The rise and adoption of process automation have allowed businesses to grow their operations and reach, just as moving from manual to mechanical tools. An interconnected, cloud-based platform could be your key to process optimization, scalability, and collaboration.
The facilities maintenance game is here to stay. As with any game, it evolves over time: rules change, new players arise, and you gotta stay on top of your competition to keep winning. Technological innovation has given modern teams an edge, allowing them to «score more points», translating for us in the industry into more work and bigger earnings. After all, working in the American market is the big leagues.
Using spreadsheets for facilities maintenance.
Managing maintenance work using spreadsheets can be effective and accessible, as nearly everyone knows how to operate and manage them, but depending on it fully, comes with its disadvantages:
- There is no established, standardized workflow, making it hard to coordinate all the elements of your operation, moving on their own.
- Bookkeeping, data entry, and invoicing are prone to human error, needing an extra layer of verification and validation.
- Outsourcing work to Vendors and monitoring their delivery is a branching process, often disconnected but depending on the numbers and data you keep in your files.
- Receiving work from Clients and reporting back to them needs a specialized team member (project manager, client outreach specialist) to be accomplished.
- Analytics for fast decision-making need to be built using the available data, which might be outdated.
In our fast-paced industry, where efficiency is key, these factors might hinder your progress and keep you from taking on more work that justifies the cost of your operation.
Modern tools for a modern world.
Computerized Maintenance Management Software, or CMMS, is a specialized tool for businesses of any size, that can help you establish coherent, connected processes, helping one another to move your tasks forward in unison.
There are many palpable advantages of operating your facilities management using a CMMS over spreadsheets:
Providing your team and supplier ecosystem with a centralized information hub.
Spreadsheets can be a reliable repository for your work orders, Vendor list, and Contacts, but they are not specifically designed for widespread access and connectedness to operations. Even if you share an online file containing all the information on a job and ETA, you need to do so for each of the jobs for everyone involved, making it difficult to distribute and monitor each one.
CMMS services solve this issue by providing specialized platforms for Vendors, Clients, and Technicians. You can use these platforms to supply them with the exact same information in a quick, single process, down to the expected ETA and NTE values, and a detailed work scope that can contain attachments such as pictures, plans, documents, and Site location to support and inform them of the work to be performed.
Using a spreadsheet, you would have to consolidate your information and create a new email, SMS, or make a phone call to each person involved to provide details on the job separately, which also deludes the quality of the information provided.
CMMS
Offers a centralized database for agile monitoring.
Facilitates work assignments and information flow.
Spreadsheets
Need an individual supply of information to each team member or external supplier.
Are not designed to provide information for a large team with diverse functions.
Mobility.
Facilities maintenance is an industry that needs to be serviced on the go. Having your Technicians visit the office for work assignments and then moving to the Site is an inefficient way to do so, especially when there are Travel costs involved just to provide information and documentation.
Using spreadsheets, you can make an effort to copy your scope of work and send it to Technicians, explain in detail if there are questions, and illustrate with pictures so work can get done exactly as requested by your Clients.
With a CMMS, Technicians can get instructions directly to their mobile phones, with the ability to access and provide updates, documentation, and reference pictures in real-time. This information comes and goes from your centralized CMMS platform, and is registered with a timestamp and user name.
CMMS
Provides information on the go.
Eliminates the need for in-person instruction and documentation.
Spreadsheets
Need to export and provide the scope of work for each team member.
Information moving on different devices and media can be deluded in transit.
Scheduling preventive or recurrent maintenance work in advance, automatically.
Spreadsheets can help us keep track of the upcoming dates for our recurrent preventive work, such as asset maintenance and site inspections, but we still need to manually assign them to the required Vendors or Technicians. Spreadsheets are not designed to manage items in a timeline, which can lead to overlooking or missing an assignment, especially when we service multiple Sites and Clients.
CMMS can be programmed to create and assign recurring work automatically. This is especially useful when a contract with a Client is agreed to be serviced at specific intervals, such as weekly, monthly, or annually. Using an automated tool allows for a single initial setup in which you enter the recurrence needed (1st of every month), the Site to be serviced, and the scope of work. Work Orders will be created and assigned as per your contracts or preferences.
This ensures that services are provided in a timely fashion, preventing and reducing downtime due to busted equipment.
CMMS
Can create and assign work orders automatically.
Doesn’t need direct monitoring and ensures the timely delivery of tasks to Vendors and Technicians.
Spreadsheets
Require to manually assign a recurrent task each cycle.
Are not designed to work in a timeline.
Real-time analytics to support decision-making and Client reporting.
Spreadsheets are a great way to generate clear graphics and reports… if you have up-to-date information in your file. We can keep and mantain a reliable database using the latest information that have reached us, but, lost documentation or pending updates from external Vendors can render this information outdated or irrelevant. Aditionally, converting numbers and dates to a clear and useful report is a process of its own.
CMMS can help us generate live analytics and reports with a single click, as they are designed to provide accurate KPIs, cost and expense trends, and display actionable metrics using all available information, even the one we might have overlooked when using traditional spreadsheets.
CMMS
Can generate real-time information on KPIs, and trends.
The latest data can be optionally exported to a spreadsheet for specialized functions.
Spreadsheets
Need to have the latest information available entered for reliable reporting.
Generating useful analytics is a separate process from managing your work.
A scalable, low-cost solution.
While the price can be a major selling point for spreadsheets, the advantages of a CMMS outweight the benefits of operating a business using specialized software, considering all the points we have discussed.
One major component of a CMMS is that it is designed to be a tool that grows with your business, as opossed to the fixed capabilities of a spreadsheet.
In conclusion:
Adopting a specialized tool can be a game changer for your business. You will not only be optimizing your operation today, but also leading to more work and a better way to manage it in the future. This is the very spirit of a CMMS , and is specially true for Sweven, a constantly evolving service, adopting new technologies and offering specialized platforms to help you do more.
Will you move away from spreadsheet-based management for good? Let us know in the comments!
