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Implementing
a Computerized Maintenance Management System
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Why Most CMMS Implementations
Fail to Provide the Promised Benefits
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A Conference Paper presented
to the Maintenance in Mining Conference - Sydney, Australia
By Sandy Dunn
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| Introduction |
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Computerised Maintenance Management Systems (CMMS) are often purchased
on a wave of high expectations regarding the benefits they will deliver.
These benefits include: |
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Improved Tradesperson productivity,
giving reduced direct labor costs
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Increased Equipment Availability,
due to better planning
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Increased Equipment Reliability
through the identification of repetitive faults
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Improved Stock control, giving
reduced inventory levels and fewer stockouts
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Improved long-term reduction
in Maintenance costs
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Improved Safety by providing
detailed Standard job procedures
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In many cases, the benefits promised provide ample financial justification
for the substantial investment in those systems. Promised payback periods
of three years are not uncommon. Yet many of these systems fail to provide
the promised benefits. In some cases, several years after implementation,
no significant benefits can be identified, despite the fact that
the organizations involved have spent millions of dollars on the new system. |
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How can this occur? And how have those who have successfully gained benefits
from a new CMMS achieved that success? These questions are the subject
of this paper. |
| The
Six Levers of Change |
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In the early days of Computerized Management Systems, there was an expectation
that introducing the new technology alone would provide the promised benefits.
All that was needed was to introduce a CMMS, train people in its use, and
people would adapt their work practices to make optimum use of this new
technology. |
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More recently, it has been recognized that, while CMMS can be a significant
enabler of improved Maintenance performance, to achieve the maximum possible
benefits from a CMMS implementation, business processes must be formally
re-engineered, and work practices changed in a coordinated and planned
manner if significant change is to be achieved. Thus was born the Business
Process Re-engineering (BPR) approach to Systems Implementation, which
focuses on both the Technology and the Business Processes involved in a
CMMS implementation. |
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However, even this BPR approach has, in recent years, become the subject
of some debate, with many suggesting that this approach is not wholly successful
in achieving long-term, sustainable benefits. |
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Price Waterhouse has found that it is useful to consider effective organizational
change as happening along six dimensions, called the 6 levers of change.
These are illustrated below. |
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This framework suggests that the most effective way of introducing sustainable
long-term, large-scale improvements in Maintenance performance is to pull
all of these levers of change in a coordinated fashion. In addition, it
is important to proactively manage the change in order to ensure that those
affected by the change are committed to the change. |
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Decisions regarding the strategic levers of change (Customers and Markets,
and Products and Services) are outside the scope of this paper. Instead
we will focus on the tactical levers of change. |
| Maintenance
Processes - A Framework for World Class Maintenance |
| Skills
and Culture - What Skills are Really Needed? |
| Organization and Structure |
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There have been recent moves, particularly with fixed plant maintenance,
to restructure the Maintenance department so that it now reports to Production
or Operations at a lower level in the organizational hierarchy than it
previously did. This change is accentuated by an increasing trend towards
employing so called "Operator-Maintainers" in Production departments. |
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Both of these trends could be explained by an increasing understanding
of what Maintenance is all about. The Oxford Dictionary defines "maintain"
as "to cause to continue". If we define equipment maintenance as any activity
that is intended to ensure that equipment continues to fulfill the functions
expected of it by Production, then it is quite clear that many of the activities
routinely performed by Production personnel (such as routine inspections,
equipment cleaning and housekeeping) are, in fact, Maintenance activities. |
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The implication for CMMS is to be able to distinguish between those Maintenance
activities that you wish to track through the CMMS, and those that you
do not. For example, do you consider that time spent by Production workers
changing filter cloths in a process plant should be considered as Maintenance?
Should you track failures of those filter cloths in exactly the same way
as you would any other significant component? The answer would clearly
be yes. Yet many operations still do not control these activities through
their CMMS. |
| Technology - More than
just the CMMS |
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While most of our attention is focused on the technology associated with
the CMMS software and hardware, we should not ignore the opportunities
that may exist by utilizing other technologies around our plant and equipment,
and linking these to our CMMS. These days, the greatest benefits that are
being obtained from CMMS implementations is being gained by linking Engine
Management systems and Process Control Systems to our Maintenance systems.
These systems can monitor equipment performance, and give us an early warning
that a piece of equipment may require some maintenance attention. When
selecting your CMMS, consider the benefits that may be obtained in this
area in your plant, and check whether these control systems can be linked
to your proposed CMMS. Consider also the additional technologies that you
may want to apply on your plant and equipment to take advantage of capabilities
within the CMMS. A bit of creative thinking may not go astray. |
| Some
Practical Tips for Successful CMMS Implementation |
| Conclusion |
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Most of the focus in CMMS implementations is on the successful installation
of the hardware and software associated with the new system. Yet as we
have seen, the major opportunities lie outside this area. To make sure
that the technology works for you, be prepared to invest time and effort
in the other three levers of change - People and Culture, Business Processes, Organization
Structure and Technology. |
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Focus on all of the levers of change, and pull them in a coordinated and
integrated manner, and the promised benefits from the CMMS should be achieved.
This is no simple or short-term task, however. Be prepared to spend significant
time and energy before you see the ultimate reward of a more efficient
and effective Maintenance function. |
This article is contributed
by Sandy Dunn, who
maintains excellent plant maintenance reference material at:
www.plant-maintenance.com
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