COMPUTERIZED MAINTENANCE MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS: An Overview.

Is your maintenance program lost in the Maintenance Wilderness? Are you able to factually back up the purposes of your current maintenance expenditures? Is it possible to draw on past experience to project future budgets? Can you break out by park, program or equipment what you are spending on each for maintenance? How much of your work is scheduled, planned, reactive, emergency, or delayed? Do you have a current actively managed backlog of work to be done? Do you schedule and prioritize your work with operations and program managers against department goals and objectives? Is the periodic maintenance for your rolling stock -- trucks, tractors, and mowers -- current?

How many of the above questions sound familiar? Weak answers are signs that your maintenance program is not under full control. These are signs that it is probably not as sophisticated as necessary. It is in the Maintenance Wilderness. It is characterized by a methodology of reaction, that is, "doing what we always do until there is a fire." Once the fire is identified, it is fought until it is extinguished.

I am sure problems with the Maintenance Wilderness predate the first true assembly line, which made tackle blocks for the Royal Navy prior to the Napoleonic Wars. Since that time, the evolution of maintenance thought has been to move from fix it when it breaks (sound familiar?), to maintaining the minimum production capability needed to produce the desired outcome.

Evolution of Maintenance Thought

In the beginning there was the "Fire Fighting" methodology. That is, when things break, do what has to be done to fix the problem and bring equipment back into production - NOW! This attitude is best described by the statement, "It's not a problem until it is a problem!" Once a piece of equipment has broken, people, material and money are showered on it until it is fixed and production resumes.

Slowly, the Preventive Maintenance (PM) methodology was developed. PM is characterized by trying to maintain equipment in accordance with manufacturer's guidelines. Equipment capability is maintained to the "like new" standard. This keeps equipment capabilities at the highest production standards. What is truly required of the equipment for production is not a factor in determining maintenance requirements. Thus, excess capability that will not be used is maintained.

The next generation of maintenance thought is called Reliability Centered or Total Plant Maintenance (RCM or TPM). RCM or TPM requires the maintenance and production departments to talk to each other. Their Maintenance Plan is based on desired outcome requirements. That is, if a pump is capable of 250 gal/min, but production only needs it to be able to pump 175 gal/min, it is maintained to that 175-gal/min standard. Maintenance standards are based on production requirements, not equipment standards. Thus, the amount of maintenance activity is decreased. You only maintain capabilities required by production needs.

Current State of Recreation and Parks Maintenance

In my work as a playground installer, I noticed that maintenance at most Park and Recreation Maintenance Departments is characterized by the "Fire Fighting" methodology. Throughout the various park systems, workers and management were aware of delayed maintenance items. However, there was seldom a formalized method to identify, prioritize, plan and schedule such work. For the most part, maintenance was delayed until it became a problem. Then the work was advanced in priority and routine work, such as mowing, or trash pickup, was delayed until the problem was fixed.

When there was a Work Order (WO) System in place, it was seldom used to document routine work, such as mowing or trash pickup, and almost never used to document emergency work, even after the fact. If a WO was used, once it was completed, it and any information on it usually disappeared into a filing cabinet. So, while some work was being documented, the ability to draw upon the information created was minimal unless a significant effort was made to hand review each WO, write down the specific information sought, then collate it into a logical report.

To reiterate, the system most often in place was that routine work was accomplished until an emergency, or enough "pain" was inflicted upon the organization, elevated a task into a priority item. Then, assets were moved to the problem site, and all other work ceased until the problem was solved. "Fire Fighting" plain and simple.

A Better Methodology

At the North Carolina State University Park and Recreation Maintenance Management School, a lecture is given on how to create a Park Maintenance Management System (PMMS). The PMMS described is primarily oriented towards day-to-day routine maintenance. It accommodates non-routine work, but such maintenance and the results not easily tracked. Therefore history and lessons learned are lost.

It is not necessary for the PMMS described to be computerized, but record tracking is facilitated by use of computers. This system allows routine maintenance to be pre-planned and thus more efficient. It does require the creation and diligent use of a basic WO system. These WOs are used to plan and assign work. Then they are used to track results and specified data, such as who worked and how long it took to accomplish the work. This is important, but it is only the first step.

What Industry Has Created

Industry has developed computerized programs to assist the Maintenance Function to answer questions such as those posed in the opening paragraph of this article. With advances of computers since the early 60's, more and more record keeping has been moved from filing cabinets to computer files and databases. Initially, for maintenance organizations, these were listings of highly specialized programs such as:

* Periodic Maintenance Tracking

* Spare Parts Inventory Listing

* Equipment Inventory Listing

As computing power went up, and computer costs came down, these programs were integrated with each other. From these programs the first Maintenance Management Suites or Systems (MMS) were developed. Much like the office suites developed by Microsoft or Lotus, they were separate programs able to share data with each other.

The latest expression of this integration has been the Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS), or at the high end, the Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) System. These CMMS or EAM programs are in simplest terms, nothing more than a series of programmed relational databases, "modules," which talk to each other. The most important and common of these modules are:

* Equipment Record [ER] Management Module -- a record of basic equipment information such as make, model, serial number, warranty record, purchase date, location of each piece of equipment in the factory.

* Work Order Management Module -- allows creation of work requests (WR), the approval of the WR, the creation of a work order (WO), then the completion and attachment of the finished WO with its associated activity and cost to the ER.

* Preventive Maintenance [PM] Module -- creation of scheduled repetitive tasks such as periodic oil changes for trucks, inspections of facilities for wear and tear, and the replacement of lights at estimated lifetime.

* Inventory Control Module -- keeps track of your inventory of spare parts and expendable materials.

The Work Order Module

The Work Order Module can best be described as a program, which allows the creation of a basic request for work, the Work Order Request (WR). The WR is then moved through a pre-planned approval hierarchy and once approved, becomes the basis for a Work Order (WO). The WO is then planned, listing skills and trades requirements, special tools, materials and any special procedures that may apply.

Once the WO package has been entered and saved, it is then scheduled, assigned, the work accomplished, and then closed. This creates a record of work requested, work actually accomplished, and the results obtained, with associated labor and material cost. The completed WO is then attached to the Equipment Record as part of the history for that piece of equipment.

It is in the Work Order Module that a backlog of pre-planned work is created and stored. This backlog allows for the judicious use of resources in structuring the workload against the goals of the organization. It's here that delayed maintenance items are planned and stored awaiting the release of proper assets for their accomplishment.

The Preventive Maintenance Module

Here is where Periodic/Preventive Maintenance [PM) work orders are planned. Think of it as a specialized version of the Work Order Module that allows the planner to create one WO that will be used over and over to accomplish a repetitive task such as weekly mowing of a ball field, quarterly servicing of a mower, or yearly inspection and tuning of a heating system. Upon completion, the work accomplished and materials used are then attached to the appropriate Equipment History Record. Then timers are reset, and a projected re-accomplishment date or meter reading is calculated, set, and tracked.

The Inventory Control Module

Inventory Control Modules now do more than maintain a list of parts and materials on hand. It includes such information as minimum reorder points and quantities, or maximum and minimum stocking level information. Reports that come from this module would include Parts List by Equipment, Usage History of Stocked Items, and Inventory Value. The automatic changing of stock levels as tradesmen draw out or return unused parts combined with the allocating of the costs of those items to the associated WOs and equipment make this a very potent cost control module.

The Equipment Module

This module is the heart of the CMMS. It is more than just a record of basic equipment information such as:

* Make and Model

* Where it is located

* Nameplate Data

* Who is responsible for ownership.

It is here that all the connections are made from the other modules to create a history of the individual pieces of equipment. This Equipment History is where you would look to find out what this equipment is truly costing you in terms of material and labor costs. This is where the CMMS maintains the history of what has happened, what is happening and what will happen (PM Status) to your equipment.

Other Modules

Other modules affecting how a CMMS operates and is implemented are the:

* Purchasing Module -- which tracks your vendors and purchasing activities

* Personnel Module -- which keeps track of such items as special training requirements and due dates, crafts, crews, assigned areas, and shifts

* Report Writing Module -- which allows for creation of "Ad hoc" queries of the databases created to support the other modules. It allows the user to view the same data from different perspectives

* Scheduling Module -- allows the user to view the affect of various scenarios of resource usage on the organization. It usually provides a graphic presentation showing if assets are under, fully or over scheduled.

These modules may or may not come with the basic package. They do extend the operational range of coverage and are very useful when properly implemented.

One of these additional modules that deserves a bit of extra attention is the Report Writing Module. Most packages come with numerous pre-written reports such as:

* Parts usage by equipment

* Overdue PMs

* WOs not accomplished according to plan.

This is where all the work of implementation is justified. The use of the report capabilities can allow you to look at the CMMS data in different ways. These "Ad hoc" queries can answer all the questions posed at the beginning of this article. In fact, the third question is a beautiful example of how a report writer will allow you to look at the same data from different perspectives:

* By truck, list our maintenance costs

* By truck, list the time out of service

* By truck, list the use of tires.

The ability to change perspective at the cost of a few keystrokes can be used to identify problem areas before they are apparent operationally. A properly structured inquiry of the information being created daily can justify the replacement of a piece of equipment, or show how maintenance assets are being utilized.

Conclusions

There are now over 150 CMMS/EAM programs available on the market. All computer operating systems such as UNIX/LINUX, MS-DOS, MS-Windows, or Apple's Macintosh are accommodated. Many companies now offer appropriately sized and priced CMMS software packages. These packages offer integrated features and functionality that Parks and Recreation Departments can take advantage of. The usefulness and reliability of these packages has been proven and honed to a fine edge in the industrial world.

Such an implementation is "not a piece of cake". However, as industry has discovered, with a good project plan, and expert guidance, the chances of success are high and the value of the rewards is even higher. As Industry views it, every dollar saved on maintenance is a dollar that is available to be used for capital improvements, training, additional programs, or profit.

For the Park and Recreation Department, the benefits are the identical. With improvement in the efficiency of the maintenance function, funds and assets are freed up. These freed funds and assets will allow for additional capital improvements, training of personnel, or the creation of additional programs.

The owner of one of the companies producing one of the premier CMMS solutions used to make the following proposal to his customers, "You have been using my product for a year. I will give you back all the money you have spent on the implementation. In return, you will give me back the software and remove it from your operation." He never had a customer take him up on the offer. To a man, they preferred life AC (after CMMS) to life BC (before CMMS).

It is no longer a question of whether your department should get on board with this very available and affordable business solution. It has become a question of when and how committed you and the organization you work for will be to the successful implementation of a CMMS. What more can be said?

Victor Hernandez, author of "Computerized Maintenance Management Systems -- An Overview" on page 64, graduated from the Georgia Institute of Technology with a B.S. in Industrial Management. His first career was in the Air Force where he was able to literally cycle the globe in 5 minutes, 85 seconds faster than the Astronauts. He has worked as a certified installer of GameTime equipment for Outdoor Construction Company, and as a project manager for Indus International, one of the premier producers of Computerized Maintenance Management Software (CMMS). A CPSI and a member of NRPA, Victor is currently a managing consultant with Gray Area Projects, LLC, a consulting firm dedicated to bringing the benefits of CMMS technology to Recreation and Parks Departments. An avid reader, the latest good book he has read is Nothing Like It In The World, the story of the building of the Transcontinental Railroad.