CMMS Archives

How To Use CMMS To Support FRACAS Methodology

Organizations can face a wide range of failure problems, ranging from technical to process failures. These common failures include equipment breakdowns, product failure, quality issues, and environmental incidents. These failures typically require a more systematic approach. This involves failure tracking and corrective measures implementation — in comes the FRACAS methodology.

The FRACAS process tracks and manages failures and problems in products or systems. Almost every industry uses this approach. The goal of FRACAS is to uncover the cause of errors and take corrective action to avoid similar occurrences in the future. The process of FRACAS involves failure documentation, conducting failure examination, corrective measures implementation, and continually seeking ways to enhance the process. [Read more…]

by Alex Williams Leave a Comment

5 Tips for Improving Preventive Maintenance with EAM/CMMS Software

Any maintenance manager at a manufacturing plant or facility is likely aware of the problems caused by faulty equipment. Even if just one piece of equipment out of thousands breaks down, it could cause your entire operation to come to a halt. Preventive maintenance involves scheduling various maintenance activities to keep your equipment in peak condition and prevent breakdowns and failure. EAM/CMMS software is an essential tool for scheduling preventive maintenance and monitoring performance. The following are 5 tips to improve preventive maintenance with maintenance management software.

[Read more…]

by Bryan Christiansen Leave a Comment

Becoming A Reliability Pro – How To Harness, Store, And Use Failure Data For Future Use

The manufacturing sector has seen a rise in competitiveness because of the introduction of Industry 4.0 technologies over the last decade. It has become important for manufacturers to stand out in the industry by optimizing their systems to be as perfect as possible. One of the factors that make a factory competitive is its reliability, and a smart factory has great opportunities to improve it using the failure data from its assets.

The smart factories created using these technologies have greater efficiency and provide valuable data about the assets which can be used to further improve plant performance. The asset failure data gathered from different assets can provide insights into the reliability of assets and how to improve it. [Read more…]

by Alex Williams Leave a Comment

5 Benefits of CMMS Software for Manufacturing Plants

The equipment needed to run a manufacturing plant is costly and expensive to replace. Furthermore, equipment downtime leads to lost production, which directly impacts profits. Replacing reactive maintenance with proactive maintenance through the implementation of CMMS software for manufacturing plants will give you more control and help you prevent equipment breakdown and failure. The benefits of CMMS software are numerous for manufacturing plants.

[Read more…]

by Alex Williams Leave a Comment

Effectively Integrating Your CMMS with Current Systems

Maintenance management software increases uptime and productivity, lowers maintenance costs and extends the life of equipment and optimizes inventory usage—provided that it integrates seamlessly with existing systems. One of the toughest aspects of managing this software is CMMS integration. If your CMMS doesn’t communicate smoothly and easily with your accounting, inventory, human resources, purchasing, and other systems, it can reduce response times and lead to an increased chance of error. [Read more…]

by Alex Williams Leave a Comment

What to Look for in a Computerized Maintenance Management Software Reporting Module

Reporting is one of the most important functionalities of computerized maintenance management software. Organizations spend a great deal of money to obtain data that they can use to make informed business decisions. The ultimate goal of implementing software for maintenance and facilities management is to achieve returns in the form of increased productivity and savings. A CMMS reporting module aids maintenance managers in achieving this goal by enabling them to receive data from maintenance technicians, analyze the data, and make continuous improvements. Reporting modules also allow users to produce graphs and charts of key performance indicators (KPIs).

[Read more…]

by Alex Williams 1 Comment

The Most Commonly Underused CMMS Features

Want to achieve a worthwhile return-on-investment (ROI) from your software? Then it’s important to learn about some of the most commonly underused computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) functions. Many organizations do not use all of the features their preventive maintenance software provides, or don’t use the functions to their full capacity. According to a national CMMS survey conducted by Reliable Plant magazine, a majority of plant maintenance managers feel they aren’t using their preventive maintenance software to its maximum capability.

[Read more…]

by Alex Williams Leave a Comment

Using Your CMMS System to Identify Cost-Saving Opportunities

Companies are constantly looking for ways to identify and implement cost-saving measures. Computerized maintenance management software is used to record, manage, and communicate day-to-day operations in your maintenance department. It’s possible to use CMMS to save money in a number of ways. The following are areas in which large cost savings can result through the implementation of equipment maintenance software

[Read more…]

by Alex Williams Leave a Comment

Maximizing the Potential of Your CMMS System

It’s no secret that equipment maintenance software offers many benefits to your organization. However, organizations frequently find that the software doesn’t deliver the end results they anticipated. This often happens because organizations don’t maximize CMMS potential. In other words—they’re not using their software to its fullest potential.

[Read more…]

by Bryan Christiansen Leave a Comment

Using CMMS To Improve Asset Maintainability

Mature organizations seeking a competitive edge are familiar with the term Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM). A maintenance philosophy encompassing predictive, preventative, and maintenance, RCM uses defined processes to find latent or hidden failure modes, customizing maintenance processes to maximize system performance. Most understand that the RCM philosophy enhances equipment availability through improved reliability, increasing annual earnings before interest, tax, and amortization (EBITDA). Yet, some businesses fail to understand that equipment availability comprises two crucial inputs, not one. Equipment reliability, yes, but also equipment maintainability. [Read more…]

by Alex Williams Leave a Comment

Selecting CMMS Systems: Considerations for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises

CMMS systems were developed and became available around 1965. Traditionally, CMMS software was reserved for big companies that needed to automate and organize large, complex maintenance operations. Only the largest manufacturing firms were able to use maintenance software back then, but things have changed dramatically since those days.

[Read more…]

by Bryan Christiansen 1 Comment

How Can CMMS Supplement Fault Tree Analysis

Fault tree analysis (FTA) is used to establish a potential chain or path of equipment failures using Boolean logic to generate a graphical relationship of events leading to part or system failure. It is a deductive approach that is useful for different systems or facilities at the product design or operational stages. FTA fosters reliability of systems by: [Read more…]

by Alex Williams Leave a Comment

Invest in Food Manufacturing CMMS

From demonstrating compliance and ensuring safety to maintaining assets and increasing productivity, food manufacturing maintenance managers have their work cut out for them. Thankfully, computerized maintenance management software (CMMS) can streamline processes and improve maintenance operations for the food manufacturing industry. Read on to learn how food manufacturing CMMS software can significantly benefit your organization.

[Read more…]

by Alex Williams Leave a Comment

Most Commonly Underused CMMS Features

Want to achieve a worthwhile return-on-investment (ROI) from your software? Then it’s important to learn about some of the most commonly underused computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) functions. Many organizations do not use all of the features their preventive maintenance software provides, or don’t use the functions to their full capacity. In fact, a majority of plant maintenance managers feel they aren’t using their preventive maintenance software to its maximum capability.

Modern-day CMMS systems are crammed with various features, and users don’t necessarily need to access and master every feature of the system. However, it becomes a problem when users get so comfortable with their way of doing things that they avoid features they’re not familiar with. Especially if those features could potentially improve their productivity. Understanding what impact underutilized CMMS functions can have on your maintenance department will help you make the most of your software.

[Read more…]

by Bryan Christiansen 1 Comment

How To Use CMMS To Supplement Root Cause Analysis

According to the American Society of Quality (ASQ), a root cause is defined as “A factor that caused a nonconformance and should be permanently eliminated through process improvement. The root cause is the core issue—the highest-level cause—that sets in motion the entire cause-and-effect reaction that ultimately leads to the problem(s).”

As most of you already know, Root Cause Analysis (RCA) is a systematic process for identifying the origins, or root cause, of problems and determining an approach to minimize or eliminate their risk of recurrence. It focuses on preventing problems at the source rather than resorting to a firefighting approach and being reactive every time. RCA tries to be more scientific about asset failures, going one step beyond troubleshooting. [Read more…]