Silo systems can’t maintain equipment

Some parts manufacturers try to manage their computerized maintenance management systems (CMMS) with Microsoft Excel spreadsheets, Microsoft Access data-bases or stand-alone third-party applications. Although these methods offer incredible flexibility, six primary reasons exist for why they fail in all but the smallest of job shops.

1. Bumping heads with production scheduling. Do you really want maintenance people scheduling downtime for your equipment without input from production? Can you risk late delivery of an important customer order because the equipment is down for routine maintenance? A CMMS integrated within an ERP (enterprise resource planning) system puts all demands on one schedule. This allows production control people to effectively schedule equipment for all the prioritized needs of the shop.

A CMMS integrated within an ERP system puts all demands on one schedule. Image courtesy of WorkWise.

2. Impossible to track. Even if you have only 35 pieces of equipment and three maintenance people, the maintenance scheduling can become overwhelming. Let’s say there are four tasks per piece of equipment per month, which adds 140 tasks to the schedule. This means adding 140 tasks to the equipment schedules, 140 tasks to the schedule board, 140 lines to record hours and 140 lines to record costs. This also means balancing 35 schedules to ensure that all hours are accounted for and posting 140 lines to the financial records for accounting. And this is before doing trend or other reports.

Also, because none of the reports are produced in real time, you don’t have insight into the work orders or reports until a task is completed.

3. Lost documentation. Another problem with a manual system is that it has no provision for handling the documentation for each piece of equipment. Hours are lost searching for invoices, warranties, specifications, phone numbers and other necessary documentation. It is also tedious and expensive to track compliance rules and regulations. Some companies lose more money as a result of searching for documents and not being able to collect on warranty claims than the full cost of a CMMS.