The Computer Maintenance Management System (CMMS- is it working for you ?
|
If I've heard it once, I've heard it 100 times (and more)
“Well yeah, we run a CMMS but we don't use it the best”.
It always amazes me that Engineers will freely come out with this statement and yet do nothing about it.
Invariably the company has made a significant investment in purchase, installation and at some stage training, but don't seem able to go the extra yard in order to get the full value from the system.
One of the problems I see, is that the CMMS occupies a sort of no mans land, it often lives in a twilight world of mystery and intrigue .
Typically companies will have underestimated the scope and dollars required to set it up properly and have not given the project a competent dedicated resource. It's often lumped in with an Engineers job description or an older tradesman who is due for retirement gets it. The trades guys know the plant and equipment but they invariably don't know how to set up, use or manage a CMMS. The Engineer generally knows what is required but has 10 million other priorities and the CMMS soon gets relegated to a back burner and falls into the “I'll get to it one day” basket and of course that ”one day” never comes.
So one way or another (if it continues to be used at all), it limps along in this no mans land. But it satisfies the company criteria of having a CMMS.
Yes it might spit out PM's and jobs get entered and activity happens around it, but it is never used to it's maximum potential. It's always the poor cousin. The bottom line is that it needs to be owned, loved and understood by someone with a clear goal, management support and a passion for maintenance.
In simple terms, all CMMS's are data bases which organize, record and schedule. Its simple stuff and if used well, it has the potential to dramatically improve manufacturing reliability.
If its not used well, it trundles along with many other concepts which “seemed like a good idea at the time”, but just didn't quite realize their full potential. |
|
Tuesday 23 February, 2010 08:58 AM |
Save This Page