Question Of The Week: How Do You Utilize Your CMMS?

A recent survey asked about to what extent facility maintenance departments are employing CMMS programs.

The 2017 State of CMMS Report, an analysis of how maintenance software delivers value and benefits operations across industries that conduct facility maintenance on a daily basis, has been shared by Maintenance Connection, a computerized maintenance management software (CMMS) provider based in Davis, CA. The report uses proprietary data from Maintenance Connection’s “CMMS Score” survey, which collected data from 1,000 maintenance professionals during Spring 2017 about how they rate their maintenance programs and to what extent they have utilized the software.

The CMMS Score survey asked a series of questions about how maintenance teams are using maintenance management software to improve their operational process. “We created the CMMS Score survey and corresponding report to measure success and identify tangible benefits of CMMS implementations, as reported by real users,” says Greg Squires, Maintenance Connection’s head of marketing.

facility maintenance
37% of respondents were in the mid-range: Journeyman.

Respondents of the survey received a CMMS Score based upon their responses, and then were given resources with best practices to help respondents move further towards “Master-ing” the potential capabilities. Based on ranges, the five score levels are: Apprentice, Mover, Journeyman, Leader, and Master. Respondents are also able to gauge where they ranked compared to other maintenance professionals within their industry.

Moving The Needle On ROI

facility maintenanceThe findings uncovered a wealth of knowledge on maintenance processes across facilities of all sizes, with the majority of respondents responsible for maintaining over 1,000 assets. Across industries — including education, government, healthcare, and manufacturing — the State of CMMS Report shows the majority of respondents who implement preventive maintenance schedules can expect to see the highest ROI. “We were intrigued to find that 88% of facilities that have substantially rolled out a CMMS report significant cost savings, from tens of thousands to millions of dollars,” explains Squires. “Successful CMMS implementations lead to improved daily operations, less operational downtime, improved labor efficiency and more measurable cost savings.”

The report details that some respondents (20%) still rely on paper-based or homegrown systems for maintenance procedures like work order tracking. “Many organizations have not yet implemented a robust CMMS, primarily due to budget constraints, lack of asset and inventory data integrity, and the challenge with proving ROI before approving the project. That’s a major reason why we produced this research, ” says Squires.

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CMMS Score of survey respondents, by industry

Those interested can download the 2017 State of CMMS Report from Maintenance Connection at this link. And the survey is still open, so if you’d like to see where you land on the CMMS Score spectrum, take the brief survey.

Do you have a CMMS in place? What more would you like to get from this software? Please share your thoughts and experiences in the Comments section below.