Gathering & Processing - Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS)
Making work orders work
Most Maintenance and Reliability groups have made a significant investment in a Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS) of some type. Software vendors promise higher craft productivity, together with better visibility over performance and costs.
In reality, however, most CMMS are condemned to function as “work order generators.” Very few take the time to fully understand the needs of the Maintenance group and align CMMS functions to serve the Maintenance and Reliability communities.
In order to make your CMMS investment worthwhile, it has to become a useful tool that supports Maintenance and Reliability processes, but does not dictate them. It is critical that Maintenance has:
- A simple and functional work order process, which…
- Is used to control work flow and labor, in order to…
- Bring the right people together on a given problem…
- With the right parts and tools at the right time.
A work order process should also serve as the organization’s “memory bank,” enabling proper analysis of failure patterns so preventive steps can be created and implemented moving forward.
MTG has years of experience in “cleaning up” after CMMS vendors and finally making work orders work for you:
- Creating simple work order processes that everyone can support and use
- Ensuring that everyone knows how to use the CMMS, that they get what they want and want what they get
- Obtaining real, useful and timely metrics from available data (or data you don’t yet gather)
- Establishing proper review processes that utilize failure data to improve MTBF
- Properly loading supervisors and craft positions so that your backlog is always known and your productivity is as high as possible
- Tying work orders into parts management so that “waiting for parts” becomes the exception rather than the rule
In essence, MTG believes that a CMMS should be a tool that supports your Maintenance and Reliability efforts, rather than a million dollar work order generator!
