9 Benefits Facility Managers Get From CMMS

CMMS is a maintenance management system that keeps a computerized database of an organization’s planned and corrective maintenance information associated to facility equipment.

It is used to generate, schedule and prioritize work orders for the maintenance staff, allowing them to perform periodic preventative activities. This allows facility managers to effectively execute their asset management strategy. While enabling facility managers to control and improve the way the maintenance activities are carried out, it also provides a host of other organizational benefits, as mentioned below.

Enhances Transparency

CMMS helps facility managers oversee and control the maintenance activities by allowing them to identify an individual’s tasks, assignment due dates, work schedules as well as ongoing tasks, ensuring nothing goes unseen. This automatically enhances labor productivity as it lets managers track the technicians, their daily output and the time required to do so, thus enabling facility managers to allocate jobs best suited to the technician’s skills.

Reduces Downtime

By automatically focusing facility management activities towards automated preventative maintenance it enables managers to spot and address maintenance related issues, thus reducing the chances of downtime or operational disruption.

Simplified Workflow Scheduling

The work request portal is one of the most popular features of the CMMS. It allows unregistered users to log in and put in work requests when and if they notice an issue with the facility, work environment or equipment. The facility manager can then view the pending requests and assign work orders based on priority. And, as an added benefit, the system also notifies the individual who created the work order upon its completion.

Asset History Analysis

The CMMS maintains an individual record for each of the organizations assets. It includes all the details pertaining to the equipment from the day the asset was acquired by the organization. It can also log the labor hours, maintenance issues faced, downtime, costs and expenses incurred through the lifetime of the asset. These records allow the managers produce reports that provide detailed insights into the costs incurred, management and maintenance activities as well as the safety compliance of each asset.

Budgeting and Forecasting

Since CMMS logs all the data related to the organization’s assets, data specific to the costs and other financial aspects of any asset that can then be pulled for quick analysis. This proves to be especially helpful to managers when deciding the periodic maintenance budget as it provides a detailed overview of the asset life, depreciation, estimated costs, problems incurred, etc., thus allowing the facility manager to decide the required budget as per the organization’s current needs.

Expenditure Tracking

The CMMS can log each and every miscellaneous expense related to the asset, thus creating a central database for all maintenance related costs and expenses. So, if there is an issue with the machinery, the facility manager can simply generate a costing report and analyze the data to find the exact pain point and eliminate it.

Reduced Costs

CMMS software allows organizations to control and curb their expenditure in multiple ways. First and foremost, a well-maintained asset always lasts long which directly translates in to lesser long-term expenditure. Nowadays, CMMS can also come with purchasing modules which track all the information related to purchases and stock of supplies in one place. This allows managers to analyze all the past purchases and pick the most cost-effective option when the need arises.

Real-Time Notifications

CMMS software also allow managers to set operation limits for the machinery and equipment as it keeps a check on its daily working and provides real-time alerts in situations where the operational limits are breached. This allows managers to order immediate inspection before the issue worsens, allowing for a quicker turnaround. It can also bring to notice issues like, rising costs, low productivities and repeated breakdowns which enable managers to issue proactive maintenance work orders when the need arises.

Audit and Safety Compliance

Since facility managers can schedule and track drills, safety checks and other compliance maintenance related activities using CMMS, the machinery and equipment are always in good shape, automatically making the organization more safety compliant. The software can also track regulatory checks which stores related documentation as evidence, ensuring the organization is always prepared for audits.

As you can see, CMMS is a valuable tool that helps facility managers make well-structured maintenance plans, allowing them to make informed decisions related to work process flows, track assets, personnel allocation etc. This helps managers optimally utilize the resources at hand in order to increase the overall efficiency of the department while reducing the operational costs.

Author: Lindsey Walker works for NEXGEN Asset Management as their Marketing Manager. With a B.S in Business Information Management, she excels at business development, project management as well as asset management. Her passion for writing allows her to find time from her busy work schedule to share her knowledge on asset management, geographic information systems (GIS), software implementation, training curriculum development, and similar topics. When she isn’t working or writing, she loves to work out, do puzzles and listen to instrumental music.