Month: July 2019

What is Software as a Service? | Benefits of SaaS

Posted: 7/30/2019

Software as a Service concept represented by an open laptop, tablet, and white smartphone on a desk.

What is Software as a Service (SaaS)?

Software as a Service (SaaS) is a software delivery model in which software is hosted by a third-party in the cloud, accessed by users over the internet, and licensed on a subscription basis. This definition is a bit technical, so we will try to break it down. Software as a Service is defined by two components – where the software is hosted and the licensing model.

Let’s start with where the software is hosted. In the Software as a Service model, a third-party vendor hosts your software on a remote server, known as “the cloud.” You then access the software over the Internet, usually through an mobile app or web browser. Unlike traditional software, which requires you to install software to your server or hard drive, cloud-based software puts the onus of hosting on the vendor. This provides many benefits to industrial organizations, which are discussed later.

Now let’s talk about the licensing model. Simply put, a software license grants you permission to use a software application. Software licenses can be owned (perpetual) or rented (subscription). Traditional, installed software uses perpetual licenses, which allow you to make a one-time license purchase and use the software indefinitely.

Rented licenses, such as those used in the Software as a Service subscriptions, are paid on a monthly or annual basis. You are given permission to use the software so long as your subscription is paid – this is where the “service” aspect comes in. There is more discussion to be had about licensing, but for the sake of this article, we will stop here.

Why SaaS? Challenges of the Traditional Software Model

In the past, organizations were responsible for hosting and maintaining software on their own premises. This meant working with a dedicated IT staff, buying servers and storage, providing security, and spending valuable resources on software installation and maintenance. In addition, IT resources were needed to perform ongoing software upgrades, install patches, carry out disaster recovery tests, and manage software licenses. While this software delivery method is viable for large companies, the costs are too great for small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs).

These obstacles prevented SMBs from implementing business software, such as computerized maintenance management software. Instead, many SMBs stuck with manual or low-tech methods for tracking maintenance, and still continue to do so today. However, computer technology has advanced and introduced new ways to make business software possible for all companies. Software as a Service (SaaS) addressed many of the challenges of locally-installed software and is now an industry-standard model for vendors offering CMMS.

SaaS Examples

You may already be using some Software as a Service products in your everyday life. While some of them have a free version, you may pay (either monthly or annually) to unlock more than what’s offered in the free version, such as advanced features, additional storage space, etc.

  • Video Streaming: Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video
  • Online News: The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today
  • Email: Gmail, Yahoo Mail, Outlook (formerly Hotmail)
  • Entertainment: PlayStation Network, Xbox Live, Nintendo Online
  • Cloud Storage: Google Drive, iCloud, Dropbox
  • Productivity Software: Microsoft Office 365, Slack, Basecamp
  • Google Apps: Google Docs, Google Sheets, Google Photos

Note: All company names, product names, trademarks, and registered trademarks are property of their respective owners.

Benefits of Software as a Service

Today, many software vendors offer their product through the Software as a Service model, which offers many built-in benefits including:

  • Lower Upfront Costs: SaaS subscription plans eliminate the higher upfront purchase and installation costs associated with on-premise software.
  • Lower Financial Risk: Monthly or annual subscriptions allow you to start and stop as you please. If you decide to cancel or switch providers, your losses are minimized.
  • Accessibility: Because of the low startup costs, SMBs can now afford to purchase and use powerful software that might have otherwise been unobtainable.
  • Lower Cost of Ownership: SaaS subscriptions are cheaper over the long run compared to the equipment and staffing costs associated with running an internal system.
  • Flexibility: Multiple subscription options allow you to pay only for what you need. If you discover additional needs, SaaS makes it easy to switch plans.
  • Reduced Time to Benefit: Since it is delivered over the internet, you do not have to wait for disks to arrive or IT to install the software. SaaS allows you to get started right away, thereby shortening your payback period.
  • Predictable Fees: Regular SaaS subscriptions fees make it easier to budget because costs are more predictable.
  • Ongoing Support: Subscription fees typically include ongoing support and upgrades. Therefore, you won’t have to worry about the penalties of expired warranties or service agreements.

Software as a Service (SaaS) CMMS

With the introduction of the SaaS delivery model, CMMS software is a possibility for every company, regardless of size. FTMaintenance is offered through a number of Software as a Service subscriptions. These low-cost, low-risk subscription plans are designed to accommodate the needs of everyone from first-time CMMS users to experienced maintenance management software veterans.

Creating a Culture of Accountability with CMMS

Posted: 7/23/2019

three industrial technicians discussing the results of previous maintenance work

What is Accountability in Maintenance Management?

When you hear the word accountability, what do you feel? Fear? Stress? Usually when we hear this word, it’s in reaction to a negative situation – something went wrong and someone will be blamed for the event. You might say that a person must be held accountable for his/her actions, suggesting that there should be some punishment. Due to this association, moving towards a culture of accountability can be challenging.

With that said, it is important to remember that “accountability” is not the same as “blame.” Accountability is being responsible for one’s own actions and the results of those actions, both good and bad. For maintenance managers, the goal of creating a culture of accountability is to improve maintenance processes, not to assign blame. Accountability is a forward-thinking strategy. Your team is made up of problem solvers. Every failure is an opportunity to learn from what went wrong and what could be done to improve the situation or to prevent it from happening in the future.

Creating a Culture of Accountability

Accountability starts with communication. Maintenance managers must help technicians understand what is expected of them, to what standard work will be held, and what deadlines must be met. They also have an obligation to monitor the processes put in place and ensure that procedures are being followed. Being able to express concerns and accept feedback also plays an important role in strengthening communication and maintaining accountability.

The idea of accountability sounds really good on paper, but how does it play out on the plant floor? After all, there’s only one of you – you can’t watch what every person is doing every minute of every day. How can you ensure that your staff members are personally invested in developing and maintaining a culture of accountability? How can you make sure that maintenance is being performed correctly? How can you make sure that employees are staying productive? How will technicians know the specifications for each asset?

One thing you can do is provide tools, like computerized maintenance management software (CMMS), for you and your staff that documents, tracks, and communicates your maintenance process along with detailed feedback on the maintenance performance of your staff.

How a CMMS Improves Accountability

Without a system in place for communicating maintenance requirements and performance expectations, it is difficult for anyone to be accountable for their work. There is no record that can be referenced when there are miscommunications and misunderstandings about a particular job or task. A CMMS helps foster communication by documenting and storing information about your maintenance assets. The following are a few ways in which a CMMS can help improve accountability.

Work Order Tracking

A CMMS helps you create detail-rich work orders and provides you with full visibility of work being done. Using work order software to generate work orders makes it easy to communicate necessary details such as who is responsible for the work, what materials are needed to complete the job, and when the work must be completed. You can also use the CMMS to quickly check the status of work orders and follow up on any tasks that are incomplete or overdue. The work order itself then becomes the reference point for both maintenance manager and technician to discuss.

Preventive Maintenance

Preventive maintenance (PM) procedures must be closely followed in order to keep equipment functioning. Because the consequences that may occur from skipped or missed preventive maintenance can be quite serious, it is important that all team members are held accountable for their timely and accurate completion. Preventive maintenance software, like CMMS, can be just the tool you need to keep your team accountable.

Scheduling PMs for a handful of assets may not be much of a problem, but most companies maintain hundreds – if not thousands – of pieces of equipment. Without CMMS, keeping track of these schedules is nearly impossible. Automated work order generation, distribution, and notification ensure that preventive maintenance assignments are not missed or forgotten.

CMMS also helps you standardize PM activities through the use of tasks. Detailed tasks lists communicate your expectations for the work while also serving the purpose of providing step-by-step instructions for technicians to follow. In general, task lists will spell out what must be done, how it should be done, what guidelines or specifications must be met, and approximately how long a task should take. Because they follow the same procedure each and every time, it becomes easy to tell when PMs fall below expectations and where additional training might be needed. This performance evaluation data is most clearly revealed in reports, which are discussed later.

Notifications

Notifications automate communication about the status of your maintenance activities, helping to ensure that work is not forgotten, lost, or miscommunicated. When a maintenance request or work order is created in CMMS software, notifications can be sent to the right people, letting them know that a new job is waiting.

A CMMS can also be used to implement an approval process for work order closure. As part of this process, notifications can inform a superior that a work order is ready for approval or let someone else know that approval has been given. Securing the approval of others helps facilitate a system of checks and balances that ensures maintenance work is meeting expectations.

Mobility

A mobile CMMS empowers your staff to use maintenance software from the field. With more access to your maintenance management software, technicians are more likely to report issues on the spot, track tasks and time as they go, and stay productive. CMMS software that includes GPS or GIS functionality can also help you keep track of where employees and assets are located.

Reports and Dashboards

Maintenance reports and dashboards are vital tools for holding your team accountable for its performance. Maintenance management reports help you track productivity, work completion rates, maintenance costs, and more. Dashboards graphically display key performance indicators (KPIs), allowing you to monitor operations at a glance. Analyzing the metrics provided by a CMMS helps you identify areas of improvement, which can be reviewed with your team.

Improve Accountability at Your Facility

Accountability should not be considered a bad word. It is a shared responsibility between team members that can foster more collaboration and accuracy, thereby improving maintenance operations and morale. But creating a culture of accountability requires the right tools. FTMaintenance provides a single platform for managing, documenting, and tracking maintenance activities. Request a demo of FTMaintenance to discover how our maintenance management software can help improve accountability.

How a CMMS Supports Compliance and Audit Preparation

Posted: 7/17/2019

A technician closes the valve on the tube of an oil pump as a regulatory compliance task in a CMMS.

Computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) software is an ideal tool to make meeting regulatory compliance standards easier for every business. Regulatory compliance is an organization’s adherence to laws, regulations, and directives relevant to their business processes. These processes may include the production or maintenance of products, services, assets, and labor hours—all things about which you can store data in a CMMS.

Depending on your industry, you may have regulatory compliance standards to which you must adhere. Some industries have more stringent regulations than others because their products or services demand closer monitoring.

For example, companies in the Food and Beverage and Pharmaceuticals industries must uphold strict U.S. Food and Drug Administrations (FDA) standards because their products are made for consumption. Power and energy companies need to keep up with Occupational Safety and Health Association (OSHA) regulations, as well as the ever-changing environmental protection laws set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

What Auditors Want to See

When it comes to compliance audits, auditors want to see that your processes meet the following five criteria:

  1. Say What You Do (Have Quality Procedures)
  2. Do What You Say (Follow the Procedures)
  3. Record What You Did (Keep Quality Records)
  4. Prove It (Check the Results)
  5. Improve It (Act on the Differences)

A good CMMS can assist you will all of these steps. Here is a simple example:

Let’s say you are a mass-production bakery and you have industrial-sized ovens in which grease builds up after use. You need to sanitize the oven before the grease and bacteria collect to unsafe levels.

In an audit, you must provide all the work order records for this sanitation process, instructions stating the specific steps involved in that process, and documentation proving the process was completed each time it was necessary. If someone inspected the oven to ensure the sanitation process was done correctly, documentation should also show that.

Finally, if any problems were encountered, improvements to the process should be documented in the CMMS as well. For instance, maybe you had to switch cleaning products because the first one left a residue.

How a CMMS Prepares You for Compliance Audits

CMMS software can assist you in preparation for external compliance audits. While there are different features that provide specific documentation for audits, using a CMMS in and of itself shows auditors you take these regulations seriously. Below are just a few ways in which a CMMS helps you pass compliance audits.

Audit Trail Capabilities

Audit trail capabilities in CMMS software automatically log all changes to work orders, including what specific changes were made, who made them, and when. This builds data about work order history while providing the documentation you need to pass audits. Audit trail functions were designed to meet the needs of organizations with multiple locations, allowing you to verify procedures in minute detail. In addition to being able to see work order change records, you can also view employee use of CMMS software.

Electronic Signatures

In the pharmaceutical, medical, and food and beverage industries, the FDA Title 21 CFR Part 11 plays an important role. Instead of submitting paper records, you can use a CMMS to prove compliance via electronic signatures on work orders to ensure all the proper procedures were followed. You can set work order closure permissions to require approval, and there are other settings you can select to provide electronic sign-off on all documentation you might need for regulatory compliance.

Learn more about what FDA 21 CFR Part 11 Compliance means for maintenance teams

Reporting

CMMS software often contains several built-in reports.  Maintenance reports show proof of regulatory compliance, especially ones related to your equipment, maintenance activities (work orders), and labor. Most CMMS software has the capability to modify reports to meet your ever-changing compliance audit needs. If a specific report is needed, but not found, custom report writing services may also be an option.

Preventive Maintenance Tasks

You can create a preventive maintenance (PM) tasks list within most CMMS software, which contains information that specifies the standard procedures for various jobs. Users creating PM work orders can select these tasks and add them to work orders, ensuring that the correct procedure is followed every time.

Automated PM activation functionality ensures daily, weekly, monthly, and annual checks or inspections are never missed. Maintenance history (which is also created for corrective maintenance jobs), displays proof that the jobs were completed.

Employee Information

Regulatory compliance audits can also involve presenting information about your employees. A CMMS links individual employee certifications to employee records, where they can be quickly found when needed. Depending on which maintenance management software you choose, more information about your employees may be stored to make it easier to assign jobs appropriately and evenly distribute labor hours.

Customization of Field Requirements

System administrators can customize the fields required to complete and close work orders, as well as customize other data entry fields. This ensures that you capture all the information needed to pass compliance audits.

FTMaintenance Assists with Audit Preparation

While compliance audits are typically scheduled once per year, surprise audits are also conducted to ensure companies are compliant at all times. With FTMaintenance CMMS, you will be prepared for your next audit, whether it’s expected or not. Schedule a demo to view all of the features FTMaintenance has that can assist with compliance audits.

What is Corrective Maintenance? | Definition, Types, and Examples

Posted: 7/15/2019

Climbing window washers cleaning the outside of an office building as part of facility-centric corrective maintenance

Even if you don’t call it by this name, you may already be familiar with the concept of corrective maintenance in your daily life. If the dryer breaks, you fix or replace it. If windows are dirty, you clean them. If the color of your siding is fading, you paint it.

When this concept is applied to the industrial workplace, there’s a little more to it. Machine breakdowns require investigation to identify the issue and make a decision as to whether a part should be repaired or replaced. Components are cleaned so that assets can perform at their highest capacity. General upkeep is done to keep environments safe and secure.

You know that preventive maintenance is used to prevent breakdowns before they happen, so where does corrective maintenance fit into the big picture?

Read Blog Post: What is Preventive Maintenance?

Corrective Maintenance Definition

Corrective maintenance (CM) is a maintenance task performed to restore a non- or under-performing asset to an optimum or operational condition. This corrective maintenance definition may mean different things, depending on your organization or industry.

For example, corrective maintenance in equipment-centric businesses may be the repair or replacement of a part that has worn down. Companies that deal primarily with non-equipment assets, such as facilities or property, might consider mowing the lawn to be CM.

The need for corrective action may be discovered in many ways. A maintenance technician may notice a degrading part while performing a preventive maintenance job like an inspection. A machine operator may alert the maintenance team that equipment is not functioning as expected. Seasonal weather may dictate the need for corrective maintenance, such as when a parking lot must be plowed after a snow storm.

Types of Corrective Maintenance

CM can be broken down into smaller categories: scheduled and unscheduled.

  • Scheduled corrective maintenance: Maintenance that is needed, but not required to be performed immediately.
  • Unscheduled corrective maintenance: Maintenance that is required due to a critical failure that must be corrected without delay.

Corrective Maintenance Examples

The following examples are based on the types of corrective maintenance listed above:

  • A spray nozzle becomes clogged causing lubricant to stop flowing through the nozzle. A work order is created to clear the blockage or replace the nozzle head at the time of the next inspection (scheduled corrective maintenance).
  • Mineral build-up from hard water collects in a pipe, increasing the pressure and causing it to burst. The pipe must be replaced as soon as possible (unscheduled corrective maintenance).

Advantages of Corrective Maintenance

When used as part of a larger maintenance strategy, corrective maintenance can provide multiple benefits.

  • Less Planning Required: Although some corrective maintenance activities must still be planned, compared to preventive maintenance schedules, there is less planning involved.
  • Simplified Process: CM is need-based, allowing the maintenance team to focus on other tasks, such as preventive maintenance, until a breakdown or adverse condition occurs.
  • More Appropriate in Some Cases: Corrective maintenance can save money because you don’t need to repair or replace an asset until maintenance is truly needed. For example, it is more cost-effective to replace a light bulb when it burns out than to spend time, money, and effort creating a preventive maintenance plan.

Disadvantages of Corrective Maintenance

Relying solely on CM without the benefit of a preventive maintenance strategy can have significant shortcomings.

  • Increased Downtime: When serious problems arise, maintenance can be a slow and expensive process. Periods of equipment downtime affect production, costing the organization money.
  • Higher Maintenance Costs: Without preventive maintenance, the condition of assets can deteriorate more significantly before problems are discovered, requiring the repair or replacement of more parts while also increasing labor costs.
  • Safety Issues: When performed in response to a breakdown where money is being lost every second, maintenance may be rushed, leading to a higher risk of unsafe or improper work.
  • Unpredictability: When emergencies happen, all other maintenance work is put on hold until the problem is resolved, leading to a backlog of work orders. Maintenance managers must also quickly identify the technicians and parts needed to address the repair.

When to Use Corrective Maintenance

Corrective maintenance is unavoidable. Every maintenance team performs some form of maintenance in response to equipment breakdowns and failures. But as we’ve stated, relying too heavily on CM can negatively impact operations. So when should you use corrective maintenance over other types of maintenance, such as preventive maintenance?

The decision can depend on many things, such as the cost of downtime, your assets’ reliability, and whether assets can be easily swapped if problems occur. Your company may also conduct a cost-benefits analysis on your assets to help support the case for scheduled corrective maintenance. Experts recommend that your balance of corrective vs. preventive maintenance should be 80/20. That is, 80% of maintenance should be preventive, while the remaining 20% should be corrective maintenance.

How CMMS Software Helps

The goal of every maintenance team is to reduce asset downtime. A computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) like FTMaintenance stores information about corrective maintenance activities and automatically builds a maintenance history. During critical corrective maintenance tasks, it also allows technicians to quickly check an asset’s service history, speeding up troubleshooting and repairs. Corrective maintenance data can be analyzed to identify trends, spawning future preventive maintenance that will help avert future failure. Learn more about all the CMMS features FTMaintenance has to offer.

Digitizing Maintenance Management: Transitioning from Manual Methods to CMMS

Posted: 7/11/2019

Close up of person placing paper work orders in a filing cabinet as part of a manual maintenance tracking system.

Despite the availability of specialized maintenance software, many maintenance teams still rely on manual or outdated systems to manage their operations. While pen and paper, Microsoft Word documents, and Excel spreadsheets can work for small operations, they quickly become inefficient as teams or asset counts grow.

A computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) replaces these manual tools with a centralized, digital platform for organizing, managing, documenting, and tracking maintenance activities. Unlike paper or spreadsheets, a CMMS provides automation and efficiency, real-time access to maintenance data, and offers valuable insights into your performance.

For many organizations, transitioning from manual tracking to a CMMS can feel daunting, but it doesn’t have to be. This article is intended to make the transition to a CMMS feel less intimidating by breaking it down into smaller parts and showing that it is entirely achievable with the right approach. By the end, you will know exactly what’s involved and be ready to start evaluating CMMS solutions.

Why It’s Time to Digitize Your Maintenance Management Practices

Close up of hands typing on a keyboard to represent digitized maintenance management.

For many organizations, manual maintenance tracking starts out just fine. When you only have a few assets to maintain and a small maintenance team, handwritten notes, emails, and spreadsheets can seem sufficient. After all, these non-technical solutions are familiar to nearly everyone and don’t require much effort to manage.

But as your operation grows, those same tools that once worked so well begin to show their limits. Whiteboards fill up, paper forms pile up, spreadsheets get crowded and outdated, and before long you struggle to see what’s been done, what’s overdue, and where your team spends their time. In short, these systems lack the structure, visibility, and scalability required for a proactive, effective maintenance strategy.

Here are some signs it’s time to move beyond manual maintenance tracking:

  • Your asset base is growing: As you acquire more equipment, tracking maintenance history and schedules becomes increasingly time-consuming and error-prone.
  • Work orders and requests slip through the cracks: Paper forms and email threads can easily be lost or overlooked, leading to missed preventive maintenance, unplanned downtime, and frustration.
  • Maintenance work is mostly reactive: There is no structure in place to schedule preventive maintenance and coordinate resources, causing technicians to constantly put out fires.
  • You’re unsure whether your maintenance efforts are working: Compiling performance data takes hours and often produces incomplete or inconsistent results, making it difficult to measure KPIs or demonstrate your team’s value to the organization.
  • Maintenance costs are hard to track: Manual systems make it difficult to see where money is being spent: whether on parts, labor, downtime, or other resources, making it difficult to control expenses or plan for future projects.
  • Communication is disjointed: When requests come from multiple channels, it’s difficult to track priorities and response times, and important work may get missed.

Digitizing your maintenance management with a CMMS addresses these challenges and more. A CMMS centralizes your maintenance information, automates administrative work, and provides visibility into every aspect of your maintenance operations. While making the switch from manual systems can seem overwhelming, understanding what a CMMS does makes it easier to imagine how your existing maintenance process could work in a digital system.

What is a CMMS?

Close up of CMMS software on a laptop sitting on a desk with a hard hat.

CMMS stands for computerized maintenance management system. It’s often used to describe the software itself, but the “system” extends beyond the product to include the people who use it, the processes and workflows it supports, the data it manages, the assets and resources it tracks, and the policies and workflows that guide how maintenance is performed. Together, these elements create a structure for organizing and improving maintenance operations.

In this article, we focus primarily on the software. We dive deeper into computerized maintenance management systems in our article, What is a CMMS?

Main Features of CMMS Software

The primary function of a CMMS is to track work orders, but modern solutions do much more than that. While each solution is different, they usually contain a core set of features for managing maintenance resources. This includes:

  • Work order management: Create work orders and track their status and completion from start to finish.
  • Asset management: Track your asset base, including their type, location, performance, and maintenance costs.
  • Preventive maintenance: Plan and schedule proactive maintenance using time-based or usage-based triggers.
  • Spare parts and inventory management: Easily identify parts, where they are located, and manage related purchasing and replenishment activities.
  • Analytics and reporting: Summarize and visualize maintenance data to track performance and identify areas of improvement.
  • Mobile maintenance management: Extend the core software to field technicians using a mobile device.

With these features and functionality in place, a CMMS provides several advantages that help maintenance teams work more effectively and efficiently.

Benefits of CMMS over Manual Maintenance Tracking

By centralizing information and automating key tasks, a CMMS provides the following benefits over manual systems:

  • Centralized data: Store all maintenance data in one place for easier access and management.
  • Real-time updates: Keep records current, ensuring you are working from the most recent and accurate information.
  • Automated tasks: Automate work orders, preventive maintenance scheduling, and inventory tracking to reduce administrative work.
  • Better visibility and reporting: Gain a holistic view of your maintenance operations, enabling quicker insights into asset performance, team productivity, and KPIs.
  • Lower maintenance costs: Track labor, parts, and downtime more accurately to identify cost-saving opportunities and improve budget predictability.
  • Improved safety and compliance: Simplify documentation, automate reminders, and generate reports to meet regulatory and safety standards.
  • Scalability: Expand the system as maintenance needs grow.

With a clear understanding of what a CMMS offers, let’s explore how to take the first steps towards digitizing your maintenance operations.

Laying the Groundwork for Implementation

Close up of gears to represent implementation and parts working together.

Moving your maintenance operations to a CMMS requires a structured approach. Whether you currently use a patchwork of different tools or already have a good understanding of your assets and workflows, taking time to review your current environment and organize your data will make implementation smoother and less stressful. Below are the steps you should follow to prepare for the transition to a CMMS.

Define Your CMMS Goals

Before you start even researching solutions or talking with salespeople, it’s important to understand what you want to accomplish with the CMMS and to set measurable goals. Many organizations aim to reduce downtime, maximize asset life, and lower maintenance costs, but your priorities may be different. Having clearly defined goals helps you know what data to collect, choose the right CMMS solution, track progress, and stay focused during implementation.

When setting goals, establish both short-term and long-term targets. Short-term, attainable goals create “quick wins” that demonstrate why you purchased the system in the first place and build confidence in the system. Long-term goals give your team something to work toward and allow you to measure performance over time. As you make progress, the CMMS will collect valuable data that can be used to assess key performance indicators (KPIs) and guide continuous improvement.

Set Implementation Priorities

Implementing a CMMS can feel overwhelming if you try to tackle everything at once. Without clear priorities, it’s easy to lose focus and miss important implementation milestones. Start by identifying which features or workflows are most critical to your operations and focus on those first. Once the system is up and running, you can gradually introduce additional functionality.

This phased approach ensures that you address your most essential needs first and gives your team time to get familiar with the software. For additional tips on avoiding common implementation pitfalls, see our article, Overcoming CMMS Implementation Failures.

Prepare Your Team for Change

Change doesn’t always come easy, especially changes as significant as moving from manual methods to a computerized system. Among the challenges of CMMS user adoption, is a desire to maintain the status quo and continue to use the tools currently in place.

One way to minimize resistance is to communicate with your team early and often about why the CMMS is being introduced, what processes may change, and how the system will benefit the organization. Address any questions and concerns upfront, and involve your team in the implementation process where possible. Giving your team a voice helps foster buy-in and increases the likelihood of success.

Gather, Review, and Clean Your Existing Data

Your CMMS is only as good as the data it contains, and bad maintenance data can derail even a well-planned implementation. Taking time to gather, review, and clean your data before launch ensures you start with accurate, reliable information. No matter where your data is currently stored, developing a clear data plan can make transitioning easier.

What Are My Options for Data Entry?

CMMS vendors offer several ways to get your maintenance data into the system: manual data entry, data importation tools, and professional data importation services. Before deciding which method to use, one of the first questions to consider is whether you want to migrate your legacy maintenance data or start fresh in the new system. What method is best depends on the quality, accuracy, and completeness of your existing data.

If your legacy data is reliable, importation can save significant time and preserve historical records. If your data is outdated, incomplete, or inconsistent, consider starting from scratch or selectively importing only trustworthy data. Regardless of the approach, prioritize critical data, such as data about high-value assets or active work orders. Less urgent data can be added gradually, allowing your team to start using the CMMS quickly while continuing to build out your database.

What Maintenance Data Should I Collect?

A CMMS allows you to enter and track several different types of data, but that doesn’t mean that you need to spend time ensuring every field has a value. Focus on the most important data according to your goals. For example, you may collect the following asset data:

  • Identification Data
    • Name
    • Number
    • Type of asset
    • Description
    • Manufacturer
    • Make/model
    • Serial number
    • Related assets
  • Repair vs. Replace Data
    • Purchase date
    • Original cost
    • Expected usable life
    • Warranty
  • Safety and Compliance Data
    • Criticality
    • Safety documentation
    • Documentation related to regulatory requirements

Maintenance data is more than facts about your assets and resources. When gathering data, include maintenance documentation like user manuals, CAD drawings, diagrams, and other non-text data that will help you build your digital maintenance library.

How Should I Prepare Maintenance Data for the CMMS?

The effectiveness of your CMMS depends on the quality of the data you enter, so it’s important to start with clean, reliable information. Before migrating your data, take the time to review and correct any errors, remove any duplicates, and ensure consistency. Consider the following CMMS data best practices:

  • Remove obsolete and duplicate records
  • Standardize record IDs
  • Check spelling, correct typos, and ensure consistent capitalization and spacing
  • Fill in missing data
  • Ensure data meets the CMMS’s format and length requirements
  • Add supplementary information that support your maintenance goals

Starting with a clean, organized dataset helps you see what information is missing, what additional data may be needed, and how your current records fit into the new system.

Create an Implementation Timeline

Because transitioning to a CMMS is such a significant project, it deserves careful, thoughtful planning. Too often, pressure from management, upcoming maintenance audits, or maintenance emergencies cause organizations to speed through implementation, resulting in confusing workflows, poor data quality, and low user adoption.

A clear, well-paced timeline keeps implementation on track and sets expectations for what steps come next. At this stage, your timeline doesn’t need to be overly detailed, but it should set realistic dates for milestones such as data preparation, system selection, software configuration, training, and launch. Be sure to build in some flexibility for troubleshooting or unexpected delays, especially during data migration and training.

Choose the Right CMMS Vendor

One of the most important decisions you will make in this process is selecting the right CMMS vendor. Keep in mind that your relationship doesn’t end after you purchase the software. The vendor will be your partner during implementation and beyond and provide your team with the training and ongoing support needed to be successful with the system.

To find the right vendor, take time to research your options, evaluate their service and support options, and be prepared to ask questions about what matters most to you. For guidance, see our article Questions to Ask Your CMMS Vendor Before Buying.

What’s Next?

At this point, you should be well-prepared to start researching vendors, evaluating CMMS solutions, making a decision, and implementing the software. To help you continue your journey, explore the following articles:

Digitize Your Maintenance Operations with FTMaintenance Select

Moving from manual tracking to a CMMS can feel daunting, but it doesn’t have to be. Breaking up the transition into smaller, manageable steps makes the process entirely achievable. FTMaintenance Select provides the powerful CMMS software and support needed to help you make the leap. Request a demo of FTMaintenance Select today to see firsthand how it can digitize your maintenance operations and set you up for long-term success.

What is Preventive Maintenance? | Definition, Types, and Examples Explained

Posted: 7/10/2019

A technician performing a preventive maintenance calibration test on a pneumatic control valve with a specialized instrument.

What is Preventive Maintenance?

Preventive maintenance (PM), sometimes called preventative maintenance, is maintenance that is proactively performed on an asset with the goal of lessening the likelihood of failure, reducing unexpected downtime, and prolonging its useful life.

In practice, this means regularly checking equipment for small problems and fixing them before failure can occur. Preventive maintenance activities may consist of inspections, calibrations, lubrications, adjustments, cleaning, or part replacements. As preventive maintenance activities are performed, workers also document an asset’s condition so they know when future maintenance may be needed.

Why Is PM Important?

Imagine what would happen if you waited until your car’s engine failed before you got an oil change. Each time this occurs, you would have to pay for an emergency tow truck to take it to a repair shop where the engine can be fixed. That’s if there is no catastrophic damage. Otherwise, you must source a rebuilt engine (usually thousands of dollars) and install it. Meanwhile, you must also find an alternate mode of transportation.

Clearly, waiting for your engine to fail is not only inconvenient, but also costly in terms of money and time. It would be much easier to try to prevent the breakdown before it happens. This same logic applies to the equipment and assets you work with every day.

Types of Preventive Maintenance

Preventive maintenance can take many forms. The two most common are:

  • Calendar-based preventive maintenance: Maintenance activities are scheduled based on a specific date, or a time interval such as number of days.
  • Runtime-based preventive maintenance: Maintenance activities are scheduled based on a specific measured runtime unit, such as miles, hours, or level.

Based on our definition above, the following may also be categorized as types of preventive maintenance:

  • Condition-based maintenance (CbM): Maintenance is scheduled when a monitored condition characteristic of an asset’s normal operation, such as temperature, vibration, pressure, meter readings, etc., is out of its normal measured range.
  • Predictive maintenance (PdM): Maintenance is scheduled by analyzing real-time equipment data and data from previous breakdowns.

Preventive Maintenance Examples

The following are examples of preventive maintenance examples, based on the types defined earlier in this article.

  • A work order for cleaning the gutters is created every 6 months (calendar-based).
  • An oil change work order is assigned to a technician after every 5,000 miles traveled by a fleet vehicle (runtime-based).
  • An equipment sensor shows that a shaft is vibrating beyond normal limits. A work order is created with instructions to inspect, and potentially replace, the bearings (condition-based maintenance).
  • After analyzing real-time and historical maintenance data, an analyst concludes that a machine will likely fail after running for 1,000 hours. A work order is created to inspect a subassembly after 950 more hours of runtime (predictive maintenance).

Advantages and Disadvantages of Preventive Maintenance

Advantages

There are a number of advantages of preventive maintenance compared to other types of maintenance, such as corrective maintenance (CM).

  • Better Preparation for Maintenance Work: Since maintenance activities can be planned ahead of time, you can efficiently coordinate any required parts, supplies, and labor resources before work is due.
  • Improved Scheduling: PM activities can be scheduled to fit into the production schedule or during planned plant shutdowns.
  • Lower Overall Maintenance Costs: Unplanned maintenance is often more expensive due to excessive downtime, loss of production, and expedited shipping fees. The cost of preventive maintenance activities is more controlled. In fact, companies typically save 12-18% on total maintenance costs using preventive maintenance.

Disadvantages

Preventive maintenance is an important part of every maintenance strategy. However, preventive maintenance does have some limitations.

  • More Time Needed to Plan: Designing a PM plan takes time, effort, and ability. This project requires dedicated resources, which may not always be readily available.
  • Increased Costs from Excessive Maintenance: Performing maintenance on equipment that doesn’t need it leads to unnecessary downtime, labor costs, and part usage. Additionally, incorrect re-assembly, misalignment, or other errors caused by nonessential interactions can actually reduce the reliability of your assets.
  • More Maintenance Resources are Required: Preventive maintenance requires additional workers, parts, and budget to implement correctly. However, the long-term benefits you will receive will far outweigh this requirement.

When to Use Preventive Maintenance

Even with all its benefits, it may not always be clear when to use preventive maintenance. Ideally, you’ll want to use it to extend the lifespan of all your assets, but if you’re just getting started, you need to prioritize.

At a minimum, preventive maintenance should be applied to assets that are critical to production, where their ability to perform their job is of high importance. From there, you can expand your plan to include non-critical equipment and facilities.

Using a PM program can also better organize the activities of the maintenance department. Carefully thinking through your maintenance operations helps you better forecast the demand for maintenance resources and make it easier to balance the work load. The creation of standardized PM task lists will ensure that all employees are performing work in the same way. Also, using a preventive maintenance plan as a guide keeps the team on task and makes sure that maintenance is being done when it’s needed.

How Preventive Maintenance Software Helps

Preventive maintenance simplifies and standardizes complex maintenance processes. However, because PMs will likely be performed on a large number of assets, it is nearly impossible to effectively track everything manually. Preventive maintenance software, like FTMaintenance computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) software, stores all of your maintenance data in one place so you can easily keep track of all your PM activities.

Benefits of Mobile Maintenance Software

Posted: 7/10/2019

Laptop computer keyboard with tablet pc and smart phone on a wooden desk that could be used as part of a mobile maintenance software experience.

Mobile devices are essential to everyday life. For example, we rely on smart phones for communicating with friends and family, and tablets for browsing the internet and providing entertainment. But even with their widespread use, a surprisingly large number of industrial organizations (approximately 65%, according to a 2019 Plant Engineering study) are not yet using mobile devices for maintenance purposes.

Given the mounting pressure to keep equipment and facilities running, maintenance teams must do what it takes to remain productive and efficient. One way to do this is to use mobile maintenance software, also called mobile CMMS.

Benefits of Mobile Maintenance Software

Reduced Downtime

At some point, your assets will experience downtime for maintenance work. Mobile maintenance software notifies you of urgent repairs wherever you are located, shortening the gap of time between when problems occur and when they are resolved.

From the location of the asset in need of repair, your staff can quickly look up service history, maintenance records, and inventory information for faster troubleshooting. Once the problem has been identified, mobile CMMS can be used to check if repair parts are in stock or identify who to call to place an order – right from the machine.

Increased Accessibility

The lack of available stationary computing resources stifles productivity. When only a few people have access to a computer, they become responsible for all data entry. Teams that must use shared workstations are often left waiting for computers to become available. Even computers dedicated to the maintenance team may be set up in inconvenient locations. A mobile-accessible solution puts your CMMS into anyone’s hands.

Workforce Mobility

Maintenance is anything but a desk job. With mobile CMMS software, staff is no longer tied to stationary computers and can cover a larger area of the plant. Additionally, less time is wasted walking between offices, stockrooms, and job sites.

Another benefit related to workforce mobility is anytime, anywhere work order creation. Using mobile maintenance software, you can send work orders to technicians in the field. If a maintenance issue is noticed while in the field, technicians can create work orders right then and there.

Streamlined Processes

Technicians are more likely to input information when using a mobile CMMS. Instead of waiting until the end of the day to enter data into the system, technicians can record information as work is being performed (or shortly after it is complete). A mobile CMMS solution makes it easy for your team to enter equipment usage information and inspection-based data from right in front of a piece of equipment. Technicians can also use mobile maintenance software to create, view, change, and close work orders on the spot.

Convenience

Mobile devices offer many time-saving features well-suited for use in maintenance operations. For starters, mobile maintenance software is designed specifically for use on different screen sizes, leading to a simplified user interface. Cameras embedded in smart phones and tablets allow you to add supplemental details to work orders via images or videos. Talk-to-text data entry is more convenient (and often faster) than using an on-screen keyboard. Finally, staff can use their own, familiar mobile devices to access the CMMS.

Paperless Workplace

Mobile maintenance software helps support a paperless maintenance environment. With everything stored in a mobile-accessible CMMS, you no longer have to sift through stacks of paperwork or dig through file cabinets. By removing this clutter, work orders and other documentation are less likely to get lost.

Going paperless also reduces your businesses’ overhead costs associated with printer supplies, printer maintenance, ink cartridge disposal, and energy use. It’s environmentally friendly, too!

FTMaintenance Mobile Maintenance Management Software

Investing in a mobile maintenance management solution brings many benefits to your maintenance operations, such as reduced downtime, increased productivity, and more. Schedule a demo today to learn more about FTMaintenance mobile CMMS.

CMMS ROI and Payback: Proving the Value of CMMS to Decision Makers

Posted: 7/10/2019

Return on investment concept shown by white collar man sitting at a laptop with an overlay of cost-related graphics

When upper management sets a goal like reducing maintenance costs, it’s up to maintenance leaders to figure out how to make it happen. That often means taking a hard look at current operations and identifying ways to be more efficient, proactive, and accountable.

While there are many ways to control maintenance costs, one of the most effective solutions is a computerized maintenance management system (CMMS). But before you can move forward, you’ll likely need to build a business case that shows how the investment will pay off – and when.

In this article, you’ll learn how to calculate the return on investment (ROI) for a CMMS by estimating current maintenance costs, projecting the value a CMMS can deliver, and determining how long it will take to recover your investment.

Understanding CMMS ROI

CMMS ROI measures how much value you gain from CMMS software relative to the cost of investment within a set timeframe. Although ROI is often used after a purchase to assess cost-effectiveness, it can also be used during the buying process as a forecasting tool to project potential value and justify the purchase.

By calculating project ROI, you can build a strong business case for investing in a CMMS and demonstrate to executives how it will reduce maintenance costs.

CMMS ROI Formula

CMMS ROI formula of the difference between value and cost, divided by cost.

To calculate CMMS ROI, compare the cost of implementing the software against its value over a given period. The most common way to calculate ROI is subtracting the CMMS cost from its potential value, then dividing by the CMMS cost. To get the most accurate ROI estimation, you must know:

  • CMMS Cost: The purchase price of the software, including any additional costs for implementation, training and customer support, or hardware
  • Potential CMMS Value: The projected cost savings across all areas of your maintenance operations
  • Timeframe: The period over which benefits are measured – often 1, 5, or 10 years, as determined by upper management.

To calculate CMMS ROI, you’ll need to estimate both the cost of the system and the value it provides. The sections below explain how to gather the numbers needed to plug into the ROI formula.

Determining CMMS Cost

When estimating your CMMS investment, be sure to account for both direct and indirect costs.

The direct cost of a CMMS is the purchase price of the system, including licenses and any supporting infrastructure or services required to get your team up and running. Indirect costs are related to your specific implementation needs and may be impacted by your organization, industry, and deployment requirements. These can include:

  • Implementation services such as installation, consulting, data importation, or system integration
  • User training
  • Customer support contracts
  • Hardware like mobile devices, barcode systems, or servers (for CMMS deployed on-premise)
  • Software such as operating systems or web browsers
  • Software validation (especially in regulated industries)

For example, if you plan to give technicians access to work orders while in the field, you may need to purchase mobile devices or upgrade your internet service. Costs like these aren’t included in vendor quotes, but they’re essential to determining an accurate CMMS ROI.

Further Reading: 10 Things to Consider When Searching for CMMS Software

Determining CMMS Value

Close-up shot of a pen pointing to monthly costs in a table, with bar charts above.

To estimate the potential value a CMMS can deliver, you have to understand what you’re currently spending – and where – and  how the software will help you reduce those costs. In most cases, the value of a CMMS comes from eliminating inefficiencies like saving time, preventing unplanned downtime, and reducing unnecessary spending.

Where a CMMS Adds Value

A CMMS creates savings across several areas of your maintenance operations. Common areas of impact include:

  • Administrative Tasks: Less time generating and processing work orders, managing incoming service requests, and scheduling recurring tasks
  • Inventory: Fewer rush orders, reduced excess stock, better part availability, and improved tracking of locations and quantities
  • Labor Management: Faster response times, less manual data entry, improved oversight, and more time for hands-on maintenance work
  • Equipment Reliability: Fewer unplanned breakdowns, better failure tracking and root cause analysis, and greater visibility into asset condition and performance
  • Reporting and Compliance: Automated KPI tracking, recordkeeping, and documentation to support maintenance audits and regulatory compliance

Understanding where a CMMS adds value is only half the equation. You also need to estimate your current maintenance costs in each of those categories to determine how much you could save.

How to Estimate Current Maintenance Costs

Organizations that formally track maintenance costs may have data readily available through their accounting system or enterprise resource planning (ERP) software. For example, the accounting team may be able to provide overall maintenance, labor, and material costs. The procurement team may provide information about MRO inventory purchases. Historical work orders can also be used to estimate maintenance costs, assuming that such information is documented.

If exact figures aren’t available, thinking of costs in terms of time can be a useful substitute. Ask questions like:

  • How many hours of emergency maintenance do we experience per week, month, or year?
  • How many hours of lost production time do we average weekly, monthly, or annually?
  • How much time is spent creating and closing work orders each week, month, or year?

Then, assign a cost to each unit of time.

For example, if your technicians average 10 hours per week on emergency maintenance and the average labor rate is $35 per hour, that’s $350 per week – or over $18,000 per year. That’s just the labor cost, not including any overtime, lost production, or other consequences.

You can repeat this exercise across multiple areas or your operations to build a complete picture of your current maintenance spend.

Be sure to calculate all costs using the same timeframe you plan to use for your CMMS ROI calculation. For example, if you’re calculating ROI over a 1-year period, multiply your average monthly cost by 12 – or your weekly cost by 52 – to estimate annual totals. This ensures that your cost and value estimates are consistent, making your final ROI calculation meaningful and defensible.

Projecting CMMS Savings

Once you’ve estimated your current maintenance costs, the next step is to project how a CMMS can reduce them. To do that, look at your baseline numbers and apply a reasonable percentage reduction based on process improvements or efficiency gains.

Let’s revisit the earlier emergency maintenance example:

If your team currently spends 10 hours per week on emergency repairs at a labor rate of $35 per hour, that’s $18,200 per year. If you project that a CMMS could reduce that time by 20% (from 10 hours to 8 hours per week), that’s a savings of $3,640 per year in labor costs alone.

This same method can be applied anywhere a CMMS adds value. The more accurate your current cost estimates, the more realistic your projected savings will be.

What Percentages Should You Use?

Industry reports and vendor case studies often suggest that CMMS users can achieve cost savings between 20%-50% across various maintenance management areas. While these figures are encouraging, they represent best-case scenarios and may not reflect your organization’s current maturity, processes, or readiness for change.

We encourage you to treat these benchmarks as high-end estimates, not guaranteed results. Instead of taking percentages at face value, focus on making realistic projections based on your organization’s goals and known inefficiencies. Here are a few data points to consider:

  • A Plant Engineering example shows gradual cost savings of 2%, 4%, and 7% over three years based on growing CMMS adoption and process improvements.
  • A Reliable Plant article estimates organizations can save 12% – 18% by shifting from reactive to preventive maintenance.
  • A Maintenance World article suggests successful CMMS implementations may reduce overall maintenance costs by up to 40%, and inventory valuation by up to 30%.

Because these numbers vary widely, consider starting with conservative estimates. You might estimate 5% – 20% savings in high-impact areas like labor, unplanned downtime, inventory, or administrative overhead. As noted in our example earlier, reducing emergency maintenance by just 2 hours per week led to a 20% reduction in labor costs.

If you are still unsure where to start, identify one or two high-cost areas in your current operation and apply modest reduction percentages. Even small improvements can lead to significant ROI when scaled across your entire operation over time.

Putting it All Together: 5-Year CMMS ROI Example

Once you’ve estimated your maintenance costs and projected the value a CMMS can deliver, you can calculate your return on investment using the formula provided earlier:

CMMS ROI = (CMMS Value – CMMS Cost) ÷ CMMS Cost

Let’s walk through a realistic example using the following assumptions:

  • Upper management requests an ROI projection over a 5-year period
  • The organization subscribes to a cloud-hosted CMMS for 5 users
  • Licenses are $50 per user, per month – totaling $3,000 per year
  • Initial annual savings = $5,000, broken down as follows:
    • $3,640 in labor savings, based on 2 fewer emergency maintenance hours per week
    • $800 in inventory savings, based on fewer rush orders and better inventory control
    • $560 in administrative time, based on improved work order processing
  • Savings increase modestly over time as the maintenance team becomes more proficient in using the CMMS

In this example, ROI is calculated cumulatively over five years – meaning total costs and savings are tallied each year before the ROI formula is applied. Note that for simplicity, this example assumes annual costs remain constant over the 5-year period.

Dual-axis line chart showing cumulative costs and savings on the primary Y-axis, and ROI on the secondary Y-axis

Year Annual Cost Annual Savings Cumulative Cost Cumulative Savings ROI Calculation ROI 
1 $3,000 $5,000 $3,000 $5,000 ($5,000 – $3,000) / $3,000 66.7%
2 $3,000 $5,500 $6,000 $10,500 ($10,500 – $6,000) / $6,000 75%
3 $3,000 $6,000 $9,000 $16,500 ($16,500 – $9,000) / $9,000 83.3%
4 $3,000 $6,500 $12,000 $23,000 ($23,000 – $12,000) / $12,000 91.7%
5 $3,000 $7,000 $15,000 $30,000 ($30,000 – $15,000) / $15,000 100%


After 5 years, the CMMS not only pays for itself but delivers an additional $15,000 in savings, resulting in a 100% return on investment.

How to Interpret CMMS ROI

CMMS ROI is a simple measurement of the software’s value to your organization in terms of cost savings. A positive ROI (greater than 0) means the system is generating benefits and saving money. A negative ROI (less than 0) means the system has not yet paid for itself – but that doesn’t mean it won’t.

It’s common to see a negative ROI in the first year due to upfront costs, implementation timeline, and the time it takes for teams to fully adopt and use the system effectively. That’s why it’s important to evaluate ROI over multiple years, giving the system time to demonstrate its full value.

Determining the Payback Period

Payback period formula comparing the CMMS cost relative to cost savings.

In addition to projecting ROI, upper management will want to know how quickly they will recoup their investment, known as the payback period. To calculate the payback period, divide the CMMS cost by the cost savings.

In our example from earlier, the investment was returned in Year 1. Let’s calculate that payback period mathematically using the formula provided:

Payback Period = $3,000 ÷ $5,000 = 0.6 years (7.2 months)

In Year 1, the CMMS is projected to pay for itself within 7.2 months and deliver an additional $2,000 in cost savings.

Achieve a Quick Payback with FTMaintenance Select

While individual results will vary, the payback period with FTMaintenance Select maintenance management software can be as short as 4 months! We offer affordable subscription licensing that eliminates the large, upfront costs of other pricing structures. FasTrak further expedites the payback period through complimentary CMMS implementation services and webinar-based user training .

As a customer, you have unlimited access to our CMMS customer support to answer your questions and assist you in getting comfortable with FTMaintenance Select. As you begin to master FTMaintenance Select and maximize the use of our powerful CMMS features , the payback period becomes a lot shorter.

Lower Maintenance Costs with FTMaintenance Select

When tasked with finding ways to reduce your operational costs, look no further than FTMaintenance Select. Our CMMS software digitizes your maintenance tracking and streamlines your day-to-day administrative tasks by automating work orders, asset tracking, preventive maintenance scheduling, inventory control, reporting, and more. Request a demo today to see how FTMaintenance Select reduces maintenance costs and improves efficiency.