MRO Today - Five CMMS pitfalls

Five CMMS pitfalls
and how you can avoid them

by Daniel Konstantinovsky, Vishnu Raman and Mark Vick

According to many recent research articles, only 10 percent of CMMS implementations ever produce the desired and expected results. In this article, the authors will help you understand the typical CMMS implementation hurdles and give you specific advice on how you can sidestep and overcome them.

1 - Focusing on “nice to have” features
During the CMMS evaluation and selection process, it’s very easy (and more interesting) to focus in on the “nice to have new features” and push the boring core features to the background. Unfortunately, this is a recipe for disaster! In fact, The Standish Group International reports that more than 80 percent of software projects are unsuccessful in objectively defining requirements.

To avoid falling in this trap, your organization must ask key people to outline detailed scenarios of their critical processes that the CMMS must be able to support. Once you have documented these critical processes, utilize them as a guideline and template when evaluating CMMS solutions.

2 - Lack of top management support
All too often companies face inadequate support by top management throughout and after the CMMS implementation process. In most instances, this situation can be avoided if top management is kept apprised of the financial benefits received.

To ensure continued top management support, you need a plan for communicating the financial achievements and benefits of the CMMS solution to top management on a consistent and regular basis. Before beginning your implementation, discuss and agree upon the financial indicators and frequency for these communications.

3 - Insufficient user buy-in
When a CMMS solution fails to deliver for a company, there are usually a few typical prime suspects as to why. Lack of user buy-in is usually at the top of the list. However, you can drastically reduce this risk by following a few simple steps in the beginning.

First, in the initial stages of implementation, form a team composed of primarily CMMS users so that the users themselves will “own” the success of the CMMS project. Users bring a better understanding of the processes, issues and current concerns from other users that need to be addressed.

One more way you can improve user buy-in is through effective communication with end-users. In particular, your management needs to heavily emphasize that the IT department is simply a facilitator of the solution, not its driver, and that the goal of the system is to improve the business, not to monitor employees.

4 - Ineffective training
Effective training of the CMMS solution is one of the best ways to improve your chances of success. Training needs to be done prior to, throughout, and after the implementation. The best training sessions involve using a “train the trainer” approach and an environment as similar to the actual production database as possible. Using a similar database will significantly cut down on learning curve mistakes in the future and enhance user adoptability of the CMMS solution.

5 - Lack of clearly defined goals
This step is often overlooked or not properly addressed by many firms. To keep your CMMS project to stay on course and maintain its momentum, your organization needs to have clearly defined goals, milestones and desired deliverables. Again, specific goals and a realistic timeline need to be discussed and agreed upon for the CMMS project to succeed.

In addition to outlining the goals, choose a project leader who will be responsible for keeping all parties involved towards achieving the common objective. Ideally, your project leader should come from the maintenance department and should have the power to make and enforce decisions.

Once you choose the project leader and define your goals, you must next establish key performance indicators. Outlining key performance indicators will enable your firm to continually measure and improve your return on investment.

Here are a few of the most common Key Performance Indicators:

   1. Return on Investment
   2. Planned vs. reactive maintenance
   3. Time and money saved on paperwork reduction
   4. Backlog
   5. Inventory turns
   6. Maintenance cost as a percentage of
       equipment replacement cost
   7. PM Backlog man-hours
   8. Percent equipment availability
   9. Sales loss due to equipment failure
   10. Sales loss due to equipment preventive maintenance
   11. Overtime worked against plan
   12. Time taken to answer maintenance calls
   13. Number of breakdowns
   14. Production equipment performance

Key points to remember
Implementing a CMMS solution is one of the most challenging projects your organization will face. If your company has neither the time or expertise to implement a CMMS solution, you can drastically reduce risk and greatly improving your chances of success simply by working with someone who has been through the implementation process before. Working with an objective consultant will enable you to benefit from their years of experience and knowledge gained and allow you to focus on what you do best.

This article was written by:
Daniel Konstantinovsky (dkonstan@veitsgroup.com),
Vishnu Raman (vraman@veitsgroup.com) and
Mark Vick (mvick@veitsgroup.com) of the VEITS Group, which provides information technology management solutions to manufacturing firms. For more information, visit the Web site at www.veitsgroup.com. Phone: 877-834-8702.