The Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS) Implementation
Life Cycle is the related activities required to design, develop, install and
improve a complete computerized maintenance management system. The CMMS implementation
life cycle is organized into three sequential phases: Needs Analysis, System
Design, and System Installation.
The CMMS Implementation Life Cycle has these characteristics:
- it is a fully integrated process for implementing new information
management technologies into the maintenance operation of businesses
and organizations;
- it is a sequence of action steps presented in a natural and
logical order;
- it is a process which recycles existing maintenance management practices
into new more efficient ways of conducting business;
- the central focus of the life cycle is the SAMM model - the end
product to be achieved from carrying out the implementation process.
PHASE I - The Needs Analysis
The major goal of the needs analysis phase is to establish the requirements
of the organization for a computerize maintenance management information
system. The secondary purpose is to determine the feasibility of computerizing
a paper-based maintenance operation, or enhancing an existing automated
system. The needs analysis should pay respect to each element of the
SAMM model. Ideally, the model should be used to assess the existing work
management system in relation to the effort necessary to develop each element
of the complete computerized maintenance management system.
Step 1 - Assembling a Project Team and Advisory Committee, is
an important step toward building awareness in the organization, and gaining
political support for the CMMS implementation project. This team should
be composed of allied members of the maintenance staff and related department
representatives. The group must include maintenance managers, end
users, technicians, information systems professionals, accountants, and
senior administrators who are committed to improving department operations
via automation. A dedicated project team and committed advisory committee
will be a source of fresh ideas about the scope of the proposed system.
Step 2 - Conducting an operations and management audit, will assist
to provide the justification for implementing new information technologies
and management procedures. The main purpose of the audit is
to identify operations within the maintenance function where efficiency
can be increased thorough computerization. Processes that are commonly
targeted for this assessment are in the areas of work order management,
periodic maintenance scheduling - preventive maintenance, materials
management, and other paper-based or clerical-intensive manual management
practices.
Step 3 - performing a cost vs. benefit study, serves four purposes:
- Provides the analysis of the feasibility of the entire project.
- Assists to identify and evaluate all cost issues, thus eliminating
future surprises.
- Assists the committee to evaluate the expected return on the investment.
- Assists the committee to confront the real benefits of the automation
project.
Step 4 - the CMMS implementation project plan, provides the blueprint
for the entire implementation project. The plan should be comprehensive
and afforded the same emphasis as any other major facility capital project.
The planning process should seek to achieve a consensus, among advisory
committee members, of the goals for the implementation and establish expectations
about the system's performance. A thorough project plan is a critical
step toward the timely and successful completion of each system design,
development, and installation task. The project plan also provides
an additional check to insure that all resource requirements (people, time,
and costs) have been identified and scheduled into the project.
Phase I - Needs Assessment deliverables should include:
- Project Mission Statement: including a summary of the CMMS goals,
a set of measurable performance objectives, and list of Project Team
and Advisory Committee members.
- Management Plan: documenting a thorough description of the functions
targeted for computerization; cost/benefit study; and draft of the CMMS
PHASE II - The System Design
The system design phase consists of four overlapping action steps which
build onto the results of the needs analysis. The primary purpose
of this phase is to analyze the work management processes and information
management needs of the maintenance department, and produce a detailed system
design document, which can be used to develop and/or select the CMMS software
and hardware technology. This phase of the project will also focus
on answering any lingering questions about: "why are we computerizing?"
The action steps in the system design phase are as follows:
Step 5 - education and marketing, should begin as early
as possible once the decision has been reached to computerize. Education
and marketing should actually be conducted as two distinct tasks with the
common objective to: empower the users to become the true owners of
the system. Advisory committee members should be available to provide
information about why they are changing the technology. Thus preparing
the users for skill enhancement training, on how to use the new computer
technology. The marketing effort should address the user's attitudes
toward and acceptance of the new computerized maintenance system. The amount
of marketing required to "sell" the system to the maintenance
staff will be largely determined by the size of the organization and prior
experience with automated systems.
Step 6 - designing work processes and information requirements,
is one of the most important, but often overlooked, implementation action
tasks. The objective of this action step is to evaluate the existing
work management system(s) in relation to the goals and performance objectives
of the proposed CMMS. Efforts to design the system should be focused
on the three elements of the SAMM model related to the management practices
and computer technology: the work methodology (scheduling methods, paper
processing practices, and performance reports); the information technology
(computer hardware, software, and peripherals); and the databases (text
and graphical data sources).
Step 7 - developing the CMMS specifications, involves documenting
all of the requirements for developing a complete computerized maintenance
management system. The document should be prepared in the format suitable
for the type of development effort, i.e., in-house software development
(system specification); or off-the-shelf purchase of commercial CMMS
software (RFP purchase guide). It should cover the following system
requirements:
- Computer hardware: Mini/Micro technology; file server, terminals,
CPU, peripherals
- Operating system platform and software: LAN / WAN networks, software
interfaces
- Maintenance management software: programmed functions & features,
reports & interfaces
- Databases: detail of data elements, file structure, data formats
for reporting
- Work Methodology: re-engineering of information flow processes,
procedures, controls
- Resources requirements: hardware software budgets, project time
constraints, personnel
- Installation Support: consulting, training, software maintenance,
hardware maintenance
Step 8 - developing or selecting the information technology, are
two diverse means to achieving the same end - procuring the maintenance
management software application. It behooves businesses and organizations
to evaluate commercially available software applications before deciding
on an in-house custom software development effort. Developing maintenance
management software is no small task. Custom software development
should be the last resort for those organizations that have such diverse
needs that no commercially available software will fulfill their requirements.
The selection of a maintenance management software program should be
conducted according to standardized evaluation criteria. The systems
specification or formal RFP document (Step no. 7) should be prepared with
this end in mind. Ample time should be allocated to evaluate as many
candidate applications as possible. Ultimately the goal is to procure a
creditable CMMS software vendor whose application and support services best
meet the needs of the organization.
The action steps of the system design phase should produce the following
deliverables:
- Concise definition of the nature of the maintenance work tasks.
- Detailed statement of the full range of data required for these
tasks.
- Procurement (development or selection) of the computer technology
to serve these tasks and provide the data in a format to facilitate
decision support.
PHASE III - System Installation
The installation of the system elements is the last but not least phase
of the CMMS implementation life cycle. The goal of the installation
process is to position and activate new information management tools and
methodologies into the work place. Four, all encompassing and overlapping,
action steps provide activities to assemble together the five elements of
the SAMM model as a complete and full functioning CMMS.
Step 9 - the technology installation, should be coordinated
and micro managed to the implementation schedule. This requisite planning
activity should be a collaborative effort involving the entire maintenance
department. The purpose is to elicit commitment throughout the department
to accomplish all implementation tasks according to a predetermined schedule.
" Nothing, repeat, nothing will unsell a system more quickly and completely
than a failed or delayed installation."
The importance of planning the system installation can not be overemphasized.
The schedule should lay out the activities and allocation of resources to
accomplish the following:
- Transition planning
- Employing a system administrator
- Technical installation of hardware and software
- Finalize hardware configuration and testing of the applications
- Establishing (rearranging) and staffing the work control center
- Initializing the computerized work management program.
Step 10 - the education and training program, should provide the
answers to why, and how to use the computerized maintenance management system.
The educational process, that began during the second phase, should continue
to support the issue: why are we computerizing. The training
program should be directed toward enhancing users' skills. The main of objective
of training is to teach how to proficiently use the computer equipment and
software technology. Comprehensive training will also provide
input into setting up the database schemes and assist the transition to
new management procedures.
Step 11 - developing the database(s), is the one action step
that never appears to have a distinct beginning or final ending. The
reality is that the database is a dynamic medium that continually changes,
usually growing with the increasing proficiency of system users. In terms
of the overall effort required to complete the CMMS installation, the database
is generally the most resource intensive task. For this reason,
consideration must be afforded to insuring that all requisite data is collected
and entered into the CMMS database. Example database items are:
facility asset profiles, employee records, equipment files, PM schedules,
maintenance standards, and various ancillary data elements.
Step 12 - initializing the work management program, is a comprehensive
task which completes the transition from preexisting (paper-based
or semi-automated) systems to a fully computerized mode of operations.
It will not occur overnight and should be conducted in phases.
In other words, install on function at a time, e.g. the work order process,
and get it operating to plan, before implementing the others.
Work order planning and performance tracking, preventive maintenance
scheduling, and maintenance-repair operations (MRO) inventory control
are among the many functions often targeted for computerization. The
benefits to the organization for computerizing these work control functions
will be maximized through the integration of the business processes with
the information technology. Process re-engineering applied to these
various work management functions will accelerate the return on the investment
of the CMMS.
The benefits to be gained through computerization will not be achieved
through the retooling of technology only. Throughout the CMMS implementation
process, maintenance managers must continually rethink business practices
and aim to break loose from outdated and inefficient work management routines.
Thereby using the power inherent in the computer tools to enable more
efficient means, of planning, scheduling, and directing maintenance efforts.
In his article, Reengineering Work: Don't Automate, Obliterate HARVARD
BUSINESS REVIEW, August 1990, Michael Hammer makes a strong case for
re-engineering the work place as a prerequisite to gaining efficiency through
automation.
"It is time to stop paving the cow paths. Instead of embedding outdated
processes in silicon and software, we should obliterate them and start over.
We should 'reengineer' our businesses: use the power of modern information
technology to radically redesign our business processes in order to achieve
dramatic improvements in their performance."
Conclusion...
The trial and error approach to CMMS implementation projects is a thing
of the past. The Accounts of organizations, who have learned expensive
lessons by following a plan & pay-as-you-go strategy, have taught
us to consider more proactive and cost effective methods for implementing
computerized maintenance management systems. This systematic approach is
not a get-rich-quick scheme. But it does work to produce the results
that other methods can't approach.
REFERENCES
McConnell, Vicki C. and Karl M. Koch. 1990. Computerizing
the Corporation.
Van Nostrand Reinhold
Hammer, Michael. 1990. "Reengineering Work: Don't Automate,
Obliterate"
Harvard Business Review. July-August 1990, pp.104 - 112.
Survey 1990, "Move the Wrench Over and Pass Me the Computer."
Industry Week, February 5, 1990.
Heintzelman, John E. The Complete Handbook of Maintenance Management
Prentice-Hal, Inc. 1979
Reichert, Paul B. 1992. Preventive Facilities Maintenance
Seminar Workbook
