Improve the maintenance of your airport thanks to your CMMS

CMMS: improve the management of maintenance at your airport

Like industrial equipment or real estate assets (Facility Management), etc., airports, due to their complexity, require personalized maintenance management. Equipped with numerous assets spread over a large area in different environments, it is therefore imperative that these infrastructures effectively monitor these assets and the storage of spare parts in order to maintain them at an optimal level of service.

To manage these airport assets, several solutions are competing for the market: CMMS (computer-aided maintenance management) predominate, and mainly make it possible to monitor the maintenance activity of a company, to plan, record and rationalize interventions. However, the term EAM (Enterprise Asset Management System) is also entering the competition, especially in the context of airport management, because assets are at the heart of a company's commercial objectives.

Currently, these two types of solutions dominate the maintenance management and asset management software market. However, the confusion between the two persists due to numerous similarities, and despite some specific characteristics. In this article, we help you to distinguish between these two solutions and to choose the most appropriate one to manage the maintenance of your airport.

GMAO vs EAM: what's the difference?

Born in the 1980s, the maintenance management software (computer-aided maintenance management) is the main tool of the maintenance department. Its objective is to monitor, and ideally to predict (preventive maintenance) and analyze maintenance acts and work orders, to improve their daily management, and to better control the associated costs (cost of equipment, spare parts and stocks, maintenance activities, etc.).

One EAM system (Enterprise Asset Management System) has the same characteristics, and is intended to manage corporate infrastructure assets. Unlike CMMS software, which is more focused on the automation of maintenance, the rationalization of stocks and purchases, the collection and processing of maintenance data and the management of work orders, EAM places the asset at the heart of its problem; its main purpose is to extend the life cycle of the equipment, under the most optimal conditions, to maintain the desired level of service and to improve its profitability and the performances. EAM systems therefore offer functionalities based on the inspection and monitoring of assets, carried out through periodic evaluations. They thus make it possible to organize and manage various subjects and the interdependencies that govern them, such as the maintenance and management of the life cycle of equipment, the monitoring of operations, performance and productivity, as well as the planning of financial resources.

Airport infrastructures are very capital intensive, and in addition to this is the fact that their assets are at the very heart of commercial activity. It is therefore essential, both in the case of a CMMS and an EAM plan, to keep the asset catalog and inventory up to date.

Before opting for a solution, it is essential for the company to assess its needs and define its objectives, beyond the limits of capital and operating expenses imposed by financial services. No solution could be better adapted, as it depends primarily on the specific needs of the airport. He must therefore define his own needs in order to determine what type of software will be the most suitable.

What are the advantages and benefits of a maintenance application?

Better monitoring of costs

Like an industrial company, an airport will also be able to quickly see many benefits following the implementation of maintenance management software. The main benefits initially concern the cost reduction : better monitoring of expenses, reduction in the cost of materials and labor. Indeed, the open APIs provided by such solutions allow you to connect various management software to your asset management software, especially your ERP. Mobility Work, the first next-generation maintenance management platform, aims to be at the heart of company information. It thus makes it possible to cross-reference data from numerous systems, and in particular accounting and purchasing systems, for improved monitoring of expenses and better rationalization of costs.

Improved monitoring of your key performance indicators

A CMMS software with a powerful analytics tool such as Mobility Work allows you to monitor your key performance indicators. Their analysis allows you to continuously improve the reliability and availability of equipment, as well as the control of spare parts, in particular through keyword analysis that highlights recurring problems on your machine park. The adoption of next-generation maintenance software is the perfect opportunity for many companies to make the transition from curative routines to preventive or even predictive maintenance routines.

The calendar feature offered by Mobility Work allows you to plan all your preventive and predictive maintenance interventions.

Easier management for your field technicians

An airport infrastructure is distinguished by the diversity of its environments, both indoors and outdoors, the extent of the perimeter covered, and the diversity of the assets and equipment in its machine park, including:

• Ramp tower
• Vertical transport
• Automated and roll-up doors
• Administrative buildings and ground service equipment
• Aircraft parking, garages and parking lots
• Tracks, traffic lanes, bridges, signalling
• Boilers, Chillers, and HVAC
• Lighting
• Plumbing
• Fuel infrastructure and tanks
• Fire suppression systems and alarms
• Passenger and baggage terminals
• Utilities and buses for rental cars, etc.

Maintenance operators are becoming particularly mobile. Most of the new generation of maintenance management software have a mobile version of their software to support technicians in the field, which allows them to report a failure and thus submit an intervention request in real time to their management, or to enter all the information relating to their intervention directly at the foot of the equipment.

All the news relating to ongoing interventions are available from the news feed of the Mobility Work mobile application, available on iOS and Android.

Technicians therefore have the possibility to manage these interventions, to issue documents, to add comments, documents (photos, videos, etc.) to document the failure, to update the counters, etc. and finally to close the intervention in order to notify its network of its finalization.

These applications also allow you to control your inventory: access your inventory, issue spare parts and keep your store up to date for better rationalization of your stocks and expenses.

How do I choose the best CMMS system for my airport?

Before opting for a maintenance solution, it is necessary to assess its strengths and weaknesses, and to list the most essential selection criteria in advance, including:

• The price

Mobility Work is the most affordable solution on the market: 33 euros per month and per user for administrator and technician profiles, and free for service providers and intervention seekers.

• its accessibility (mobility) and the ergonomics of its interfaces

Our solution is inspired by social networks, and places user comfort at the heart of its approach.

• its ease of deployment

Build your equipment in under a minute! Available in SaaS mode from the Cloud, Mobility Work requires no installation.

• whether or not it is necessary to conduct training to use the software, and promote its adoption by technical teams

Mobility Work does not require any training.

• compatibility and integration with other business software, hardware or operating systems, or with previous maintenance management and/or EAM software

Extract your old databases and connect your maintenance software to your ERP using our open APIs.

The maintenance solution thus helps airport infrastructures to monitor their machinery accurately and effectively, and supports them in improving their routines and recording essential information and documents. In this sense, CMMS can support airports in monitoring their regulatory and professional certifications in order to ensure compliance with legal and security requirements. It is therefore an essential tool for all airport services.

For more information on CMMS systems and how they can help you improve the maintenance management of your airport, do not hesitate to watch the video presenting our Mobility Work application, or to test the application free of charge for 7 days using your own data.

Are you interested in maintenance management and want to know more in order to increase your productivity and save money? Schedule a free video with our team to help you better manage your maintenance!