Why You Need a CMMS

Kelly Potter, Mintek Corporation
Tags: CMMS and EAM

If someone asked about your maintenance plan, what would you say? Do you have a proper plan in place? Is it working? How are you tracking it? What is your return on investment (ROI) year over year? These are questions most companies face. A computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) can provide the solution while helping your business save money in training, documentation and energy costs.

Protecting Your Business

A proper infrastructure relates back to the initial plans to maintain it. The 80/20 rule is a great reference because 80 percent of your maintenance activities should be proactive, while 20 percent should be for unplanned maintenance items.

If a business constantly waits for items to burn out, the end result will be spending more money in fixing the problem rather than maintaining it. This is the curse of the "why fix something if it isn't broken" approach. People generally focus on the initial cost rather than the long-term benefits of using a CMMS.

For example, if a staff member does not regularly check a heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) unit for corrosion using a CMMS, there is a good chance the unit could break unexpectedly, causing the repair cost to be higher than if there was a proper maintenance plan in place.

10 Maintenance ROI Statistics

Maintenance involves several assets in a business including training, documentation and utilities. Below are the top 10 maintenance ROI statistics.

  1. A company can save between 12 to 18 percent using preventive maintenance over reactive maintenance.
  2. Facilities implementing proper HVAC maintenance will use 15 to 20 percent less energy.
  3. Every dollar spent on preventive maintenance will save you $5 on other expenses.
  4. Commissioning can save a typical 100,000-square-foot hotel 10 to 15 percent of its energy costs or roughly $20,000 per year.
  5. Buildings in the United States were responsible for 39 percent of U.S energy consumption in 2005. Of that total, commercial buildings accounted for 46.3 percent.
  6. Eighty percent of employees waste an average of 30 minutes per day retrieving information.
  7. Professionals spend 5 to 15 percent reading information but up to 50 percent looking for it.
  8. The average spending per learner is $1,202.
  9. Eighteen minutes is the average search time for a document.
  10. One bad review can cost you 30 customers.

Turning ROI Statistics into Reality

Even in a small business, paper documents, assets, etc., can be challenging to keep track of and require a lot of time. Relying solely on a paper-based system is not practical in today's world, especially when software makes it easier. The goal is to work harder and smarter. Work harder on a maintenance plan and smarter by delegating tasks that are not attended to when staff is taken away to retrieve lost documents, etc.

The solution is to implement a CMMS that preserves assets, keeps things running in optimum condition and helps ensure that assets will achieve their maximum life expectancy. These systems can also manage anticipated failures, allowing your staff to budget and plan while still saving time and money in the short and long term.