Articles
Implementing CMMS - What is Involved?
by Paul Lachance, Smartware Group
This document lists the basic tasks that customers will work through when implementing our CMMS. It is a guideline only, reflecting our experience working with our many thousands of users through the years.
Step 1: Who will be a part of the planning team?
We believe that a team approach including management and technicians can be useful in successful implementation of CMMS. The feedback from the people in the field combined with the reporting, analysis and other goals of management will give you the best results. Plus, if people at all levels are involved they will accept the change more easily and work in common toward successful implementation. No one wants software forced on them when they have not been involved.
Step 2: Identify your needs, wishes and goals.
Why are you selecting a new CMMS? Where are your maintenance issues? Do you want better operational management of work orders? More proactive preventive maintenance? Better reporting on the effectiveness of your maintenance team? It is helpful to list these needs, wishes and goals before getting into the software training and setup. It will help you focus on what parts of the CMMS to work on first.
Step 3: Orient yourself on the benefits and features of Bigfoot CMMS.
If you have purchased training, it is much easier to get started once your training is complete. At least go through the orientation (again with a live trainer if you purchased - or alternatively using the provided documentation and resources you look at on your own pace). Experiment with your software. If you are using the client/server version, get it installed and play around with the system so you start to get familiar with the basics. If using the web version, login and look around. It will be easier to setup your information if you have a good orientation to the features in Bigfoot CMMS.
Step 4: Go through the "startup kit" - start laying out how you will manage your CMMS information.
We have a detailed "startup kit". This document will walk you through all of the details on how to setup the basic and detailed information. For example, you will want to define you "equipment conditions", "work order types", and other overhead information in advance. It is best to have your CMMS implementation team go through this together. Often times we suggest using a white board to help draw up thoughts. When you are done with the startup kit, you will be ready to start using the system. It may sound like a lot of work up front, but this will pay back greatly with a cleaner and more successful implementation. There is not a lot of data entry in this phase, but there can be a lot of philosophical and tactical discussion on how to best implement.
Step 5: Start entering basic info
Now you can start entering your assets/equipment, parts, PMs and other database info. This phase can involve a lot of data entry. We have all kinds of replication features to make this go as painlessly as possible. We also have the ability to import (fees may be involved) if you have your data in an electronic format. We suggest that you pick a subset of equipment and start. Maybe pick one aspect of your operation and get the data in. Get a good feel for how the data will be used before working on your entire data entry project.
Step 6: Experiments/test run/Go live
Make some work orders, look at your PMs. Start using the system. See how well the analysis/information provided from Bigfoot is helping you. You may discover that you need to tweak Bigfoot. Maybe enter data a little differently. Adjust and continue. Soon you will be in a "go live" phase.
Step 7: Circle back to Step 2 (needs and wishes) - Are you achieving what you set out to do?
Are we getting the results we want? At this point most customers can say "yes", but if not, why? Maybe it is a training/user issue - our helpdesk can assist. Maybe you need to enter your data a little differently. Maybe you need to implement other parts of Bigfoot. Ultimately we want our users to get the most out of Bigfoot that they can. This is a dynamic process that may take some time, but once successful will help your organization's operational effectiveness and profitability.
If you want to learn more about about implmenting our Bigfoot CMMS, contact us at 866-858-7800 ext.2.
