Companies are using computerized maintenance management systems (CMMS) to drive more predictive and preventative maintenance (PM), lower operations costs and impact their bottom line. New research, the 2017 State of CMMS Report, released by CMMS provider Maintenance Connection, helps facility maintenance teams understand the impact CMMS has on their performance and operations.

The study analyzed the maintenance operations of more than 1,000 organizations around the world, specifically in North America, in order to understand how well CMMS was impacting cost savings, equipment downtime, customer satisfaction rates and labour efficiency.

Respondents spanned 10 major industries, from education and healthcare to government and manufacturing. Roughly 50 per cent of educational organizations and 40 per cent in government maintenance have more than 30 employees, while 82 per cent of other industries have fewer than 15 maintenance workers.

The report was researched and written using information from a CMMS Score, which grades and guides maintenance teams on how they’re using maintenance management software. Maintenance teams can benchmark themselves against others in similar industries and team sizes by taking the five-minute survey.

Here are some findings:

Preventative maintenance drives strong ROI

• Organizations that perform more preventive maintenance, versus reactive or corrective maintenance, realize a stronger ROI on their CMMS investment.
• Organizations that achieved a high CMMS Score also have a high number of preventive maintenance activities configured in their CMMS. This should incentivize maintenance teams to develop PM procedures, schedule them in their CMMS, establish performance metrics and finally, build (or automate) PM reports in their CMMS to understand problem areas and opportunities.
• 73 per cent of facilities that have 50 per cent or greater preventive ratio report significant cost savings from their CMMS, from tens of thousands to millions of dollars.

Equipment life

Equipment life  increases as more assets are configured in CMMS, and78 per cent of organizations that configure most assets in their CMMS report strong improvements to equipment life span.

Customer satisfaction

A slight improvement in managing work orders in the CMMS, from none to few, has a significant impact on customer satisfaction, and 64 per cent of facilities that configure most work orders in their CMMS report strong improvements to service satisfaction.

Labour efficiency

• Organizations that invest in CMMS training see improvements in labour efficiency. Respondents were asked about the number of maintenance and operations personnel trained and using the software, along with how their work scheduling and labour efficiency has improved.
• Even a small amount of training, from none to few, can have a significant impact, and 74 per cent of facilities that have most technicians trained on their CMMS report strong improvements.

Impacts of mobile CMMS

• Organizations were asked how many maintenance employees were using a mobile CMMS. Those with a greater number of personnel using a mobile CMMS reported greater improvements in labor efficiency. Maintenance Connection says this is not surprising when considering how a mobile CMMS allows technicians to access and update work orders from the field.
• 80 per cent of organizations that actively use mobile CMMS report strong improvements.
• Roughly 40 per cent of organizations still don’t employ a mobile CMMS system, an improvement over last year’s report. About 75 per cent who took the 2016 State of CMMS survey were not using a mobile CMMS.