Best CMMS Software

Learn More About CMMS Software

Your business needs to ensure quality products and services regardless of whether you are in retail, hospitality, manufacturing, or transportation.

Every week, your maintenance team spends hours maintaining heavy equipment, machinery, etc. A computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) enables your team to perform tasks efficiently by providing data on what needs to be done, when, and when.

CMMS software, or maintenance management software, automates manual tasks such as scheduling work orders and tracking inventories and helps create a virtual repository of information about a business's maintenance operations.

In the market, there are many options to choose from when buying a CMMS system. So, to make buying CMMS software easier, we've created a buyer's guide that contains all the essential information you need.

How to Select the Best Computerized Maintenance Management System?

Here are the essential steps you should consider when choosing a CMMS program for your organization, whether you're starting from scratch or switching from your current CMMS:

Step #1: Define Your Goals

Setting goals and expectations is the first and most crucial step in choosing a computer maintenance management system:

1. Would you like to do preventive maintenance?

2. Do you want to keep track of all your work orders?

3. Do you manage the fleet?

4. In terms of hardware and software, what are your requirements?

5. Do you have the IT resources to support it?

It would be soundest to ask these questions before choosing your new computer maintenance system.

Step #2: Form Your CMMS Team

Once you have decided which features are essential to you in a computerized maintenance management system, it is time to ask your team members who are familiar with maintenance operations for help.

There should be at least one representative from each department that will use the system on this team. This will allow you to understand the company's needs and prepare you for rolling out the new system.

Step #3: Identify Preventative Maintenance Needs

Check that the maintenance software supports Preventive Maintenance (PMs) in how you perform them. For example, do you prefer calendar-based PMs? Meter-based? Can you take readings and measurements, pass or fail them, and create a work order based on a failed inspection?

You must set up all the buildings, rooms, and offices - and of course, all the equipment, whether it's production or facility.

Step #4: Consider Your Purchase Order Needs

When choosing a CMMS solution, you should be able to create purchase orders quickly, replenish parts, order new services, order new materials, and think about your current PO processes.

However, for equipment lists and to specify on-hand minimums and reorder amounts, you'll need more tools to build the lists, so you don't get caught short. Likewise, using the computer maintenance system to manage inventory, you'll need better ways to make these lists.

It's important to consider all these things when choosing your next computerized maintenance management system (CMMS), as well as being able to generate any reports you require in the long run.

Step #5: See the Software in Action

Request a demo from each CMMS provider after you've narrowed your search to just a few to see how they operate and if you think they'd be a good fit. 

What are the Benefits of the Best CMMS Software for an Organization?

There are several benefits to using CMMS software platforms, including:

Low Maintenance Cost

CMMS software provides a centralized location for storing all information about equipment, service repairs, inventories, and other assets within the organization. Asset maintenance data can now be tracked and recorded without pen papers or spreadsheets.

As a result of the ability to track data accurately, CMMS platforms allow you to plan maintenance to avoid costly last-minute repairs or downtime. This tracking and reporting capability reduce overall maintenance costs.

Compliance Management

CMMS (computerized maintenance management systems) allows you to record maintenance procedures and inspections so you can provide detailed documentation when required to compliance agencies through top CMMS software.

The software generates reports on asset performance and maintenance operations that you can use during audits.

Sustainability, Health, and Safety

Safety, health, and environmental concerns can be reported centrally via CMMS and EAM in compliance management. The objective is to reduce risk and maintain a safe working environment. 

CMMS and EAM can provide investigations to analyze recurring incidents or defects, traceability of incidents and corrective actions, and management of process changes.

Enhanced Asset Visibility

Computerized maintenance management systems allow your maintenance team to view all work orders' statuses and highlight those requiring special attention. An asset can be tracked instantly, when it was serviced, how frequently it broke down, and what parts were used.

To avoid equipment downtime at the last minute and improve maintenance efficiency, it is imperative to have visibility into assets and maintenance schedules.

Workflow Visibility

Maintenance teams can quickly identify where assets are, what they need, and who should work on them when using dashboards and visualizations tailored to the technician and other roles.

Automation

Automation helps teams focus on maintenance rather than administrative tasks by saving time, reducing errors, improving productivity, and automating manual tasks, such as ordering parts, replenishing MRO inventory, scheduling shifts, and compiling audit information.

Streamlined Processes

All parties involved in the work order can view and track progress on the work order. In addition, the CMMS tool can share details across mobile devices so fieldwork can be coordinated with operational centers, and material and resource distribution can be prioritized and optimized.

Preventive Maintenance

As a result of computerized maintenance management software data, maintenance operations can shift from a reactive to a proactive approach, allowing an advanced asset maintenance strategy to be developed.

You can gain insights into processes and assets from data derived from everyday activities, sensors, meters, and other IoT instruments, which you can use to inform preventive measures and trigger alerts before assets fail.

What are the Important Features of the Best CMMS Software?

A top CMMS software platform typically includes the following features:

Work Order Management

Work order management involves processing work requests, checking resource availability, assigning tasks, tracking warranty, tracking downtime, and managing inventory to ensure that maintenance work orders are processed on time and completed.

Asset Tracking

Monitor asset lifecycles and usage. Monitoring equipment, tools, and hardware from purchase to retirement.

Preventive Supervision

The purpose of preventive maintenance is to plan and perform maintenance at specific intervals to reduce the likelihood of unexpected breakdowns.

Real-Time Maintenance Data and Reporting

The ability to generate reports, graphs, and dashboards from maintenance software is one of the most significant benefits of CMMS software. Companies or SMBs can also use CMMS software to view any tracked data points, allowing management to make decisions based on detailed data.

Maintenance History

It is possible to review a history of the maintenance tasks performed on each asset since maintenance technicians document the fulfillment of duties in the CMMS software.

As a result, future purchases can be informed, and CMMS software can identify assets nearing their end of usefulness.

In addition, if maintenance activities are tracked in a CMMS, knowledge doesn't go with employees when they leave and can be used to train new employees quickly.

Track Costs

The CMMS becomes a central data source for maintaining maintenance-related expenses, such as parts, labor, and miscellaneous expenses. Maintenance managers can access the data at any time to analyze the budget.

Invoicing & Billing

Manage financial transactions with external customers or internal departments, including generating quotes, generating invoices, and collecting payments.

Inventory Management

Inventory management helps manage the resources available for routine maintenance in your maintenance program. This facilitates maintaining a sufficient supply.

Third-Party Integrations

Enable CMMS software to integrate with other solutions, avoiding duplicate data entry and enabling informed decision-making.

What is the Market Trend of CMMS Systems?

The following are the latest trends in CMMS software:

Rise of APM (Asset Performance Management)

It was not surprising to hear these experts keep using the acronym APM, or asset performance management. APM is the future of maintenance alongside CMMS (computerized maintenance management software).

APM combines maintenance scheduling, asset tracking, and asset management, as well as the interconnectedness of the Internet, to create a powerful, proactive solution that combines the capabilities of CMMS programs and EAM.

By tracking asset performance in real time, users can identify potential failures and breakdowns, preventing them before they occur. Furthermore, as a result of condition-based monitoring, the asset and its parts live longer.

This is where predictive supervision encounters preventive maintenance. By employing this proactive method, users can significantly reduce their losses as a result of unexpected failures of assets.

Internet of Things (IoT) & Artificial Intelligence

IoT and AI are hot topics in almost every industry, especially those that use machines because smart, connected devices are the future of our world. An intelligent machine can monitor itself and communicate with managers in real time, preventing various unexpected failures.

Integrating IoT into CMMS solutions allows machine performance to be monitored in real-time and sent to managers to help prevent unexpected downtime or machine failure.

In addition, IoT-integrated vendors can assist businesses with predictive maintenance strategies that automatically provide real-time machine status information to companies. Hence, it limits production downtime and improves follow-ups based on historical analysis of asset breakdowns.

By increasing IoT integration and autonomy, we will be able to collect more and better data, allowing users to make data-informed decisions aligned with long-term goals. IoT, Industry 4.0, and Artificial Intelligence will all become more sophisticated and integrated into our society as they develop hand-in-hand with CMMS software.