To install a CMMS or not to install a CMMS... that is the question!

Analysis and buy-in...that is the answer!

How many times have you seen this...or at least something very similar? A senior plant manager approaches the podium and begins to address an assemblage of supervisors and middle management. The plant manager begins by stating the obvious..."Our productivity levels are down and the maintenance costs are going through the roof. I have been in consultation with a CMMS sales group and I have decided that we are going to implement this program immediately. They have assured me that it will not interfere with your regular duties and that we should be up and running in a matter of two months."

There are many things wrong with this picture and its approach to the implementation of a CMMS program. It is true that when used properly, CMMS, preventive maintenance, and predictive maintenance have a dramatic effect on operating expenses.

Putting a CMMS program into a mainstream operating facility should not be a spur of the moment decision made by one individual. Maintenance is a continuous improvement process and should be considered as a capital investment. As with most capital investments, maximum payoffs come 12 to 18 months after implementation.

Large-scale CMMS improvement processes may not be the answer for everyone, even though smaller programs and less costly installations certainly make a dramatic change in the way you see and conduct your business. OSHA may require that smaller businesses implement a CMMS because OSHA's Process Safety Management Law mandates many of the features present in most commercial CMMS programs. A CMMS investment is like a diamond in the rough, the more you refine it; the more valuable it becomes.

Few people understand the process behind implementing a CMMS program, how to do it, and the full extent of the effort necessary to make it a success. You might even decide that the challenges are too great. However, after careful evaluation and guided by a trained professional, the benefits are almost always substantial. It is a matter of honest and careful evaluation of the individual needs of the company.

This represents a large investment in time and money. Expenditures can be kept to a minimum by carefully split them between professional guidance and the in-house efforts of an implementation team. Remember, if not properly initiated at the beginning, the economic payoff suffers, along with the frustration level of the stakeholders.

Guiding the proper personnel through the process makes the effort glide smoothly toward proper implementation. Maintenance programs, properly implemented, usually result in a rate-of-return in excess of 100 percent. A good rule of thumb is a savings-to-cost ratio from 3 to 1 and as high as 10 to 1. As long as you give precise attention to detail and provide proper supervision, the results can be very impressive.

Key elements
The two most important words in the implementation of a CMMS program are buy-in. Overcoming the negative perception of personnel and management towards any new maintenance improvement process or, for that matter, any change at all, is the biggest hurdle. Handled properly, this negativism can be turned into a warmly greeted challenge. Handled incorrectly, it destroys the entire process.

In today's economic climate, any action by management that claims to "save money" is automatically viewed as a threat to someone's job security. Approach such claims professionally as no improvement process of this type works without employee cooperation and buy-in. Again, attempting to do this without expert guidance may lead to a quick failure.

Upwards of 50 percent of CMMS implementations fail. This is a strong statement and is meant to force a thought process that leads you to being one of the 50 percent that achieve their goal and prosper. The greatest killer of CMMS implementation is lack of support by management and employee alike.

That's right--management is included in this threat to survival. They must provide active and visible support on a regular basis both before and during the implementation processes. Those CMMS systems that actually achieved their initial goals were the programs that were championed with the highest level of buy-in. They were developed in a top-down manner with the input and cooperation coming from the bottom-up.

Human nature has a natural tendency to resist change. The fact that the change runs counter to years of culture is a great challenge, especially when the rewards can be so great. Ignoring the personal turmoil someone goes through when their job is totally disrupted and changed is a huge mistake. The natural fear and insecurity of employees needs to be addressed long before the actual implementation of a CMMS.

The planning and data gathering process takes a certain length of time anyway. Spend this time explaining the system. Make people part of the undertaking and thereby allay fears and concerns. A successful CMMS program is not a one-person job, with a shroud of secrecy hovering over the project. A successful CMMS effort is well-documented and publicized to the extent that it becomes a given--a natural fact of life before the actual implementation begins. It should be well understood and accepted for what it is--a profit making tool.

Getting cooperation
The one thing that feeds skepticism is that implementation can be a lengthy process, depending on the size and scope of your facility. It is during this time that progress will seem the worse. Breakdowns continue to occur at the same pace as before. Some maintenance personnel feel that they can simply outlast this program and eventually business will get back to normal. Breakdown maintenance is the most costly and ineffective way to handle your maintenance program. To revert back to that way of doing business is ridiculous.

An important part of buy-in is communication. Present information to the operators and crafts personnel formally and immediately after reaching decisions. This makes sure the correct information filters through the ranks. Doing so helps dispel rumors and conflicting information.
 

In my experience, the people most resistant to buy-in are the plant engineers, supervisors, and middle management. They constitute the largest bloc of strong personalities and opinionated people in the plant. In the absence of someone trained to implement CMMS systems, this constituency often insists that things should be done their way. Quite honestly, their way may be the wrong way. It is difficult to convince a strong ego that the correct way is in opposition to their way of thinking. That is the main reason for having a trained professional help to guide the way. You heard it a million times: a consultant's opinion will be listened to before that of an in-house expert. In this case, a consultant is really the only way to go.

Considerable training is necessary to prepare your maintenance professionals for the new way of doing things. This training should be selective and depends entirely on the learner's need to know. Present the Big Picture to everyone in your organization but limit the actual training to a need to know basis. To do otherwise bogs down the implementation phase. The natural tendency is to want to train everyone to use every function of a system. But, I ask you, does the person who generates work orders really need to know how to collect reports, schedule duties, or many other functions of the CMMS?

Your employees will spend a tremendous amount of time in the data-gathering phase of the implementation. Trust me when I tell you that this is the most important phase. After entering the data once, you do not want to go back and re-enter it. This phase requires only minimal joint effort between your consultant and the implementation team. Guidance is what you need at this point. The more your people are connected to the process, the quicker the buy-in.
 

Here are some factors that I believe to be the bottom-line indicators that make buy-in a successful venture and your CMMS program as valuable as you envision it.

• Make sure to give your personnel the Big Picture. Involve them in every step of the implementation.
• Make sure that your crafts personnel have real input into the decisions that directly affect them. Have at least two craft members on the implementation team.
• Make a community affair out of the implementation. Hold regular meetings in an informal setting and discuss the progress. Listen to the concerns and learn from the employee input.
• Make certain that the people feel the benefits of the program. Do this through education. They must see that this program is not a threat but a means of controlling the new profit center.
• Seek professional guidance through every phase of the implementation process.