CMMS question???

Hello JCD...

perhaps the best answer is this... if it sounds to good to be true, it is. OR, perhaps this one... NOTHING is for free.

It is hard to say what the differences might be, but in my humble opinion they might be:

1. No support (or very bad support)
2. Not extensible - which means doesn't share data with others
3. Difficult to own and use (TCO is high)
4. Difficult to integrate
5. Difficult to expand and/or upgrade

There are several schools of thought that run rampant throughout our society. Open Source vs Managed Code (Off the Shelf). There is no reason why a company couldn't write their own applications to do what they want. In my experience, these types of applications become difficult to support, and IF the person leaves, you are stuck with a program that nobody can support, and you get NO benefits.

Off the Shelf software that you purchase means that there is a community of people that can develop with it, and support it, whether or not you lose a person internally. It also means that there will be updates and improvements that make your applications more valuable as time goes on and your needs change.

Across the board, companies need to move away from Reactive Maintenance, to at least Planned, and even better.. Predictive or Proactive Maintenance. A CMMS should inter-relate with your existing SCADA systems so that a device can prompt maintenance to do work. Example: If you are collecting process variables related to how many hours a motor runs (SCADA), you should be able to trigger a work order to do maintenance after xxx number of hours (CMMS). These two systems need to work in concert, instead of disparate. You define the standards, your equpiment tells you when it need maintenance.

In this manner, you are getting the MOST out of your system, with minimal effort... and your cost saving from an integrated system easily outweighs the cost of software (ROI)(TCO).

It is also quite easy to understand the damage Reactive maintenance does to scheduling and cost due to downtime.

SUMMARY: I could talk about this for hours. In my heart I believe you would want a system that will grow with your needs. Right now, there are too many islands of information within a plant floor environment, and ususally the reporting between these systems is dis-jointed and not consistent. Cheap is, as cheap does... short term, it might be OK... but remember, your goal is to achieve VALUE while reducing maintenance costs and improving equipment efficiency and uptime.

You wouldn't drive a car that someone gave you across the country to get something VERY important to your survival... would you??

Now, predictably, you will hear the debate from the anti-Microsoft open source minions. Just becasue the software was free, doesn't mean it won't cost you..!! Good Luck with your decision.

Guest makes some good points, however, don't completely discount open source. We use several open source solutions (not a CMMS) with very good results. They are supported by a wide community and are very professional tools. (I have no relationship with Microsoft - I use a lot of their products)

You may find this paper I presented at CMMS 2006 interesting: http://machineryhealthcare.com/documents/SixstepstoSoftwareSelection.pdf. It includes a list of functions to consider in a CMMS.

Hi JCD,

I have used several different CMMS systems and although there were significant cost differences they essentially did the same thing. One system called MoCA from www.RDMI.com appeared to have all the bells and whistles, was easy to use and was also relatively inexpensive (about 1/3 what some of the other systems were.) Check it out.

We use Maximo in my company. It is a powerful, complex, and an expensive tool. We recently tried Cworks and are using the work order part of the software. It is fairly inexpensive and actually has all the same aspects of Maximo. It is nice because you can set up an administrater and customize it fairly easy for your particular application. Including custom reports, asset #'s and storeroom part #'s.

We are a manufacturing site, but is is widely used in the health care industry where PM documentation is very important for state and federal guidelines.

Here is a link: www.cworks.com.my

They have a trial software package.

Good luck

In life that was this way before and it still like this: you pay for what you have. Do you know that "TATA MOTORS" have just presented a 2000$ car in India? It's a car with seats, wheels, doors and a motor. You can go from point A to point B ... is it not everything a car is made for? But honestly, do you think it's the same than a BMW, Mercedes, Porsche, Volvo? On paper it's the same: 4 wheels, 1 motor, 4 doors...

Open source and "free" (is it really free) software are "cutes" these days and it's "IN" to "blast" Microsoft and other big companies... and also it looks fun for IT people to "customize and program" the solution the way they want. But the more you customize your "unique" software, the more the real thing is: your IT team will become the only people you will be able to call for help... do you want this? What will happen to your maintenance functions required when the whole IT team will be put on a "very-important-project-we-have-to-do-before-everything-else-beacause-the-president-want-this"?

Are you a software development company or a Copper foundry? Where do you think your human resources will be more useful? How many customer's feedbacks and years of expertise are in good (not so expensive) CMMS software? Do you thing you can match this expertise with your internal IT and maintenance team?

As it has been written in other posts, don't look only at "entry fee", look at all the costs around "free" stuffs.

Hope this will help you!