Graduating to CMMS - Cover Story

Engineered Systems, Feb, 2004 by William R. Sousa

SYSTEM INTEGRATION PHASE

Taking the empty, raw CMMS and turning it into a fully operational management tool requires dedicated diligence and is the one step that, more often than not, is not completed properly. Many CMMS are bought loaded and sit "on the shelf" underutilized and eventually abandoned.

A good integration process that ends up with a usable CMMS requires a detailed and often tedious series of steps to ultimately load the particular facility's equipment information. User screens, workorders, and reports need to be set up in a way that includes exactly what the user needs to see, in a meaningful presentation, to enhance usability across the board. Basic to the operation is a good collection of equipment information.

Where an outdated maintenance management system is being replaced, a migration of the equipment data from the old to the new CMMS will be required. It may be an electronic database migration or it may require entering data from old records directly into CMMS equipment record screens.

For new construction like NAHS, much of the equipment data can be obtained from the construction documents, schedules, shop drawings, equipment submittals, and O&M manuals efficiently and easily in the office while the building construction is going on. Verification of equipment information and collection of additional specific data, such as serial numbers, is done after the actual equipment is delivered. If the process is started early enough, the installing contractors can be required to submit the field information as part of their services. Since the amount of data collection and data entry can be very large, real cost savings can be realized by being creative in assigning these tasks. Using co op students, interns, or administrative support personnel should be considered to keep project costs lower.

With all of the equipment identified, equipment labels can be generated and applied. Using barcode labels like at NAHS and as presented in the last month's issue of Engineered Systems, allows tracking and identification options including the use of handheld PCs by the maintenance staff to save time and improve accuracy (Figure 2).

The final step in integration is to populate the PM tasks and develop the associated work orders (Figure 3). Each type of equipment must have a prescribed set of maintenance tasks and a frequency of performing those tasks to achieve the maximum equipment operating life. These tasks are found in the equipment O&M manuals, in industry standards, and in the experiences of those who regularly maintain the systems.

Choosing what tasks should be entered requires a knowledgeable facilities professional, although, again, the actual data entry can be done economically by less experienced support personnel. Accumulating the tasks into logical workorders and the workorders into biddable work packages as well as the design of status reports, all combine to transform the equipment database into actual PM management tools. With these management tools, NAHS will be able to prioritize their PM workorders based on safety and health requirements, risk and impact of equipment failure, and labor and budget constraints. They will be able to plan when they will use their staff to perform PM and when they will use contracted service companies.