Eight Benefits of CMMS for In-House Maintenance Support

By Devon Maresco
Marketing Coordinator
SpaceIQ

A Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS) is something every in-house corporate maintenance team needs. Whether you staff one or two craftspeople or have an entire department of skilled trades waiting in the wings, the benefits of CMMS make it easier for these professionals to do their job. That job is to keep facilities safe, functional, comfortable, and accessible to the people who need them.

What is CMMS?

CMMS is the backbone of any facility maintenance program. It’s a system designed for asset maintenance, with the workplace as the largest asset a company will oversee. Typically, a CMMS has several core functions:

• Provide a dashboard for managing maintenance tasks
• Automate scheduling of routine maintenance tasks
• Provide documentation and archival of maintenance
• Improve work allocation across the maintenance team
• Quantify and characterize types of asset maintenance

Think of CMMS as the backbone for total facility upkeep. From maintenance on capital systems to simple solutions to employee submitted support tickets, a CMMS system controls the framework for facility maintenance.

Eight benefits of CMMS software

Companies have various modes and methods for executing facility maintenance. The primary benefits of implementing a CMMS system include bringing these processes and practices together in a single, uniform platform. Here’s a look at some of the biggest benefits of CMMS software:

1. Reduced time to repair. A cohesive support ticket and maintenance response system expedites solutions across facilities. A CMMS standardizes the intake and response of in-house maintenance tasks, to reduce confusion and improve response actions. The ticket comes in, it gets assigned, and the job gets done. There’s no word-of-mouth to remember or paper printouts to lose—it’s all digital, centralized, and available on-the-go.
2. Better cost control. It’s not difficult to see that preventive, proactive, and rapid reactive maintenance leads to cost savings over lingering problems. Consider the cost of access control repair vs. the cost of asset theft or the cost to fix a damaged chair vs. the worker’s compensation claim when someone injures themselves sitting in it. Even simple preventive and routine maintenance comes at less of a cost than extensive, robust repairs.
3. Increased facility efficiency. When your facilities run smoothly, everyone is more productive. More than that, a well-maintained workplace feels more comfortable and conducive to work. CMMS software expedites the quickness of service and leads to more targeted results. This due to the ability of employees to submit support tickets and the organized nature of a CMMS solution for in-house craftspeople.
4. Insightful maintenance data. How many support tickets came in last week? Last month? What was the cost of repairs during that time? How many man hours went into the maintenance? What aspects of facilities were involved? The more data captured from a digital support ticket and CMMS software, the more context maintenance operations have. This feeds into more proactive approaches to facility upkeep, cost control, and decision-making.
5. Maintenance automations. CMMS can give companies the ability to automate maintenance workflows. Delegate support tickets to the right personnel by the nature of the problem. Or, designate cost centers based on the type of maintenance and sync it up with the maintenance budget. As the need for automations becomes apparent, CMMS makes it possible (and simple), which affords facility maintenance teams more control over maintenance ops.
6. Improved facility ROI. Remember that facilities themselves are an asset. Maintenance is part of asset upkeep, which contributes to ROI. CMMS can help contextualize the everyday maintenance operations within a facility as part of asset maintenance. The ability to see tasks and solutions in terms of dollars spent and reinvestment potential can help stakeholders realize the benefits of keeping maintenance in-house vs. outsourcing.
7. Longer asset lifespan. Whether you lease or own, the quality of facilities matters. Pride of workspace translates into pride of work, and employees want facilities to live up to certain expectations. CMMS offers a complete solution to facility upkeep, which leads to better maintenance and longer asset lifespan—as well as better ROI from the employees using it.
8. Facility compliance. Simple compliance issues can become big headaches for companies. Skipping a fire suppression inspection can get you in trouble with the local building inspector. Burnt-out emergency lighting can skyrocket company liability. Unfixed electrical issues could be negligent. With a CMMS system, these simple yet critical issues get the priority they need and can’t accidentally fall to the bottom of the support ticket list.

CMMS is extremely valuable for in-house maintenance teams. From task allocation to expense tracking, it collects all the vital components of a facility maintenance strategy into a single, unified dashboard.

Simplify in-house maintenance

As facilities grow more complex and the need for in-house upkeep grows, so does the need for a CMMS solution. The only way to approach broad facility maintenance efficiently is to centralize it. Modern CMMS offers all the integrations and capabilities maintenance teams need to understand building demands, coordinate a maintenance approach, and optimize the deployment of solutions. CMMS simplifies in-house maintenance, to help companies get more out of their asset.

Keep reading: How the Top CMMS Software Providers Stand Out