Industry experts, academics, maintenance and facilities managers recognize and cite the benefits of computerized maintenance management systems (CMMS)in research studies, articles, and other sources. Software companies boast potentially high return on investments with maintenance software implementations.
Often cited as CMMS benefits are:
- Ability to manage and track work orders efficiently
- Automatic triggering of preventive maintenance work orders
- Automated alerts for upcoming events and when inventory is low
- Improved scheduling and management of labor
- Improved communication between maintenance and other departments
- Cost savings gained through better inventory management
- Work orders, updates and other transactions are accurately logged and can be reported on
- Generate clear and accurate reports for industry audits and regulatory compliance inspections
- Access to maintenance data anywhere, anytime
- Real time updates
Despite all the benefits of computerized maintenance management systems, why are so many maintenance and facility managers still clinging on to spreadsheets to track their operations? In a recent survey, 45% of facility managers reported that they were still using manual methods to track their maintenance operations, indicating that they are “drowning in paper”. 15% of managers also said their maintenance tracking was not at all established and 67% stated their tracking was somewhat established.
The following are five reasons companies stick with their spreadsheets rather than implementing computerized maintenance management systems.
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