We are looking for something very basic. Something that can schedule PM and remind people to do it, downtime and something that could keep track of spare parts.
We are looking to implement some good tpm practices. We have already trained many operators to do basic things, and are in the process of training more/ and furthuring the basic training.

GREAT info and thoughts though!!!! Thank you.


MKV, I know exactly what you mean when you say the detail wouldnt be good enough. That is a thought I already had but upper management is so set on getting some kind of downtime data that I think they dont care/ or arent thinking about the lack of detail being a problem.

I think its definitely a good idea to be able to have as much detail as possible for distinguishing various downtimes.

Though I dont know if I agree with you saying its not a maintenance issue. We have NO preventitive maintenance in place right now. NONE! the machine gets fixed when something breaks which is frequently. They are relatively complex machines with many electrical and mechancial parts working overtime(we run them 24 hrs a day...manuf recommendations is 16 hrs a day).

Obviously that leads to more wear and tear, but if we had some kind of PM inplace we could reduce breakdowns. Taking a machine down to do PM is less time consuming(in many ways) than fixing it when it breaks.


This is really good information . I appreciate the help!

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

Hi Euphoric,

It looks like you are not in the marketplace for a Maximo or Datastream type solution. As has been stated these are very expensive. The cost of CMMS applications has however came down and there are many good systems available for a fraction of the cost of the top tier systems.

I can let you have demos of two or three of these. If you are interested get in touch.

Euphoric,

One of the things we did at a company was to use the maintenance software program to track the down time. this was based on when someone would call in a request to have the machine serviced. While not the best, it put the requirement on the machine operator to call in the problem ASAP. This when combined with automatic recording from a machine could help in collecting the data.

Thats an idea but management wants more detail. ahaha

I have decided to get some cmms consulting companies to come in and at least give us(managment) an idea of how they can help us choose the right solution.

Good idea? bad idea?

Im thinking its a good one since no one here has much (if any at all) experience with cmms softwares. after reading around/researching it seems many softwares have too much garbage/frills etc that we wont want/or need to pay for, and many companies choose the wrong software, have issues implementing it etc. So using another company with experience would be benefical. Or at least thats what I think at this point.

thoughts on that?

Other facilities within the company have gone out on their own and ended up using somethings(such as maintmizer and nhuntsoftware) but I feel we would benefit from having the help of an outside source.

At the end of the day we can always just choose what the other facilities are using but Id like for management to explore their options.

Euphoric,

What you have just said is an excellent idea. I personally started using CMMS programs over 20 years ago and it was fairly easy then. Since then I have used Maximo, Datastream (MP2 and 7i), Web Work, Mainsaver, Mainstar, and a few others. My career in maintenance had me move around quite a bit so I ended up learning a lot of software programs.

Now days just about all the programs need some sort of implementation and training to at least use it the best. Feel free to contact me directly if you want if you have any specific questions about what to look for. dwayne.hartranft@tmssusa.comI am happy to share what I have learned over the years.

Here are some thoughts when shopping around for a CMMS consultant that I have gathered over the years. Hope they help.

Are they a large company (Datastream or Maximo)? If they are, then they will be selling their product no matter what you really need.

How long have they been doing it?

How many different programs have they implemented or set up?

Did any of their customers stop using the software? If so, why? Was it the software, the implementation, or other aspects?

Do they use their own product? I actually spoke with a rep from Maximo years ago that was only a sales rep. He had never used Maximo at all. In a meeting someone asked him if he had ever used it, and he let slip No it was too hard to learn quickly. Needless to say, he did not get the sale.

Make a list of what you really need and what you would like to have. All CMMS programs will have more than you really need. The question would be will it meet the basics of what I need, without a huge cost. Example in one company I helped, they had inventory locations that were set by corporate policy and could not be changed. One CMMS program could not accept that many characters, while another could. They obviously went with the program that could.

Find a CMMS consultant that is willing to really listen to what your needs are. They should not be telling you that no matter what your needs are, my program will meet them. That is not true. There may be a work around, but there are some things that some programs just cannot be met.

Find a CMMS consultant that is willing to tell you the downside of their program. All programs have some sort of downside. Make sure you can live with the downside.

Don’t let the bells and whistles distract from your requirements. If the bells and whistles look great, but it can’t do what you need, it does not matter what the bells and whistles do.