CMMS Systems | 4 Essential Elements | Pervidi

Despite the wide variety of maintenance management software suites available, there are a few "essential elements". This article examines what features are essential to a successful CMMS system.

Scheduling jobs – it is important that your CMMS system is able to schedule jobs. Assets may require maintenance at particular time intervals and so after inputting maintenance and service dates into a CMMS system, an alert will be created to remind those in charge of the task to complete them on time. Often without any CMMS system, scheduled maintenance can be forgotten which can then prove costly if the asset subsequently breaks down.

Assigning personnel – each member of the organisation plays a different role in carrying out the maintenance of assets. A good CMMS system will allow you to assign maintenance tasks to specific individuals. These individuals should be prompted when they are required to perform a maintenance task. If a task is not completed at the correct time by the assigned staff member, management will be alerted and can follow up with the employee in question.

Recording costs – a good CMMS system will also keep track of all the maintenance costs involved with a particular asset. This information can be extremely useful to management when determining which assets are using an unnecessarily large amount of resources. Such assets can either be written off or sold.

Corrective action – CMMS systems should be able to schedule corrective action on an item. Such corrective action tasks may often be neglected and "slip through the cracks". This can cause unnecessary downtime at a high cost to the organisation in question.

Choosing the right CMMS system can be a difficult endeavour but if you look for these four essential elements, you should not run into any problems. Remember to choose the CMMS system software provider that can guarantee these elements as a minimum and tailor the software to suit your organisation.