It isn’t easy to pick only five advantages from the many available. Furthermore, there may be challenges in differentiating between them. Nevertheless, both are linked and valuable, like a Venn diagram with only one large circle.
Although challenging, it is not impossible. The advantages may be divided into three main categories those that save you money, those spare you stress, and those that save you time.
Time
Robust facilities management software saves time by minimizing wasted effort, allowing you to progress from being just effective to highly efficient.
1. Maintain the flow of your process.
Suppose you employ a paper-based or spreadsheet-based system. Your workflow could quickly deteriorate from a clear, fast-moving stream to a muddy puddle.
Consider the typical work order as an example. It starts with a spreadsheet file, which can be time-consuming on a desktop computer or extremely bothersome on a mobile device. Then, what key must be pressed while pressing enter to insert multiple lines into a cell? What happened to the alt key on your smartphone’s tiny keyboard?
When finished, attach it to an email and send it. So, close the spreadsheet program and launch the email program. The catch is that you are not sending the spreadsheet. You’re transmitting a copy, and this is where your problems will begin. Your computer only has one copy. However, if the person to whom you delivered it makes a change, you’ll have two versions. Everything falls slightly out of sync whenever something changes in either version.
Cloud-based facility management software addresses this issue by keeping your data on a remote database that anyone with a computer or mobile device may access. When someone makes a change, it is visible to everyone in real-time. Since there is only the data, not a plethora of more independent copies, you never have to chase down files, evaluate them for correctness, or re-send them.
You might also like to read: Three Reasons for a Facility Condition Assessment
2. Make a note of it and never forget it.
The best way to handle significant issues in manufacturing is to identify them early. Unfortunately, this necessitates the use of a preventative maintenance program.
Without facilities management software, these programs may be difficult to implement efficiently. If the conveyor belt motor malfunctions every three weeks, schedule a preventative maintenance work order (PM) every two and a half weeks. You can avoid this by visiting the facility frequently and evaluating the asset before it malfunctions.
But here’s the catch: knowing when to set your PMs will be challenging unless the staff has an encyclopedic knowledge of all the assets and their work order histories, which they can cross-reference with the numerous manufacturers’ recommended maintenance schedules. However, since all your historical work orders are already in the system, capturing and utilizing data with facilities management software is simple. You don’t need to know everything. The software is aware of it.
Facilities management software is still required even if you have professionals who know everything about your assets. How do you think the technicians become so attached to the machines? It’s from their years of service in the department, so they’re presumably reaching retirement age. And when they leave the company, everything they know goes with them. You can secure all that data with the correct maintenance solution by converting it into data-rich work orders and PMs.
With the software, you never lose all of that priceless tribal wisdom, the experience-based know-how that lives within the technicians’ minds. Even after they’re gone, their hard-won knowledge is preserved in work orders and project management documents that include step-by-step instructions, illustrations, and customizable checklists.
Money
A robust facilities management system saves money by exposing where money is being spent and where it may be saved.
3. Use the larger picture to save a lot of money.
You must know where the kidnapped victim is to save them, right? Okay, that’s a touch dramatic, but that doesn’t make it untrue. The same remains valid with money. Before preserving something, you must first determine where it is going.
What’s holding you back in the absence of facilities management software? To be honest, nothing. However, it will require much time and work on your behalf. For example, consider a typical industrial facility’s maintenance department. What methods would you take to obtain the money? First, you’d have to go through all of the work orders and then calculate all of the associated expenses, which include, at a minimum:
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technician salaries
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materials and parts
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production loss
This is true for all work orders. That’s a lot of rearranging on paper. Next, it’ll need digging through old emails for attachments if they’re on spreadsheets. Then, you’re only a few mouse clicks away from auto-generated reports that crunch all those figures utilizing modern facilities management software.
Using historical data to measure key performance indicators, you may quickly discover where the money is going (KPIs). You can, for example, assess which asset is genuinely costing you the most to maintain.
Choosing which KPIs to track is a fascinating issue in and of itself. Our blog post-Classic KPIs for CMMS ROI, is a great place to start.
4. Responsibility
Technician performance KPIs are an effective tool for establishing accountability in a manufacturing operation. For example, instead of guessing who is doing what and how long it takes, facilities management software displays exactly how many work orders were assigned to each technician, how many they completed, and how long it took them, giving you a true sense of overall productivity. In addition, because so much data is collected, it is possible to generate a reasonably detailed picture of a technician’s usual workday.
Stress
Modern facilities management software reduces the stress of the regular workday by meticulously removing all unknowns and uncertainty. In addition, tasks are considerably easier to complete when they are visible.
5. Knowledge is power, and it gives you the ability to quit worrying.
There are various sources of stress at a manufacturing facility, many of which are related to dealing with unexpected jobs. These unpleasant surprises are addressed in a variety of ways by facilities management software.
When it comes to on-demand activities, maintenance workers can use work order software to identify and handle them swiftly. First, requests are received as tickets, which are either denied or accepted, before being translated into data-rich work orders. Then, these work orders are prioritized and sent to technicians using the software and a few well-placed clicks and scrolls.
Departments never have to be concerned about their efforts going unrecognized. Technicians are always ready for ideas on what to do next. Furthermore, once a work order is done, they are never required to return to the office to pick up other jobs. They are continuously aware of where they should go and what they should do.
Departments can use past data to create effective PM programs for planned work orders, which are essential for reducing the number of on-demand ones. Each asset may have time-based or meter-based PMs. For example, if you have a truck fleet, the PM for changing to winter tires is time-based, while the PM for changing the oil is meter-based; you replenish the oil based on miles rather than a season.
All PMs, regardless of type, work together to reduce the total number of unexpected failures. This removes the need for anyone to rush to a critical asset and attempt to restart it. At the same time, the company suffers production and operator salary losses. Nobody is forced to work. No one is worrying about frantic calls at midnight or needing to rush back to the factory when employees leave for the day in time to have supper with their families.
You might also like to read: How Facility Management Software is Changing the Industry?
Following steps
If you still need facilities management software, now is the time to purchase it. Recent technology and business model advancements have changed the game. Old on-premises systems necessitated considerable IT infrastructure investments and license fees.
Every update and upgrade was then installed and deployed by organizations. Companies that hacked together homebrew versions with paper forms or spreadsheets saved a little money upfront but lost a lot of productivity over time. That was during the Dark Ages.
Modern solutions make use of cloud computing and subscriptions. The IT groundwork has been done for you. All computers and mobile devices have secure access to your information. Everything is updated in real-time. Your data is always your property, and you can take it anytime. Providers, like experienced babysitters, assure your baby’s protection until you arrive to pick it up. As shown by subscription-based pricing, suppliers are concerned about keeping their customers satisfied.
So, get in touch with providers and start the conversation if you still need a system. Then, you can prevent a lot of wasted time, money, and stress.