Hi, yes this is a very broad question because I know there are hundreds to choose from. But there has to be some leaders in this industry.

I am looking for a CMMS but primarly something for PM. We currently have none. machine work gets done when the machine breaks. Not very efficient.

Im also looking for a cmms software that could monitor the downtime of each machine(8 machines here)as well. Even planned downtime. Something that will count the time. XY machine was down a totaly of 87 minutes today etc.
I got some ideas from here such as hour timer or plc timers but the nature of our machines wouldnt allow for this(or at least I dont think they will) . Ive talked with a techincian and he is familiar with wanting to use some sort of timer and he says it would be hard to do. Im thinking of wiring something into the sensors but that would be difficult to figure out.

ANother option is to have a software(that runs with os2) that could monitor the running time because the machine is activated through the computer by pressing start in its program.

Many of the softwares out there have a lot of options and frills that I dont really need.

So I am looking for some help in choosing something thatll work best for me/company. Hopefully someone out there has experience and can help me out. It would be much appreciated.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Euphoric,

quote:

Another option is to have a software(that runs with os2) that could monitor the running time because the machine is activated through the computer by pressing start in its program.

Is there only one machine? In that case use a spreadsheet, or a calendar pinned on the wall close to the machine

First you need to chart your maintenance work flow / processes. You need to have a structure.

When something breaks, who fixes it?
What is the size of your company, what do you manufacture? What types of machine?

All CMMS are the best, I still need to meet the vendor who claims thar he is selling a mediocre product.

ahahahhaa, very true. I am more looking for well known/commonly used software.

There are 9 machines. They are electromechanical and they produce cards. The machines consist of about 5-6 "Sections" or different machines that work together and the work piece flows through all of it.

when something breaks the techicians fix it...they should be doing PM but we dont have anything implemented yet(working on it).


We have some structure (work/flow process).

what we are really looking for is something to monitor downtime(something combined with software/automated) is what we want.

there is to much going on for paper work on this.

And I am looking for a good cmms that focuses primarly on PM(if can handle the downtime information directly that would be even better)

thanks for the help

Euphoric,

I like your topic.

The "best" depends on what you are looking for. I agree with you that most (if not all) CMMS programs have "frills" that are not always needed. To add to what Svanels said, you need to have an idea of what you really need from a CMMS before getting one.

Make a list of things that you absolutely cannot live without and things that would be nice to have. Also be aware that there will be additional costs that most CMMS vendors don't tell you about. These costs include installation, implementing, and training. You will have a cost associated with all three areas, even if you do it in house.

I personally have worked with almost a dozen programs, including Datastream, Maximo, and Web Work. The company I work for has implemented and trained on these three programs and others. There is a huge difference in cost and complexity among these types of programs.

Web Work could be a good fit as I know it is the least expensive of the three major programs I have worked with, and it has a user friendly interface for the whole program. When I compared prices between these three programs, using only the basic package, Maximo was around $250,000, Datastream about $125,000, and Web Work around $25,000.

Dwayne

Euphoric,

The issue you're facing is one that many companies face. When equipment runs at 70% efficiency, they want to know what items are causing downtime, or why the machine isn't running at full capacity.

This effort is realistically outside of CMMS functionality. Efficiency tracking/monitoring is not a maintenance-related issue, but more of a process-related issue.

A lot of equipment suppliers allows you to download (most in real-time) the events that the equipment produces. For example, one machine may be producing the following events:

040208 23:45 Machine Stopped
040208 24:11 Machine Operational
040208 45:40 Emergency Stop Pressed
040208 47:22 Machine Operational

Many equipment suppliers may provide SPC monitoring systems to track events, including operating vs. non-operating times, but many do not.

Although equipment efficiency can be obtained from this data, using it to record downtime presents many issues. Even if you recorded the fact that the machine was down for 2 hours today, the reasons why the machine was down isn't something that the machine is going to record. What if you had 1 hour downtime for a company meeting?

We attempted to obtain this type of information from our electronic placement machines, but found that it didn't provide the detail we needed. We could report that machine A was down for 35 minutes, but why?

Our technicians do record downtime that they actually were on a machine. This gives our management a better insight on maintenance-related issues, not operational-related issues. If a machine was down for 2 hours, and we had 10 minutes of recorded maintenance downtime, this leaves 1:50 hours of downtime that must be accounted by production.

As for a maintenance system, we use the guru cmms. This maintenance package allows us to not only record downtime, but time worked. For example, our technicians may work on a problem for 10 minutes, but spend 20 minutes monitoring it to ensure the problem is truly fixed. Guru records these times separately providing a better indication of how time is spent.

Last time I checked, you could get the maintenance module for less than $400.

My two cents,
MIKE