Computerized Maintenance Management System a.k.a CMMS

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Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS) is also known as Enterprise Asset Management.

A CMMS software package maintains a computer database of information about an organization’s maintenance operations. This information is intended to help maintenance workers do their jobs more effectively (for example, determining which storerooms contain the spare parts they need) and to help management make informed decisions (for example, calculating the cost of maintenance for each piece of equipment used by the organization, possibly leading to better allocation of resources). The information may also be useful when dealing with third parties; if, for example, an organization is involved in a liability case, the data in a CMMS database can serve as evidence that proper safety maintenance has been performed.

CMMS packages may be used by any organization that must perform maintenance on equipment, assets and property. Some CMMS products focus on particular industry sectors (e.g. the maintenance of vehicle fleets or health care facilities). Other products aim to be more general.

Different CMMS packages offer a wide range of capabilities and cover a correspondingly wide range of prices. A typical package deals with some or all of the following:

• Work orders: Scheduling jobs, assigning personnel, reserving materials, recording costs, and tracking relevant information such as the cause of the problem (if any), downtime involved (if any), and recommendations for future action
• Preventive maintenance (PM): Keeping track of PM inspections and jobs, including step-by-step instructions or check-lists, lists of materials required, and other pertinent details. Typically, the CMMS schedules PM jobs automatically based on schedules and/or meter readings. Different software packages use different techniques for reporting when a job should be performed.
  Asset management: Recording data about equipment and property including specifications, warranty information, service contracts, spare parts, purchase date, expected lifetime, and anything else that might be of help to management or maintenance workers. The CMMS may also generate Asset Management

metrics such as the Facility Condition Index, or FCI.

Inventory control: Management of spare parts, tools, and other materials including the reservation of materials for particular jobs, recording where materials are stored, determining when more materials should be purchased, tracking shipment receipts, and taking inventory.

Safety: Management of permits and other documentation required for the processing of safety requirements. These safety requirements can include

lockout-tagout, confined space, foreign material exclusion (FME), electrical safety, and others.

CMMS packages can produce status reports and documents giving details or summaries of maintenance activities. The more sophisticated the package, the more analysis facilities are available.

Many CMMS packages can be either web-based, meaning they are hosted by the company selling the product on an outside server, or LAN based, meaning that the company buying the software hosts the product on their own server.

CMMS packages are closely related to Facility Management System packages (also called Facility Management Software). For the purposes of many organizations, the two are interchangeable.