Maintenance Connection recently released its 2017 State of CMMS report, an analysis based on survey data from roughly 1,000 organizations. The report analyzes how maintenance teams use computerized maintenance management systems (CMMS), along with the resulting impact on operations and performance. A variety of organizations participated, from industries such as manufacturing, healthcare, and government, as well as maintenance departments with as few as 1 to 5 employees up to 50 or more. Their survey responses revealed the following findings.
CMMS Utilization Is a Strong Driver of Return on Investment
Organizations that participated in the survey were assigned a CMMS score and separated into groups based on proficiency of their CMMS. There were five score groups, ranging from Apprentice to Master (i.e. beginners to experts).
Organizations were also asked to quantify the value of their CMMS investments, with choices ranging from “We have spent more than we have received in return,” to “We have saved millions of dollars.”
Those that reached the “Master” score group realized the strongest return on their CMMS investments. Over 70% of Masters saved hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars.
Preventive maintenance (PM) also correlates well with CMMS return on investment. Organizations were asked to report the amount of reactive versus preventive maintenance work they perform. And, those that perform more preventive maintenance reported higher CMMS cost savings.
These findings should motivate maintenance teams to become more proficient users of their maintenance management technology. It should also incentivize teams to invest more in PM activities, from developing PM procedures to scheduling PM in their CMMS to establishing metrics to measure PM performance.
Many Organizations Don’t Use Mobile CMMS and Inventory Management
Organizations were asked a series of questions about their use of different CMMS features, along with the degree to which those features have improved maintenance operations and performance. For example, organizations were asked about number of assets configured in their software and how that has extended equipment life span and helped assets last longer. Notice, there’s an obvious and strong correlation between number of assets configured in software and the life of those assets.
When comparing the utilization of common CMMS capabilities, asset management landed roughly in the middle. Mobile CMMS, reporting and inventory management were the three least-utilized capabilities among organizations participating in the State of CMMS survey and report.
Not surprisingly, “parts availability and time to fix” and “performance measurement” had some of the lowest scores compared to other areas of maintenance operation and performance improvement.
This is an important finding. If organizations want to see improvements in certain areas of maintenance, such as equipment life or labor efficiency, then making better use of the corresponding capability in their CMMS should help them.
Bio:
The 2017 State of CMMS report was developed by Maintenance Connection, a provider of asset and maintenance management software. To get a CMMS Score and benchmark your organization against others, visit CMMS-Score.com. Or, to learn more about the 2017 State of CMMS report and how maintenance management software impacts organizations like yours, visit Maintenance Connection’s 2017 State of CMMS report.
