Miller Magazine Issue: 151 July 2022

78 COVER STORY MILLER / JULY 2022 2. Plan schedule and Preventive Maintenance CMMS automates generating of work orders depending on time, usage or triggered events. Purchasing manage- ment: Generate automatic parts purchasing orders, reorder alerts and alerts for work orders awaiting parts. 3. Inventory management of spare parts and materials The System manages the materials and spare parts across storage areas and tracks supplies, records inventory costs, and generates automated re-supply. 4. Work Order Management Work order management is considered as one of the main functions of CMMS. CMMS generate and track work order. Main work order records may include information such as: • Work order number • Order type (repair, replace, scheduled) • Priority and description • Technician assigned • Materials used • Attach associated documentation, repair and safety media 5. Labor Management CMMS saves the available employee information as well. The system can also organize shifts and manage pay rates. 6. Reporting, Analysis and Auditing Generate comprehensive meaningful and easy-to-un- derstand reports and intelligence dashboard that displays graphs, to monitor many areas, including equipment perfor- mance, work order completion, employee productivity and material usage and costs. IMPORTANT FEATURES OF CMMS Below are some important features of CMSS for mainte- nance managers must be considered during selecting the system. 1. Flexibility: There’s no one way to manage mainte- nance. Every industry, company and department has indi- vidualized needs, and thus each organization requires a different data structure, so it is vital to ensure that CMMS supports the ability of customized data organization. 2. Cost Transparency: Upfront description of pricing without any hidden fees when purchasing and selecting CMMS is very important 3. Training, implementation support: Lack of post- sale training and implementation support services causes CMMS implementations fail to meet expectations. 4. Locally Hosted vs. Cloud-Based: Like other software, some of CMMS systems are locally hosted and others are cloud-based - web-based (Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)). Web-based systems have outstanding features such as access to CMMS software through a web browser on any computer, a more rapid implementation process, requiring less IT with automatic updates, and allowing users to access their CMMS anytime, anywhere through mobile devices. 5. Data Conversion: Data Conversion is one of the most time-consuming tasks during implementation. This includes converting data from spreadsheets files or other CMMS systems. Thus, CMMS should have the ability to import and export data to and from other applications.