To ensure anything is running correctly in your life you are going to need to check in on it often, James Cash the founder of JC Penney said: “Growth is never by mere chance; it is the result of forces working together.” A CMMS program is the same way. For it to work everyone who has a touch with the program must work together. With a plan, running a successful CMMS program is attainable for everyone.
If you only plan to check in on a CMMS software once a quarter how do you know you are getting the most out of it? How do you know you are running your equipment efficiently? Remember “Planning brings the organization together.” If you wait too long and mistakes are made it is a lot harder to go back and fix it rather than making small adjustments weekly. Before you even purchase a CMMS system, set company standards as well as best practices. Put a plan in place for when your check-ins will be accomplished. Complete regular checks on your CMMS software as well as checks on how well employees are using it. Just like when we go to the doctor for a checkup to ensure we are healthy, we also need to check in on our CMMS to make sure it is running properly.
Adoption and Usage For a Successful CMMS
Training employees who use the system only in infrequent training sessions can be intimidating and probably not an ideal learning situation for most. Depending on your staff size you may need to hold multiple training sessions to make it a more personalized one-on-one experience. Find ways to correct mistakes when they occur. By conducting a short weekly audit any issues should become quickly apparent, making them a lot easier to fix. By creating short periods of time between audits, it allows for any mistakes made to be fresh on the mind of your managers and employees. At the time of occurrence, it is best to correct actions that may have caused a problem. If you wait until later then your chances of letting it slide could increase.
Start with a plan
The plan should be announced throughout the company, it should also be written down for all employee’s reference and for future review. This should be done well before the new software is announced to employees. In follow-up training meetings, small sections of the plan can be reviewed in greater detail. The other key is to never stray from what has been laid out. When you notice that you or your teams begin to deviate from your set plans stop, and correct it as soon as possible to ensure you are meeting your team goals. By working this way, it sends a message to your entire team about how important staying on track and following the plan is.
Employee Hierarchy
Everyone should know who will be following up and auditing your teams. It should be clearly stated to all employees who will be overseeing and maintaining your CMMS business plan. A good reason to argue for this is it helps to guarantee quality assurance. Decide for your company what process might work in your best interest. Make sure that with whatever structure you decide works best for your team that you regulate and test it before you roll it out. Nothing is more frustrating for an employee than being expected to do something and to not have the correct permissions or tools to fully succeed in their job. Having a foolproof process doesn’t necessarily mean it is lengthy, but it does need to be accurate.
Plan for change
There will come a time when the current plan doesn’t make sense because it has run its useful life and your computerized maintenance management software process needs updating or modification. This is appropriate and expected. Just be sure that you begin defining the plan and creating documentation early on. Plan for training before and after the changes take place and continue to audit. An excuse of “this is the way we’ve always done it” is not a good enough reason to stay the same. You can see how quickly technology changes, so wouldn’t it make sense to try to replicate with urgency that change within your own company?
In the end, the most important thing you can do is to remain consistent! If you allow employees to stray from the processes defined and trained on, you are inviting room for error. Stay consistent in utilizing your CMMS system.
Be sure to check-in at the appropriate times decided for your business. Do what works for your team and what makes the most sense for your day to day workflow. If it makes sense to start slowly and work on one process at a time that is fine. The goal is to be moving forward with some progress, rather than none at all.
