The importance of having a system in place to manage your facilities is rapidly increasing. As your team size and facility size grow, so do the number of work orders and expectations from upper management. You need to be 100 percent certain that nothing is falling through the cracks while also being able to provide important key performance indicators (KPIs) to your boss.

One of the ways you can do all of the above is with a CMMS. In working with thousands of organizations just like yours, we’ve compiled the top ten ways that facilities managers have effectively applied CMMS software to their processes.

1. Manage work orders

CMMS software, and work order software, make your maintenance process more efficient by providing a centralized place to create, assign, schedule, and resolve work orders in minutes. Making this switch eliminates paper work orders and impromptu hallway requests. Instead, your entire staff can easily communicate and keep up-to-date on each work order’s status in one central location. CMMS software will also store all information pertaining to a request, so you can always look back at any historical maintenance data.

On average, FMX customers reduce work order response time from 3–5 days to less than one day.

2. Improve safety conditions

No matter the industry you work in, safety is most likely a top priority. By using CMMS software to routinely maintain your facility’s equipment, you can ensure everything is meeting proper safety standards, while also preventing equipment malfunctions. You can even use CMMS software’s mobile functionality to report on-premise safety issues so that they can be resolved as quickly as possible.

3. Make data-driven facilities management decisions

With CMMS software’s robust reporting and analytics, you can view where your facilities are excelling and where you should focus energy for improvements. You will gain insight into asset performance, total cost of each work order, team member performance, and more. All of these will ensure you are making decisions to improve your facilities management process.

Academica Nevada uses FMX’s reporting features to track cost data and trends by campus. This data triggered the decision to initiate a capital replacement plan for rooftop units at one campus, which resulted in cost savings of about $30,000 per year in HVAC services.

4. Manage inventory

Many CMMS, and maintenance inventory management software solutions, automatically adjust inventory quantities by associating them with work orders and preventive maintenance, which keeps your inventory quantities up-to-date in the system. CMMS softwares also allow you to set up minimum quantities for these items so that you know when it’s time to order more. Some systems will even predict how much you should order based on how frequently it’s been used in the past week, month, year, or more. These features allow facilities managers to keep only as much inventory on hand as necessary, decreasing holding costs and out-of-stock costs.

5. Enhance productivity

Most CMMS softwares are accessible on a mobile device, which allows maintenance technicians to access real-time information, check work orders, respond to tickets, and close out tasks all at their fingertips. This capability decreases back and forth trips, which ultimately saves time and money. In addition, some CMMSs allow you to input instruction sets for each preventive maintenance task. This makes closing out work orders a breeze for maintenance techs and ensures they are completing all the required steps.

Hampton Park Christian School, was able to get started on renovation projects months in advance due to the time saved after implementing FMX as their CMMS.

6. Reduce equipment downtime

Poor capital forecasting can cause increased downtime and maintenance costs. CMMS software will determine when equipment is reaching the end of its service life, which gives you ample time to replace that asset without taking on days of equipment downtime. CMMS software will also determine which equipment types are under-performing so that you can identify which assets should be replaced to optimize performance. Some CMMS solutions will even calculate mean time between failures (MTBF) for each equipment item and predict the next time it will break down.

7. Report on important KPIs

By analyzing labor cost, equipment failures, total cost for work orders and preventive maintenance tasks, and team resolution times, you can determine changes that should be made to increase your facilities’ performance. Tracking the proper KPIs gives you and your team insight into what should be a major focus, and can help you identify, and eliminate, significant problems in the future.

8. Confirm compliance with industry regulations

One of the biggest benefits of CMMS software is the ability to store, and reference, historical data. This is important because during an audit you can easily access past work orders, preventive maintenance schedules, or certain documentations if needed. You can also store all compliance measures, operating manuals, warranties, forms, and other necessary documents with CMMS software. This way, when your organization is going through an audit, you have proof of training, warranties, and other necessary documentation at your fingertips.

9. Schedule preventive maintenance

Whether you already of preventive maintenance software in place, or the concept of preventive maintenance is fairly new to you, using CMMS software to house all of your preventive maintenance can improve your processes. For one, you can plan tasks days, weeks, months, and even years in advance, ensuring none of them are being overlooked. You can also set up step-by-step instruction sets that your maintenance team can check off as they complete each step of the process. This keeps your team up-to-date and ensures everyone is completing all necessary steps.

10. Manage events

The best facilities managers even use CMMS software for facility scheduling. This is because CMMS software will detect and prevent double bookings of event spaces and resources needed for those events. You can also communicate directly with event vendors to make sure everyone has access to seating charts, catering information, set-up and tear-down times, etc. This keeps everyone on the same page and ensures nothing fall through the cracks.

Taking your facilities management process from good to great doesn’t have to be a huge undertaking. In fact, working with a CMMS vendor that has an excellent support team can make the switch extremely easy and stress-free. 

Learn more about the benefits of CMMS software and the strengths of cloud-based vs on-premise CMMS solutions!


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