Core Components Of CMMS
(Computerised Maintenance and Management System)

Well begun is half done! The manufacturers have started migrating towards computerised maintenance management from their traditional approaches to deal with the increasing economic competition. Maintenance management has always formed an integral part of the supply chain. Minimal breakdowns with smooth-running equipment within a limited budget will be the goal that every maintenance and facility managers yearn for.
So what exactly is this CMMS or the Computerised Maintenance Management System?

So now that we have a basic understanding of what CMMS is, let's have a look at what the core components of CMMS are;

1. Work Order Management : This feature of CMMS keeps accounts of the work request, tracks and manages maintenance-related activities. The work request's progress from the order allocation to the planning, scheduling and completion phases are recorded here.
   CMMS perform the following functions in the work order management process
   • Submission, review, allocation and analysis of the work order
   • Schedule and activate maintenance
   • Alerts on the completion of the orders
   • Add risk assessments, manuals, notes etc., to the work orders.

   Advantages of carrying out work order management through CMMS include:

   • Reducing the downtime: Faster the work order is generated, assigned and accomplished, the lesser is the downtime that the asset is facing, and machines can stay in condition for a longer time.
   • Organised information: Resources are organised and available to everyone associated, making the results standardised, troubleshooting easy, and making smart decisions to maximise asset health.
2. Asset Management : Managing the asset can be tedious when the industry involves many assets. Storing, organising and effectively using the information can prove futile if the assets are not adequately managed. A foolproof CMMS can be a solution for this by performing the following functions:
   • Creation of the custom fields that are related to the assets like the asset cost, asset health etc
   • Creation of asset hierarchies: Organising the assets in a parent-to-child hierarchy makes it searchable on a single page.
   • Creating and maintaining asset profiles that everyone can access.
   • Tracking the operations and the performance of the equipment or the assets.

   Some of the advantages the CMMS can offer through the asset management system are

   • Audits: Audits are essential for the proper working of the assets. A digital asset profile will be helpful to conduct an audit as the maintenance information and other information are readily available in the CMMS.
   • Accurate Budgeting: Digital asset profile will contain information about how much maintenance cost is allocated for each piece of equipment and, in turn, help in the capital expenditure forecasting, repair or replace decisions.
   • Efficient Portfolio Management system: All data relating to the asset management and repairs are available to the technicians to complete the maintenance effectively and safely.
   A cloud-based CMMS software helps actively manage the assets across many business locations in real-time.
3. Maintenance Reporting : A user-friendly CMMS system is capable of producing customisable reports on real-time maintenance and KPIs. The characteristics of a robust dashboard and reporting system include :
   • Once built reports are auto-generated the next time so that you don't have to rebuild them.
   • Reports can be shared in different formats like Excel, pdf etc.
   • Deep drill-down capabilities to learn exactly what problem the data is showing.
   • Ability to compare costs and the KPIs between the other facilities and the teams.

   The significant advantages of maintenance reporting include

   • Finding the maintenance's ROI(Return of Investment): Accurate maintenance reporting can help to increase production and reduce costs.
   • Time-Saving: Prebuilt automated reports eliminate the issue of creating reports by hand or in excel, and hence CMMS can save the time of everyone associated with it.
   • Identifying problems and solutions: Reporting helps to identify the problem by pinpointing where the issue started and developing strategies to resolve it.
4. Preventive Maintenance : Preventive Maintenance helps to sequence and schedule preventive work orders, and they can organise and associate assets across multiple orders. Based on time, usage or triggered events, they can automate work order initiation.
   A robust preventive maintenance program can assure the prolonged life and effectiveness of the business assets. The benefits of using this function include:
   • Minimising the expense of the emergency repairs
   • Preventing asset deterioration
   Some of the standard CMMS features that can support this preventive maintenance include inspection management, preventative maintenance checklist, maintenance interval setting, performance maintenance and failure detection.
5. Spare Parts Inventory Management : CMMS organises the spare parts inventory the right way, which can cut down the cost incurred on the spare parts.
   CMMS will perform the following functions :
   • Track spare parts usage and make accurate inventory forecasts.
   • Setting up reminders when the stocks of the spare parts go down the line.
   • Give a basic understanding of which asset is used and if it is needed any longer.
   • Quickly lookup and order the preferred parts from the vendors.

   Advantages of using a spare parts inventory management system

   • Maintenance costs: CMMS will be able to sync the accurate inventory numbers of the spare parts needed with financial softwares like ERP, which will be reflected in the company's financials.
   • Cost-effective: Spare parts can add extra costs if the inefficiencies are caused in the purchased inventories. CMMS can cut these additional costs by forecasting the inventory needs and establishing the just in time delivery.
   • Find missing inventory: Inaccessible inventory is the primary cause of downtime. The CMMS offers a solution by organising exact locations for each part so that finding the missing piece is not hard.
6. Vendor Management : Almost all the factories will have some specialised maintenance work that needs to be carried out by a third party vendor. The outsourcing strategy can be beneficial to the organisation if their works and maintenance records are entirely tracked, which can help to avoid the additional costs.

   CMMS can offer features like:

   • Tracking and managing the vendor's information, past works and invoices.
   • Keeping track of the information about the asset taken care of by the vendor and the spare parts purchased from the vendor.
   • Giving the correct access to the vendor to get the complete information about the work explicitly assigned to them.
7. Sensor integration : An updated version of CMMS will be able to integrate with the condition monitoring sensors. The CMMS can address the sensors and automatically start the work orders depending on the information they receive.
8. Reporting, Analysis and Auditing : CMMS can generate reports across the maintenance categories like asset availability, material usage, labour and material costs, supplier assessments etc. This information can be analysed to understand the asset availability, performance trends, Maintenance Repair and Operations(MRO)inventory optimisation and organise data for the audits.

   CMMS also facilitates customised analyses according to the specific industry and company's unique requirements. Reporting and analysis usually involve:

   • Report Creation
   • Report Auditing
   • KPI Creation
   • Fault Site Reporting

   CMMS, through these core components, find application in a wide range of industries like

   • Manufacturing : CMMS simplify the manufacturing maintenance process and automate the scheduling and tracking processes. It also bridges the gap in equipment maintenance and reduces errors due to mismanaged inventory. It helps in the work order management and automatically sends alerts to the facility managers upon a new service request and updates the other work request on time.
   • Healthcare : Healthcare industry runs on a lot of medical equipment and databases. Manual maintenance-related activities can cause a high risk of losing lives as the emergencies need to be addressed immediately. Delays in maintenance and management can keep the crisis unaddressed. CMMS can also store the data of the maintenance-related activities, so the history of the machines can help the workers identify what went wrong fastly.
   • Automotive Industry : CMMS in the automotive industry manages maintenance activity and increases equipment effectiveness, reliability, and overall effectiveness(OEE). It also optimises asset and spare part inventory management, work request automation and real-time work order updates.
   • Food and Beverage Industry : CMMS in the food and beverage industry adhere to health and safety standards. A good preventive maintenance program can quickly reduce machine breakdowns or equipment malfunctioning and increase overall productivity.
   • Energy : CMMS makes sure that all operations are run safely and effectively. It complies with regulatory standards, increases uptime, and reduces maintenance costs. The issues are reported immediately, and the larger plants' maintenance is tracked. It also maximises the longevity and productivity of the equipment.
   • Plant Hire : In the Plant hire industry, CMMS can plan and execute asset maintenance to increase the reliability, availability performance and overall equipment effectiveness. They also manage the maintenance costs, improve asset performance and create a preventive maintenance schedule.
   • Construction : CMMS tracks all the maintenance work and work requests from the construction site. It also optimises the equipment usage, schedules maintenance work, tracks the availability and maintenance of the spare parts, and makes sure no maintenance is undone.
   • Marine Vessels : CMMS can track vital data and plan maintenance accordingly. It also finds application in effective fleet management, advanced vessel maintenance and maximising the reliability of the assets.