So often, a CMMS gets implemented as a one-time software purchase. If you read the typical capital investment application (submitted by someone in the maintenance department), it’s not clear what the CMMS really does. Nor is it clear how it will be used, or what is really needed to make it the valuable tool it could be and should be.
Consequently, nobody in senior management champions the CMMS. It’s seen as a cost, not as the beginning of a cost-saving, revenue-enhancing company investment. In management-speak, nobody has “vision” when it comes to the CMMS. Any follow-up requests for funding such things as training just don’t register against the idea “we solved the problem already, we paid for the software.”
The initial data input gets done not on a shoestring budget, but on no budget at all. The system should be able to produce robust reports for every major asset and thus guide in making optimal resource allocation decisions. But it’s been hamstrung by the issues just mentioned.
There is a way to fix this. We’ll review some practical applications in the coming issues.
