Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS0 manage maintenance tasks easily, effectively, and efficiently to save time, materials and labor costs. Use this Business.com guide to understand the advantages, application modules, key features, trends and costs of CMMS.

1. 1
Business.com Guide
to Maintenance
Management Software

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3. Contents
What is CMMS? 4
CMMS Advantages 6
CMMS Application Modules 8
CMMS Key Features 10
CMMS Trends 13
CMMS Step by Step 15
Calculating the Total Costs of CMMS 18
Business.com Checklist for CMMS 20
Glossary of CMMS Terms 22

4. 4
What is CMMS?
C
omputerized Maintenance Management Systems (CMMS)
automatically forecast, monitor, schedule, track, and archive standard
upkeep tasks performed at required intervals for equipment or
facilities. Maintenance intervals can be based on hours in use, frequency
of use, monthly periods, or other manufacturer specifications. For example,
an automotive CMMS would track fleet vehicles, scheduling them for oil
changes every 3,000 miles, or for a new air filter every 12 months.
The elimination of paperwork and manual recordkeeping results in these benefits
from installing and using CMMS:
¾¾ Improved resource utilization and minimized operational downtime,
extending equipment lifespans at minimal expense.
¾¾ Improved productivity by maximizing equipment uptime and maintaining
peak operating conditions.
¾¾ More effective deployment of maintenance staff.

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¾¾ Reduced insurance premiums due to fewer equipment malfunctions
and a safer workplace.
¾¾ Reduced and liability and ensuring compliance with legal obligations.
Certain types of equipment (e.g., medical equipment, elevators, fire
sprinklers) are required by law to be inspected and maintained at
specified intervals. Ensuring work is performed as legally mandated
protects against lawsuits and damages.
¾¾ Better decision-making. Identification of underperforming equipment
and procedures, labor inefficiencies or reasons for outages enables
better and more accountable maintenance decision-making.
CMMS is used by maintenance departments and/or business units responsible
for certain equipment (e.g., the motor vehicle operations department that is
responsible for company-owned fleet vehicles) in one or more locations and
facilities. This distinguishes CMMS from Enterprise Asset Management (EAM)
systems which, though similar in purpose, oversee all of a company’s assets
(including digital assets), not just those of a single department or facility.
In many cases, there are CMMS packages customized to the needs of a specific
industry, such as airlines, rental car companies, or for a specific use, such as
building maintenance.

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CMMS Advantages
C
MMS manages maintenance tasks easily, effectively and efficiently
to save time, materials and labor costs. CMMS capabilities that
streamline maintenance operations include:
¾¾ Real-time access to parts and equipment inventory to achieve accurate,
quick, and timely replenishment that saves money by maintaining
inventory at appropriate stock levels.
¾¾ Reducing redundant stock and eliminating costly surplus.
¾¾ Obtaining a “single picture” of preventative maintenance at multiple
facilities to optimize activities.
¾¾ Immediate access to electronic reports eliminates time-consuming
manual data reconciliation and delays in receiving paper-based reports
from multiple locations/facilities/ departments; all data are instantly
shared and accessible across organizations.

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¾¾ Automatic notification of warranty expirations to schedule parts
replacements and maintenance to avoid expensive post-warranty
repair costs.
¾¾ Generating customized reports to fit needs of different departments,
managers and maintenance operations, e.g., organizing data by
geography, asset, equipment type, department, or other attribute.
¾¾ Analytical reporting for work orders and maintenance identifies
operational inefficiencies and provides other actionable insights to
improve bottom line performance.
¾¾ Generating work requests at “source” level, i.e., users of the equipment.
CMMS generates customized reports to fit needs of
different departments, managers and maintenance
operations, e.g., organizing data by geography, asset,
equipment type, department, or other attribute.

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CMMS Application Modules
C
MMS may comprise all or a
combination of the following
application modules:
¾¾ Asset Tracking. Maintains details on equipment, machines, buildings,
vehicles or other assets such as purchase date, cost, depreciation,
anticipated lifetime, warranty information, and maintenance history.
¾¾ Inventory Tracking. Maintains current location status of equipment,
parts, tools, and other materials. A scheduling system allows
personnel to reserve tools and check equipment in and out of
inventory as needed.
¾¾ Purchase Tracking. Real-time updates of when and where supplies
were purchased, quantities, and total purchase costs. May also send
out automatic requests for quotes to qualified vendors, triggered by
predefined low stock levels.

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¾¾ Preventive Maintenance Scheduling. Establishes when maintenance
is to be performed (based on calendar dates, meter readings, or other
custom-set triggers) and coordinates other scheduled tasks, e.g.,
reserving equipment required to perform maintenance, issuing and
tracking work orders, and scheduling necessary personnel and/outside
maintenance personnel.
¾¾ Maintenance Monitoring. Monitors current equipment conditions and
compares with historical performance trends. Automatically schedules
service tasks based when certain indicators (e.g., noise, vibration,
temperature, pressure, flow) fall outside of normal boundaries.
¾¾ Work Order Tracking. Creates work requests and implements work
order process, including scheduling maintenance/repairs, assigning
personnel, reserving tools/materials for work to be performed,
determining downtime, and logging work completion and updated
equipment status.
These capabilities may be sold as separate packages rather than as a single
complete system. Separate modules must fully integrate with your existing
capabilities.

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CMMS Key Features
Key features of maintenance software include:
¾¾ Alerts. Automatically notify appropriate managers/technicians of an
upcoming maintenance “event” and any associated activities that might
be combined to minimize asset downtime. Alerts are delivered by text
message or email, or automatically sent to a printer and are triggered by:
ƒƒ preprogrammed calendar entries
ƒƒ equipment meter readings
ƒƒ inventory levels
ƒƒ upcoming maintenance schedules
ƒƒ user-defined conditions
¾¾ User-Defined Meters. Set variables such as frequency of use or
miles driven to monitor whether equipment is used within defined
parameters and generates an alert when equipment has exceeded
its normal range.

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¾¾ Maintenance Documentation. A library both of manufacturer-
recommended maintenance schedules and historical maintenance
work performed for each item of equipment.
¾¾ Barcoding: A quick scan of equipment’s barcode immediately
retrieves its entire history, saving on manual search time and
improving efficiency. Moreover, new information can be easily
associated to the barcode and becomes immediately a part of its
history, accessible to all other authorized users.
¾¾ Mobile Capabilities. Technicians frequently work in the field or
other locations where a desktop or even a laptop computer is not
readily accessible or convenient. Mobile access allows the same
functionality from a smartphone or tablet as from a desktop or laptop
computer to generate work orders, track maintenance status, and
perform equipment inventory. In addition, voice recognition and
speech-to-text systems common to most mobile devices let the
technician record notes simply by speaking. These recorded notes
automatically become part of the equipment’s history, eliminating the
need to manually enter data, thus improving not only the efficiency of
the technician, but reducing the possibility of errors.

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¾¾ Asset Ranking. These tools grade equipment performance
according to user and manufacturer criteria, calculating the costs of
operation and predicting probable lifespan based on how well the
equipment meets, exceeds, or fails to satisfy the specified criteria.
Asset ranking tools grade equipment performance
according to user and manufacturer criteria, calculating
the costs of operation and predicting probable lifespan.

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CMMS Trends
¾¾ On-Premise Hosting vs. Cloud Computing. A recent survey of
maintenance professionals found that a majority (66%) preferred
CMMS hosted on-premise. This is in contrast to the growing trend
in the software services industry toward cloud hosting (essentially
a series of large servers in one location shared by a multitude of
users). However, a CyberMetrics whitepaper predicts that CMMS
users will catch up with the general trend because cloud computing
offers richer functionality without the traditional expense and
overhead of a dedicated IT staff required for on-premises solutions.
¾¾ Strategic Partnerships. As the industry moves towards cloud
computing, there is a concomitant move away from “vendor as
supplier” to “vendor as partner.” The CMMS provider offering SaaS
(Software as a Service) has a different customer orientation -- the
focus is no longer simply on installing the system and moving on to the
next installation. Instead, it is working with customers on a continual
basis to help achieve goals that evolve in tandem with their business.

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¾¾ Ease-of-Use. CMMS is not intended for your IT department, but
regular folks who just want it to work without having to spend
inordinate time deciphering cryptic instructions. Fortunately, just
about every major CMMS vendor is trying to outdo one another in
making software that is easy to learn, simple to navigate, and flexible
to accommodate individual needs. Look for packages that are easily
personalized to your needs.
¾¾ Pricing. There is no one standard pricing methodology, which may,
unfortunately, make comparing quotes feel like comparing apples to
oranges. Some vendors set a different price for each type of user (work
requestor, maintenance technician, administrator), while others price
by module or functionality, and still others price simply based on hourly
usage. Rule of thumb: Look first at what packages are in your budget
range, then compare feature/functionalities offered at the quoted price
points, and then look at how that pricing is calculated.
Just about every major CMMS vendor is trying
to outdo one another in making software that is
easy to learn, simple to navigate, and flexible to
accommodate individual needs.

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CMMS Step by Step
1. Set goals. What are you looking to achieve by implementing CMMS?
Is it to standardize processes across the company? Reduce operational
costs? Create efficiencies and reduce choke points? All of the above?
These are all general kind of questions. Once you’ve got some general
sense of where you want to go, it’s time to set goals -- specific goals that
are measureable, attainable, and relevant to how your business works,
and can be accomplished by a reasonable deadline. Example: The current
average time between a creation of a work order and its completion is
four days; the goal is to shorten that time by two days, and to achieve that
within 30 days of implementing your CMMS.
2. Develop a plan to achieve your goals. For example, say, your goal
is to track the use of tools that get checked in an out of inventory to
perform maintenance. What kind of data do you need to develop and
how do you need to track it? Only you can make that decision. So, you
have to determine if you have a numbering scheme in place to record
inventory, and whether it is compatible with the CMMS programs under
consideration. If not, what changes might you need to make and at
what cost? Is it better to change your numbering scheme to suit the
requirements of the CMMS, or to look for a CMMS that can better adapt to
yours? Answering those kinds of questions leads to a plan of action that
can support your goals.

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3. Separate the necessary from the nice-to-have. Make a list of the features
and functions you absolutely need to achieve your goals. Make a separate
wish list of capabilities that might be nice to have. Don’t even consider the
wish list until after you’ve checked off everything on the first list.
4. Think about the big picture. What other systems will your new CMMS
interact with, and can they be integrated? Do you need mobile capability?
Cloud-based or on-premise storage? An IT department that can fully
support whatever CMMS you get? Or are you going to rely on the vendor?
5. Standardize. Many organizations have multiple facilities, each with separate
maintenance staff and different ways of performing maintenance. But the
whole point of CMMS is to get everyone “on the same page,” so that as
personnel move from one facility to another there’s no learning curve required
to adapt to a different set of processes. Consequently, the company as a
whole works more efficiently among its various departments and locations.
The whole point of CMMS is to get everyone “on the
same page,” so that as personnel move from one
facility to another there’s no learning curve required
to adapt to a different set of processes.

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6. Get buy-in. The latest and the coolest technology may be the latest
and the coolest, but it doesn’t necessarily mean it works for your
employees and your processes. As with any technology purchase, you
need to get commitment from everyone involved -- not just management
and maintenance personnel, but everyone who may interact with a
maintenance issue, i.e., anyone who might submit a problem report.Your
CMMS solution needs to work for everyone -- or it won’t work, no matter
how cool or current the technology.
7. Phase-in. When implementing new technology, it’s best to phase-in one
component at a time, to get people used to something new, but also to
gather experience that helps you prepare and implement the next phase.
Most vendors recommend starting with computerizing work orders first,
then preventive maintenance operations and, lastly, the most data-
intensive function, inventory control.
When implementing new technology, it’s best to
phase-in one component at a time, to get people used
to something new, but also to gather experience that
helps you prepare and implement the next phase.

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Calculating the Total
Costs of CMMS
T
here are costs of implementing CMMS
beyond the price of the software.
These include:
¾¾ Hardware upgrades/acquisitions to implement CMMS.
¾¾ Software upgrades to implement CMMS. (For example, some packages
run only on the most current versions of Windows, so if you’re still
running Windows XP, most likely you’ll have to buy an upgrade.)
¾¾ Training costs.
¾¾ Support costs.

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¾¾ Cost of implementation beyond the vendor’s time, e.g., how much time
is estimated for personnel to learn the system, which is time they won’t
be doing their jobs.
¾¾ Learning curve costs; what’s the reasonable anticipation of work
slowdowns while people learn the system?

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Business.com Checklist for CMMS
My Needs Vendor 1 Vendor 2
What I am looking to do:
• Track assets
• Inventory Control
• Track Purchasing
• Schedule Preventive Maintenance
• Monitor Maintenance Activities
• Create/Track Work Orders
Features/Functions:
• Alert Notification
• User-Defined Meters
• Maintenance Library
• Barcoding
• Mobile Capabilities
• Asset Ranking
Hosting:
• On-premises
• Cloud
Pricing:
• Number of Users
• Type of Users
• Module/Functions
• Hourly Usage
Hardware modifications/upgrades required?
Software modifications/upgrades required?
Seamless integration with existing IT system?

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Support:
• On-site Training
• 24/7 Email, Chat, Telephone Support
• Free Upgrades?
Days of training required to gain a basic understanding
and proficient use on the level of:
• Manager
• Maintenance Personnel
• Non-Maintenance Personnel
Other costs beyond implementation?

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Glossary of CMMS Terms
Administrator: Person(s) responsible for managing CMMS; administrative rights
and responsibilities include performing backup operations, issuing passwords,
authorizing users, and ensuring security.
Asset: Equipment, software, hardware, building, tools, or other resource that has
economic value.
Bill of Material: An identifying tag placed on spare parts that associates it to the
appropriate equipment.
Chargeback: Allocating expenses to a third-party (e.g., charging a tenant for
maintenance work on rented equipment).
Corrective Maintenance: Work that fixes an existing problem, as opposed to
preventive maintenance intended to avoid future problems.
Cost Center: Organization or department that is held responsible for paying
expenses incurred to perform maintenance or other work.
Demand Maintenance: Work performed in response to a specific request.

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Downtime: Period when equipment is unavailable for use because it is being
repaired or is broken.
MTBF: Mean Time Between Failures. Average length of time equipment remains
running before something breaks.
MTBR: Mean Time Between Repairs. Average length of time before repairs are
likely to occur.
Planned Downtime: Interruption of equipment
service due to scheduled maintenance.
PM Task: Preventive Maintenance Task. Typically, a checklist or set of step-by-
step instructions on how to perform a specific maintenance job.
Preventive Maintenance: Regular “check-up” work intended to prevent future
problems, e.g., inspection, lubrication, part replacement.
Unplanned Downtime: Interruption of service resulting from equipment failure.
Work Order: Description of a maintenance job distributed to personnel who
perform the maintenance. An open work order is something scheduled but not
yet performed; a closed work order means work has been completed.
Work Request: Typically submitted by non-maintenance personnel to provide
details about a problem in order to generate a work order.