You’ve decided to take the plunge and streamline your operations with a CMMS – congratulations! Before you just install and instruct your team to start using it, now is the time to plan and plan diligently.
Implemented correctly, a CMMS can provide a single source of the asset management and health, reduce operational costs, increase customer satisfaction, meet regulations and become a center of the maintenance execution management.
Implemented poorly without proper buy-in and roll-out plans can turn your entire team off the idea of using software. Usage will be sporadic and complaints will be constant. The first instinct will be to plan the software and the second will be to change to another software option and that would be a mistake. Getting the team onboard again will most likely prove to be the biggest challenge and ultimate failure.
This is why we’ve compiled the top steps to ensure your CMMS, whichever you choose, is implemented correctly with the highest chance of success.
- Implementation Team
Implementing a CMMS maintenance management software needs to have clear buy-in across all levels of leadership, subject matter experts and your IT team. When creating your implementation team be sure it is cross-functional, identify your champions and assign an owner. - Workflow and SOPs
Stop the guesswork. Document your existing workflows and be sure to question the whitespace in between the activities to determine if they are necessary. Continue with roles and responsibilities. Once you know what you do and how you do it, then you can start adapting workflows to the CMMS. - Data Standardization
This is the time to assess, validate and clean your data – before you upload it to your CMMS. Create a vocabulary, maintenance codes, job statuses and other standards you want to measure in the future. This is where the phrase garbage in/garbage out takes on true meaning. - Plan
Have your team utilize your process documentation to start building the steps required. Be sure to break it into stages that can be successfully achieved. - System Configuration
Now it’s time to configure the CMMS maintenance management software to receive data. That involves configuring forms, fields, dropdowns, refining flows and testing, testing, testing. The urge to detail the minutiae will be strong, but exercise caution not to make it too administratively heavy. - Training
This is the time to obtain buy-in. Adapt your training to the recipient so they can clearly see the value of making this change. - Launch
Look at your stages of the project and launch it with the same approach. Thing of it as a well and you’re only using 1 foot of an 80 foot well but you know the depth is there. Roll out one piece, ensure it’s mastered and continue rolling it out from there.
These steps are a broad overview to success in your implementation. Follow them for each of your milestones, continue to assess and revise your processes and be open and receptive to feedback and suggestions from your team.
If you’re interested in a CMMS maintenance management software that’s designed to meet the maintenance demands of modern companies, start with Maxpanda. Let’s get some work done, together.