders 

One of the common challenges faced by maintenance managers includes receiving work orders from disparate sources. In such cases, a CMMS can be used to easily create and assign tasks; it helps in tracking the resources necessary to complete the work order. You also get updates on whether the task is overdue or complete.

 

10. Inventory Management Made Easy

A CMMS can benefit your business by helping you gain control over inventory management and inventory forecast. The users are updated on how many inventory items - such as spare parts or supplies - are in stock, how many have been used, how many needs repair, and the timeframe to order new inventory items. Thus, it helps your maintenance team have control over inventory-related costs.

 

The benefits of a CMMS are certainly strong enough to use it in business. However, the main challenge is to find the best CMMS software among the whole slew available in the market. While selecting the company that offers CMMS software, make sure the software is customizable, comes with 24/7 customer support, and is user-friendly. It is crucial to research beforehand because you need the perfect one that will suit your business needs.

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