Get the most from your maintenance program

When an organization makes the decision to move forward in buying CMMS (computerized maintenance management system) or upgrading an existing one, it involved a lot of deliberation. As it is an established fact that, investing in a CMMS involves both time and money. Here are five steps that we recommend to help an organization to get the greatest return on investments and optimize preventive maintenance software usage.

Step One: Ensure You Have Strong and Early Buy-In from Management and Users

Like any other business management tool, CMMS softwares can only do their job if people make it a part of their daily work routines. To help improve user adoption rates, feedback is required from users and management on what is wanted and needed from the system. Next, that input is used when researching software options and vendors. This will help to ensure that the CMMS system selected will be the best fit with the company’s current workflows and business practices as well as with the needs of those who will be using it. Furthermore, once the new system is in place, the project managers will be in a position to lead by example and encourage their teammates to use the system effectively.

Step Two: Connect It to Other Systems Where Possible

Linking business systems will help the user make better decisions and avoid the hassle of re-entering data from one system to another. The user will be able to avoid the unnecessary task of duplicate data entry that is time-consuming and error-prone. When working on a single connected system, data will update automatically on the system. Using this method, the user will always be working with the latest up to date data.

Sharing and communicating within and between departments becomes much easier.  With an integrated maintenance program, everyone has access to the same data. It is no longer necessary to export information out of one system, and then reformat it before sharing it with colleagues. By reducing time spent on administrative tasks, this leaves time better spent on other things such as product development, marketing and growing the business. Productivity gains is an important outcome of CMMS system usage.

Step Three: Set Clear Expectations and Invest in Training

Whenever any maintenance program is purchased, it is crucial to set usage expectations from the start. Without this, the user may not be able to fully reach their business outcomes. By identifying specific usage goals, team members will be more inclined to use the software as much as possible and be satisfied with the results.

Apart from identifying your expectations, it is also important to ensure that the staff knows how to use the system with hands-on training to achieve these goals. The training should be geared toward meeting team members’ or department’s unique needs. Having training materials readily available after the first live training session is a helpful reference resource. Following up with another scheduled training session six months after the system has gone live is a good idea. The added training, once the staff is already familiar with the system, is useful because it gives users an opportunity to have new questions answered and allows management to reinforce their expectations.

Step Four: Use Custom Dashboards to Bring the Most Important Information to the Forefront

In today’s fast-paced environment, having quick and easy access to the crucial maintenance request is critical to the successful operations of the facility. This is where facility management software dashboards come into play. Many of them, including ours at Hippo CMMS, offer customizable dashboards that quickly display essential data. This makes doing the job easier in many ways such as reducing the need to read lengthy reports as well as ready access to work orders, equipment usage, and inventory lists. Having this type of information at first glance saves time, while also ensuring that the decisions made will be based on the most recent data.  With business management tools like CMMS, companies will have the confidence that important decisions will be based on accurate and up to date data.

Hippo CMMS takes traditional dashboards to a whole new level.  With them, you can:

  • Import asset manuals, pictures and other information for easy access.
  • Store route maps and drawings for improved fleet maintenance
  • Build custom screens to suit the needs of your business
  • View interactive work order summaries
  • Collect all asset and equipment information (from model images to tags) in interactive floor plans

These dashboards are well suited for large, multi-facility organizations in Health Care, government, hotel, restaurant, retail, and education industries.

Step Five: Perform Regular System Checks

Doing preventive maintenance on CMMS is an important but often overlooked exercise. Ideally, schedule routine checks occur on CMMS every six months. A few things to consider are:

  • Is my software up to date?
  • Am I getting the reports that I need?
  • Are there other things we could be automating with the software?

When running these routine checks, it is also a good time to assess if current users have any questions, or if any new employees need system training.

By following these preventive maintenance practices, you will be well on your way to making the most of your CMMS. 

Hippo CMMS strives to be a leader in simple maintenance management. This is achieved by developing user-friendly, cost effective software and the best support to our customers. If you would like to explore our industry leading software further, you can try it free for 30 days!

Try Hippo CMMS for yourself to learn more or speak to a Software Specialist.

 

Want more? Read 16 Questions to Ask Before Buying a CMMS Software

About The Author

Jonathan Davis

Jonathan has been covering asset management, maintenance software, and SaaS solutions since joining Hippo CMMS. Prior to that, he wrote for textbooks and video games.
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