In the last few years we have seen CMMS implementations on the industrial equipment maintenance world succeed and fail for a wide variety of reasons. Although there's no formula that anyone can come up with to ensure CMMS implementation success, there are a few common points that will make it easier to predict the final fate of implementing a computerized maintenance management system.
What follows is a list of items that need to be considered when selecting and using a CMMS package. Take it with a grain of salt but know that all of the following have been experienced first-hand by us at comma CMMS and therefore come with practical proof.
Management Needs to be Behind the Implementation
Yes, everyone knows this but it's amazing how many people forget it. From our experience, management needs not only to be “behind the implementation” but has to have an actual need for the information that the CMMS will provide.
By "management" we mean the overall company management or the maintenance department management. Regardless, what must be ensured is that the CMMS data is actively used as a day-to-day management metric whatever level that management may refer to.
Some success stories implement weekly meetings with all key people to analyze KPIs and monthly maintenance reports (hours, costs, major faults, disruption to production). That information can be provided by the CMMS.
If management doesn't care, no one else will.
The Organization has a Real Need for a CMMS
A CMMS must be a "must-have" instead of a "nice to have" thing. Nice to have things will perhaps work until the person that originated the request stays interested in the subject or stays employed by the company. It will fail 99.9% of the other times.
Real need comes from the absolute requirement (expressed on point 1 above) to manage maintenance using data provided by the CMMS. If the maintenance department doesn't need to explain its performance, then potentially there's no need for a CMMS.
The Organization needs to be “Organized”
Lets face it: a large number of organizations are simply not organized enough; things go on (although not efficiently) and no real pressure if put in to increase efficiency, so why change? When this happens, a CMMS installation will most likely fail. More importantly, CMMS after CMMS (read investment after investment) will fail with the almost inevitable conclusion that software and/ or consultants do not know what they are doing even though those same professionals and solutions have worked well elsewhere.
We have seen this again and again: organized companies will increase the power of their existing procedures while other companies will only increase their inefficiencies.
Don't think too much about a CMMS, just do it!
If you are spending a lot of time on trying to find the “perfect” CMMS, then you are probably wasting your time and preparing yourself for a system that will not do what you need it to do.
The way we see it is: if you are a large company, you will know what system is used on your industry. You will know what has worked with your competition and you should really use that. If you are small, there's really only a few suppliers out there that can provide what you need.
The reality is that most offers out there are going to do the basic of what a CMMS needs to do. So if you have a real need, you should do some system comparison but not get lost on it. You should then proceed. In fact, you should spend most of your time on the next point which will save you hours and hours of aimless contacts when selecting your CMMS.
What do you need?
Ensure you specify the very basic features your future CMMS must provide. Then make another list for nice to have features and start your selection with these two lists.
Unless you are able to hire a large number of consultants or have the money to develop your own custom CMMS you have to acknowledge that no standard package will fulfill all your needs. If you do not realize this – and make your management realize that too, you will spend countless hours looking for the non-existent “risk-free” choice.
We would have to say that many of potential CMMS users we have come across, do not really know what they need and honestly, there's no problem with this (we're here to help) but if there truly is a general CMMS need (think basic CMMS features), do not think too much, go for it, needs will surely arise, but solutions will present themselves too.
Going back to point 4. above, if you are spending a lot of time trying to find the “perfect” CMMS, that is most times because your needs are either incomplete or not realistic.
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As you can imagine, there are many other points that contribute for the success of a CMMS implementation but, from experience, we recommend you look very closely at the points described on this article. If any of them is missing or incomplete in your particular situation, you are most-likely going to have a hard time and the CMMS will not work for you.
Good luck on your CMMS quest!