[dropcap]A[/dropcap]s the entire world moves towards automation, the onus now falls on companies big and small to improve their efficiency, as well as perform better than ever, to keep up with competitors who are racing ahead. While it is comparatively easier for large enterprises with decades of experience in production and manufacturing, for smaller companies especially ones that are just starting out; streamlining the process of risk based maintenance vs keeping productivity at an all time high is a delicate balance that only a few manage to strike.
But the harsh truth of modern B2B companies is that if you stumble you’ll be left behind in the dust. So what is the solution? Augmenting human managers and maintenance crews with a CMMS. Now CMMS, or Computerised Maintenance Management Systems have been in use for a long while when it comes to enterprises but most of the time when you move towards smaller businesses the question becomes if there is enough ROI to warrant an investment into CMMS software.
Well there are several cases where a CMMS system can complement a human manager in increasing the overall productivity of the company and today we are going to look at 5 ways through which an integrated solution for maintenance management can drastically increase profit margins in all companies regardless of their scale.
1. Maximizing Your Assets
One of the hardest things for a human manager to deal with is to constantly monitor that all the assets of the company are getting utilized at their optimum level. This is where a CMMS can come in as once the entire inventory of the company has been uploaded to the software, it can check in realtime and provide reports on Asset Utilisation. The managers in turn can then focus their attention on the pain points instead of being distracted by mundane supervision of assets.
2. Getting a Boost in Productivity
The primary reason to deploy a CMMS software is to enable risk based maintenance efficiently. In a work environment, every step of the production line is dependant on each other and nothing harms the productivity of a company more than a disrupted workflow due to untimely breakdown of machinery. This is something a CMMS can prevent by automating maintenance schedules and keeping a close eye on parts of the workflow that are susceptible to breakdown.
3. Automating Inventory Management
Managers in companies, regardless of size, are often held liable when a product delivery misses the deadline or when production takes a sudden dip for the worse. However humans are prone to errors and oftentimes a minor oversight leads to huge production losses in terms of downtime or messed up orders. All of this can be easily avoided with a CMMS as not only can it perform inventory management and keep sight of all incoming and outgoing orders at once, it can also automate the process of ordering critical parts whenever supplies run low!
4. Easing the Introduction of New Technology
We live in a fast paced world where technology is constantly evolving and to keep pace with it companies have to incorporate newer methods into their workflow. But with a plethora of options available it becomes difficult to understand which one would be a perfect fit to increase profit margins as well as productivity. This is where a CMMS shines as it can provide a birds eye view of the entire operations of a company and with in-built graphs, infographics as well as real time analysis of data, managers are empowered to make the right choice each time.
5. Increased Employee Happiness
The introduction of a CMMS into the work environment means that companies can hire lesser which inevitably means they can hire better and pay more to retain talent. A CMMS not only reduces the number of managers and maintenance engineers required on deck at any time, it also plays an integral role in decreasing the workload of every employee on the company’s roster by automating a lot of the tasks. Also the increased maintenance and reduced risk of failures in production lines makes the workplace safer which of course contributes to employee happiness.
While these are some of the more salient features that a CMMS brings to the table, there are multiple other instances where a manager can make use of a CMMS to make useful tweaks and changes to improve a company’s bottomline. If man’s best friend is a dog, a CMMS might just be a manager’s best companion!
