Are you realizing the full benefits of your computerized maintenance management software (CMMS) investment? How well is your organization utilizing its CMMS? Is your maintenance software working for or against you? The best way to find answers to these questions is by performing a CMMS audit. Audits reveal where you are, where you need to be, and how to get there. Audits also help you identify opportunities and ensure that your maintenance software is producing the data you need to make optimal decisions.
A maintenance audit uncovers true problems with your maintenance system. However, an effective maintenance audit must also reveal the causes of problems with your CMMS programs or processes, so you can determine exactly what you need to change and fix it in order to improve performance. Whether you want to improve your current system or upgrade your CMMS software, it’s crucial to perform an audit.
Tips for Performing a Successful CMMS Audit
In order to perform a successful audit, you must establish a baseline for performance and then compare subsequent audits to that baseline to measure improvement in performance. This will help you determine the strengths and weaknesses of your current CMMS software system, as well as continue to keep up with the evolution of your maintenance operations and hold down costs. By performing an audit, maintenance managers can continue to optimize the strengths of their CMMS programs and then analyze weaknesses and determine ways to improve upon them.
Through an audit, maintenance managers typically uncover the results of deferred maintenance. As they continue carrying out periodic audits, they can identify small problems and then correct them before they become bigger problems. Audits also enable maintenance managers to identify opportunities for making improvements to preventive maintenance routines, which can help prevent equipment failure.
An audit produces a list of CMMS program features, including available features that aren’t being used. Analysis of this list can reveal features the CMMS software doesn’t offer or that will be offered by the maintenance management software vendor in an upgraded version. A CMMS software upgrade can help an organization control costs, boost productivity, and monitor department performance. Nonetheless, upgrading your CMMS software can only help you achieve these goals if you do the legwork and perform an audit, which lays the groundwork for an upgrade.
Audits help organizations identify weaknesses in the way that the maintenance department handles work orders and gathers data regarding maintenance activities. It’s important to measure the performance of your maintenance software and practices through audits because dysfunctional maintenance software could lead to equipment breakdown, unnecessary planned maintenance, over-maintained machinery and low morale of maintenance technicians, among other issues. Audits should be performed on an annual at the very minimum.
Improve Your Maintenance with an Audit by DPSI
DPSI’s maintenance management software consultants can perform an audit of your CMMS software on-site to make improvements and develop a set of best practices. Periodic audits are also needed to ensure the long-term success of your CMMS software. Contact DPSI today for more information about CMMS software or audits. You can also sign up for a free trial of our maintenance management software.
