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In all
presentation that I make and also in the electronic mail groups, this question
frequently arises: Which is the best CMMS? And my answer will always be the same
one: The one that is fully used.
For
those who have been in maintenance for many years, it is easy to understand that
a system doesn't require too much sophistication to offer us a good service.
However, it is indispensable to provide the system with all the necessary
information, otherwise we won't be able to obtain a favorable result.
It
doesn't matter if it is a package of a few hundred dollars or one of ten
thousand. If it is used well, it pays for itself with the multitude of services
that it can provide us. If it is not used well or it is not provided the correct
information, which unfortunately happens in about 90% of the cases, no software
package can make a miracle.
Some
of the reasons where the CMMS systems don't work well:
The
person in charge of introducing the information doesn't know anything or very
little about the program or of the maintenance work, or both.
The
work orders are not able to complete the cycle: Emission, Execution, Feedback,
because the personnel has not understood the importance of contributing to such
purpose.
From
the beginning it was not possible to establish the correct machines catalog,
reserve parts, suppliers, required services, etc.
It is
not considered important to report details of what was or was not made; neither
is it upgraded to conform to the changes in the system or the plant.
The
program of Preventive Maintenance is not realistic or reachable. As a result,
the people responsible of doing it lie in the reports.
The
maintenance personnel don't have the appropriate training in the equipment as
well as in the requirements of the program.
Too
many "emergency" services happen and the process of information is put
aside.
Several
of the intrinsic aspects of the TPM mean an important support to the good use of
a CMMS program.
The
education and the training that are promoted by TPM pay special attention to the
importance of documenting all the relative issues related to the equipment, as
well as to pinpoint the Root Cause of the problems. These formative elements
should extend to the point that all the personnel can operate the system
correctly, to conclude and complete the work orders, to feed the information
corresponding into the system, to adjust the identifications of Preventive
Maintenance, to generate reports and in general, to take advantage of the
program. This totally eliminates the need for a person to be unaware of the
maintenance items to be involved in that task. In certain cases, a revolving
system takes place so that the calls will always be answered by a technician,
who will have the ability to issue the work order and to assign it, although
when having a monitor open in all the shops, it is frequent to see technicians
self-assign an order as soon as this it is issued. When having this kind of
access, it is easy to get each technician to return directly to the terminal to
close the order in a timely manner
when he has a fresh vision of what happened and of how it was solved.
As the
TPM advances in the plant, the equipment catalogs, parts, etc. will keep
upgrading and maintaining up-to-date information. The same happens to the
improved maintainability that will facilitate the development of the Preventive
Maintenance. The technicians will be empowered to make the pertinent adjustments
to the PM orders.
TPM
considerably diminishes the incidence of "emergency" repairs so the
personnel has the necessary time to keep the information base up to date.
In the
typical plant, 80% of the maintenance work is for emergencies and only 20% for
preventive and scheduled jobs. Once TPM is implemented, that proportion is
usually reversed and it can still improve. There are plants where after two or
three years of implementation they end up having even less than 10% of
“emergency” services. That allows them to have very effective programs of
Preventive and Predictive Maintenance.
Also
read: To CMMS or Not To CMMS
Our
website: www.CMMSworld.com
will welcome your comments and input and questions in this important subject
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