How to reduce maintenance costs thanks to CMMS?

Improving competitiveness is an objective shared by a very large number of companies. With this in mind, they are constantly looking for new levers that allow them to reduce, in particular, their operating expenses. Reduce maintenance costs, which are generally a major expense item, is one.

But do lower maintenance costs involves re-examining all machine maintenance processes. It is in fact more appropriate to adopt a global approach and to analyze the entire maintenance strategy than to seek to make small savings equipment by equipment or station by station.

Located at the heart of plant maintenance management, the CMMS software is a subject that should be treated with particular attention. Having a modern solution adapted to current challenges thus makes it possible to: make substantial savings thanks to its CMMS.

Reduce maintenance costs

What exactly are maintenance costs and how can they be reduced?

Brief definition of maintenance costs

The NF X60-020 standard defines maintenance costs such as costs directly attributable to maintenance. It also states that these costs can be analyzed by nature (personnel, products and materials consumed, maintenance tools and equipment, subcontracting, etc.) or by destination (technical documents, preparation, interventions, interventions, warehousing, warehousing, monitoring and management, training, etc.).

These direct costs are generally presented in contrast to the following indirect costs:

• downtime costs which include production loss costs, non-quality, additional production costs, contractual penalties, etc., resulting from a failure;
• failure costs which include the costs of corrective maintenance and the costs of unavailability resulting from the failure.

In addition, the NF EN 13306 standard defines the life cycle cost of an asset but does not give any additional details on the maintenance costs.

Traditional techniques to reduce maintenance costs

Numerous methods, more or less relevant, have been proposed to reduce maintenance costs, in particular by Japanese companies.

The “Kaizen philosophy”

Many Japanese organizations have adopted a corporate culture inspired by Kaizen, a Japanese management style. The general idea is to visualize problems not as failures, but rather as opportunities for improvement. All components of the company are thus encouraged to engage in a process of continuous improvement, also called” Lean ” in English.

The “Kanban” method

Also coming from Japan, the Kanban method is a particular way of managing stocks and consists of applying a just-in-time production system. By processing customer requests “just-in-time”, thanks to a production team and responsive suppliers, it allows reduce production, storage and time costs. Applied to maintenance, it is inefficient or even counterproductive.

Learning to detect malfunctions

Many maintenance specialists emphasize the importance of effectively anticipating malfunctions. These may result in machine interruption, insufficiently high efficiency, material losses, delivery delays or even product quality defects.

Analyzing malfunctions makes it possible to identify their causes and to avoid them in the future. To do this, rethinking the organization of production and maintenance seems essential. But all this is not possible without a thorough reflection on technical and technological tools and on the adoption of a CMMS software (computer-aided maintenance management) modern, efficient and intuitive.

Lowering maintenance costs thanks to next-gen CMMS

The latest technological advances, in particular in terms of mobility and Big Data, have allowed the emergence of a new generation of CMMS whose adoption makes it possible to significantly reduce the costs associated with maintenance.

Manage equipment more easily

The first advantage of a CMMS software such as Mobility Work derives from its mobility. Accessible from any mobile device (smartphone or tablet for example), the application allows you to scan the NFC chips installed on each machine. All information concerning it is therefore instantly available to maintenance teams: location, components and spare parts, history of failures and interventions, plans and associated images.

Mobility Work CMMS is built around a community of users, who exchange and follow the activity of their factory thanks to the news feed

This characteristic allows considerable time and efficiency savings by facilitating the work of teams and by making their interventions more effective because they are better informed and adapted to the situation and the history of each equipment.

Preventive maintenance in the age of Big Data

By using Big Data and the operational power of this technology, which makes it possible to rely on the study of the behavior and maintenance history of a large number of identical machines, Mobility Work CMMS software allows an in-depth analysis of the maintenance journey of each piece of equipment.

Thus, it allows the factories that use it to set up a particularly fine and effective preventive and corrective maintenance strategy, which contributes to considerably lower maintenance costs. The replacement dates for spare parts or the duration and nature of plant downtime can be optimized in order to maintain optimal productivity.

Find an analytics tool in Mobility Work CMMS to analyze all your maintenance data and adapt your strategy

The development of a plan of preventive maintenance, the most relevant method for substantially improving the reliability of equipment, is therefore much easier with a new generation CMMS software.

Save money thanks to the management of work orders by CMMS 4.0

Work orders (TOs) are at the heart of any CMMS. In fact, they make it possible to initiate, monitor and record all activities related to maintenance. OTs contain detailed data for each maintenance intervention and provide information that is crucial for the effectiveness of the maintenance intervention.

By adopting a CMMS solution such as Mobility Work, a company allows its maintenance teams to be much more comprehensive and thorough in writing and analyzing work orders, or “tasks.” They can thus provide, among other things, detailed instructions for each stage of the intervention, material and labour costs, the life cycle of the work order, etc.

When the work order is completed, this information can be used to track machine maintenance costs directly from the CMMS software. It also makes it possible to track the time spent on the various tasks and activities as well as the cost of materials.

It is therefore possible to make significant savings thanks to CMMS. Much more concrete and effective than general and vague methods of improving maintenance and production methods, a new generation CMMS software brings precise and powerful tools to field teams and managers in charge of maintenance and its improvement, while making their work easier and more productive.