August 2005 - Library

18
ntroduction
Rob Saare (Canada)
Tero Consulting Ltd. rob@tero.ca
Today’s maintenance staff is tasked with doing more with less. The challenge here is that their efficiency ratings when measured
can be as low as 10% to 40%. So where does your maintenance department stand in terms of these statistics?
Although CMMS software has been around for more than 20 years, and the adoption rate continues to climb, many companies still
s t ruggle with creating an efficient centralized maintenance and operations program. By program, we are talking about an allencompassing
maintenance plan that includes;
✓ A centralized software package to collect and distribute data,
✓ A set of business rules to create a proactive approach to maintenance
✓ A team of dedicated people to execute effectively.
Having assisted hundreds of organizations both big and small across North America over the past 25 years, we have had the
opportunity to be part of some great CMMS implementations and we have also seen where corners being cut reduced the results
dramatically.
The ideas and concepts shared in this paper should be considered when choosing a program that will meet your short, mid and
long-term maintenance goals, from both a software infrastructure point of view and an organizational behavior standpoint.
Step 1. -Where to Start
As with any need for change, the place to start is by doing an inventory of your current maintenance practices. Here you will define
three key areas; I. Tools II. Process III. People
I. Tools
Developing An
Effective CMMS
Implementation Plan
I
Here it is a good idea to inventory all of the various software tools used to input maintenance data from across the organization.
We have seen companies with multiple locations using diff e rent software tools at each location. Each location stores their data
independently and then reports to corporate in different formats. This lack of efficiency means that if you are not reporting on all
of your cost centers properly, you may be asking for accounting issues later on.
A centralized CMMS can begin the process of collecting important maintenance data in one central repository and share this data
with the affected departments. Data collection is by far the largest waste of human resources for any company due to disparate
systems. By standardizing data entry and collection into one program, you can see immediate benefits when it comes to reporting
and sharing of data. This data can then be used to more proactively plan future projects and initiatives that can result in huge
savings.
Another eye opening reason for this exercise is to determine your costs for software licensing, support and upgrades. You may find
that this cost alone will outweigh the investment in procuring a new software package and the ensuing implementation. You may
v e ry well find out that you already have a software package that is doing a good job and perhaps it is time to sit down with the
vendor and discuss a corporate wide roll-out.
So to review:
1) Inventory the tools currently used to manage, collect & distribute data
2) Determine the costs associated for licensing, support and upgrades