Computerized Maintenance Management System – CMMS – Overview


Computerized Maintenance Management System- CMMS

The computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) or, that is the same, computerized maintenance management information system (CMMIS) is a package of special computer programs enabling professionals to schedule and record planned and preventive maintenance of the facility equipment. Before the active use of computers and computer programs, however, the maintenance data was recorded with a pencil and paper and stored in special journals. Because of such a labor-intensive manual process, the companies' maintenance was generally reactive, i.e. was performed in the case something went wrong. As to preventive maintenance, it was not common, since manual tracking company's assets were not plain, moreover, it was unrealistic to manually calculate the preventive maintenance for each machine and compare its cost with the machine breakdown repair as well as to define which company's machines require preventive service any particular time, and which company's warehouse or storeroom contains the spare parts that are currently needed. Undoubtedly, using computers and various computer programs gives organizations huge possibilities in organizing their companies' work processes and controlling and managing their business activities from A to

Z, including maintenance management. Today, CMMS packages can be used by any company or organization that needs to perform maintenance of its equipment, assets, or property. Certainly, the CMMS solutions cannot completely substitute skilled technicians that perform their maintenance work: from replacing the broken window to providing the generator inspection. How does the CMMS help technicians? First of all, CMMS packages give maintenance workers the possibility to the hands-on maintenance and less paperwork. CMMS software solutions help companies to schedule the planned and preventive maintenance activities and generate the prioritized work orders. After completing a work order, all necessary information, including the date when work was performed, inventory, expended hours, and others usually are loaded into the company's database for tracking and supporting future maintenance planning.

CMMS software is designed to give its users instant access to invaluable reports and, as a result, an understanding of their organizations' maintenance needs, moreover, it enables the creation of comprehensive schedules of the work orders and even accurate inventory forecasts. These days, various CMMS products are offered on the software market by different software providers. Some CMMS are developed and focus on the individual industry (for example, the maintenance of health care facilities) or industry's sectors (for instance, the maintenance of vehicle fleets). At the same time, other systems are more general and can be used by companies with different business specializations.

Main features provided by CMMS

  • Inventory: automatic item identification and data collection via a barcode reader; inventory and warehouse managing; inventory levels control; supporting multiple inventory processes, including moving items between warehouses; tracking each item cost, quantities, and location; and more. 
  • Task templates for frequent maintenance jobs. Templates of the reusable tasks help to create the work orders for often existing jobs such as the monthly checking of the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC).
  • Purchase orders: automating purchasing process - instantly creating and sharing purchase orders, purchase order requests, centralized request tracking and spend management, powerful customization, automated status updating, and more. 
  • Support Multiple Customer Locations. Provides a service profile for every customer address, supports customers in multiple locations, enables troubleshooting potential equipment problems, providing superior customer service. Moreover, route map optimization software allows for reducing fuel and labor costs and ensures that the technicians provide more services with fewer resources and less over time.
  • Scheduling maintenance tasks. A clear view of all resources enables scheduling maintenance in a variety of ways: 
    • by time: weekly, monthly, etc., 
    • unplanned as needed, 
    • based on other completed tasks or work orders, 
    • by a change in meter reading, 
    • by an alarm condition, 
    • easily adding emergency changes in schedules, and more.
  • Sending work orders to maintenance technicians. Updating the work orders by email or SMS text messages allows managers and maintenance technicians to save a lot of time that can be spent in a more effective way than writing on paper or being on the phone trying to get information.
  • Work orders managing and tracking. In the case of generating many work orders every day, it is easy for some of them to be missed and not fulfilled. This feature enables creating work orders, tracking work order status and employees' work time, generating emergency tickets, and more.   work orders, including overdue ones.
  • Work orders feedback. It is critical to be timely informed about work orders that are delayed as it allows companies to focus on such work orders and to find out how to complete them faster and at the right time.
  • Collecting maintenance statistics. A variety of maintenance statistics helps managers, engineers, planners, and other company employees to understand the condition of organizing the maintenance process in their company and what they need to improve.
  • Breakdown reports. Work order feedback and reporting on jobs after-the-fact. Information about customers and technicians, completed services and completion date, materials or parts of equipment, failures, and errors are available for analyzing and forecasting. The ability to identify breakdown equipment allows companies to prevent problems and emergencies.
  • Mobile version. The ability to have access to the CMMS anytime from anywhere allows managers to be always informed about the state of the company’s maintenance.

computerized maintenance management system

CMMS is helpful for CEOs, managers, and maintenance personnel


  • CEOs:
    • Be informed about assets and equipment status. 
    • Make informed business decisions. 
  • Managers:
    • Monitor assets and equipment across the entire organization.
    • Organize maintenance across multiple locations.
    • Manage inventory located in multiple warehouses. 
    • Schedule periodic equipment maintenance. 
    • Generate urgent work orders on the inbound "trouble" calls.
    • Create work tasks; define methods of work accomplishment.
    • Eliminate manual planning personnel work days. 
    • Communicate the maintenance work throughout the organization.
    • Easily track work order fulfillment from start to finish.
    • Collect the feedback information for analysis. 
cmms software colutions
  • Maintenance personnel (engineers, technicians, operators, and others):
    • Be equipped with instructions and contact information and maintain work history. 
    • Do not focus on the paperwork and spend work time performing the maintenance work. 
    • Work anywhere anytime through mobile solutions.

The Computerized Maintenance Management System can be used for:


CMMS for different types of the equipment maintenance
  • Predictive maintenance – is designed to help define the condition of in-service machines and equipment with the purpose to predict when service should. Allows the scheduling of corrective maintenance and prevents unexpected failures of machines and equipment.
  • Preventive maintenance – systematic inspection, monitoring, and expertise. In the case of detecting some incipient failures, even before they occur, correction of those failures before developing them into major defects. This maintenance is carried out even if it is not any symptom of having problems. 
  • Asset maintenance – consists of sustaining assets in the condition necessary for the expected exploitation level. 
  • Periodic maintenance – time-based maintenance usually consists of a series of tasks 
  • Operational maintenance – inspecting and servicing such as cleaning, lubricating, and adjusting, as required to preserve the machine, equipment, or asset. This maintenance is performed by equipment operators and does not require to have high technical skills and allows release engineers and technicians for more complicated work. 
  • Corrective maintenance – detecting, isolating, and correcting defects of the machine or equipment and restoring them to the operational condition. In other words, this is maintenance that is carried out after detecting an anomaly and is aimed at restoring equipment and machines to a condition in which they can perform their functions. 
  • Legal maintenance – is required for some equipment that is subjected to Government regulations and rules. To this type of maintenance are subjected the fire prevention facilities, vehicles, installation of high and medium voltage, devices under pressure, storage tanks of toxic chemicals, and others.

Benefits provided by the Computerized Maintenance Management System


  • Using a single platform for managing equipment and maintaining all involved resources.
  • Creating work tickets in prioritized order and supporting other criteria of work order generating.
  • Generating time-based work orders on a weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annual basis. 
  • Fast access to information and quickly identifying equipment parts and relationships.
  • Planning and prioritizing maintenance tasks; printing and sending job plans. 
  • Creating schedules of planned and preventive maintenance; reducing disruption in the schedule.
  • Coordination of the different receptions of work accomplishment. 
  • Allowing extensions of the preventive maintenance with adjustments to the next due date.
  • Tracking work orders and repair and maintenance costs.
  • Providing work orders' feedback information. 
  • Creating safety instructions and generating the risk assessments. 
  • An immediate full view of maintenance operations anytime.
  • Reducing the quantity of work required in periodic audits.
  • Automatical handling of most of the administrative tasks.
  • Recording and maintaining the work, maintenance, and costs history.
  • Integration with the related support systems and an integrated approach to solving the maintenance tasks associated with facility equipment.
benefits of using cmms

The more sophisticated the CMMS package is, the more various analysis facilities it provides. The CMMS is beneficial for a wide range of industries, including healthcare, manufacturing, real estate, transportation, and others as is designed for better managing by maintenance professionals all operations concerned with the company’s maintenance tasks. By understanding the benefits of using the CMMS, any business owner and its professionals will be able to understand better how they can improve business costs, performance, and efficiency by using the right CMMS. If the computerized maintenance management system meets the business needs, it is the best for a company. Every business owner needs to make some research and know which tools are necessary for his/her company right now and which ones may be helpful in the soon future.

Store your maintenance data on a computer with a CMMS instead of recording with a pencil and paper. Storing the maintenance data on a computer will allow you to easily track work orders, quickly generate accurate reports, and instantly determine which of your assets require preventive maintenance. The CMMS system gives technicians the ability to focus more on hands-on maintenance and less on paperwork. If you want to extend your asset lifespans, improve your company, reduce your costs and increase your profits, start to use CMMS right now.


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