Increasing maintenance efficiency through CMMS
The primary objective of a CMMS software is to increase maintenance efficiency through:
- inventory: fleet referencing;
- organization: integration of the preventive maintenance plan, maintenance planning;
- reporting & traceability: monitoring maintenance operations, parts usage, history, etc.;
- analysis: costs, MTTR, MTBF, availability, preventive/corrective maintenance ratio, etc.;
- optimization: asset replacement, planning for more preventive maintenance…
CMMS improve communication from the maintenance department
Improved communication is one benefit of CMMS that is often underestimated, even though it should be considered an objective in and of itself for CMMS implementation.
A CMMS solution enables maintenance team members to share accurate information in real-time. Instant communication then leads to substantial gains in efficiency, and teamwork and validation processes are simplified. Consequently, your technicians avoid invalid requests and reduce response time.
The CMMS unlocks a “360° communication” with the maintenance department’s customers, internally, and with its environment.
A powerful communication tool for maintenance customers
Customers can be external or internal if they affect people within the structure (for example, nursing staff in the biomedical sector, production personnel in manufacturing, or office workers in the service sector). Exchanges between customers and the maintenance department can often be lacking.
As a customer, have you ever been frustrated due to not knowing when a requested maintenance work was scheduled for? Or have you experienced difficulties contacting the technicians once they had reached the maintenance site? On the other end, have you ever received incomplete requests from customers as a maintenance operator?
CMMS turn optimized communication between customers and maintainers into a reality.
For starters, they make communication with the maintenance department more fluid, with work requests generated from a phone or a web portal. These work requests are enriched with mandatory fields to fill in to help the maintenance department better grasp the problem.
On the other side, the maintenance department will keep the customer up-to-date via the CMMS or automatic notifications. The customer will be able to track the status of his request (accepted, scheduled for, postponed, completed, etc.).
Optimized communication between the members of the maintenance team
The CMMS sets the stage for better communication within the maintenance department thanks to several factors:
- the possibility for instant knowledge sharing;
- implementing feedback measures such as fault tree analysis;
- real-time updates among colleagues regarding changes in work schedules, absences, etc.;
- data continuity in the event of a change in personnel, etc.
A CMMS is a powerful internal communication tool because it helps your technicians quickly identify complications in a machine. Furthermore, it allows them to access the machine’s maintenance history and check if it presented similar problems before. CMMS prove useful when it comes to problem understanding and problem-solving.
Thanks to the digital solution, the technician can promptly take the right course of action and be as efficient as possible. In particular, he can easily check via the CMMS if the spare parts necessary for the job are available. If not, he can create an alert and flag the item’s unavailability so that it is restocked quickly.
Better organized communication with the maintenance department ecosystem
The CMMS software even allows for better communication outside the department, with stakeholders directly impacted by a maintenance operation such as:
- Management : to justify the need for additional personnel or parts, or highlight the success and improvements of the maintenance department;
- Auditors : to confidently meet the requirements of ISO or FDA CFR Part 21 standards, for example;
- Suppliers : to communicate orders, expected lead times, and delivery reminders directly.
If you are already using a CMMS software, are you making the most out of the solution to improve communication?
If you still work with excel tables and paper documents, what are you waiting for to create a serene workplace with effective communication?
