The maintenance professional who relies on a paper work order – or even an Excel spreadsheet – is becoming a rare sight as more schools and colleges turn to computerized maintenance management systems (CMMS) to manage their workflow and record data.
Computerized maintenance is helping facilities managers achieve greater efficiencies in an era of shrinking maintenance budgets and limited resources by improving communications and providing the data needed to make objective decisions and prioritize work.
Some states, such as New Jersey, even require their school districts to use CMMS, but even where it’s not mandated, computerized systems are becoming the norm. In Alabama, for instance, the larger K-12 districts, which represent half the state’s student population, have migrated to CMMS, according to David Smith, executive director of the Alabama Association of School Business Officials. Those districts constitute about one third of Alabama’s districts.
A Spreadsheet in Time Saves Nine
Organizations of all sizes can benefit from CMMS, says Kimberly Keener, manager of facilities and community education for the Robbinsville, N.J., school district. Keener oversees four buildings that range from a decade old to more than a century old. Robbinsville has been managing maintenance workflows with CMMS for more than a decade.
“It compartmentalizes that whole part of your world,” says Keener. “I certainly do take emails, texts, phone calls, but it’s hard to track all that. The holding tank is only so big. This system is timeless – everything is there at all times.”
Keener, who also is a board member for the National School Plant Management Association, says CMMS has become the standard for efficient management in districts all across the country. Most recently, districts have also been turning to the system to reduce energy costs and save time when filing state reports.
“I’m sure there are still people out there that are using duplicate and triplicate type work orders systems and just handing out the work and still using paper. But I think everybody needs to kind of get on board and realize the value of this,” Keener says.
At Robbinsville, CMMS is an integral part of every day life. Not only does Keener use it to plan preventive maintenance and seasonal work, but teachers and staff also file day-to-day work requests through the system. The system also allows her to electronically send work orders to her staff out in the field.
Depending on an administration’s preferences, principals and central office personnel can be sent alerts for work requests or given login access to view the work that is being requested and completed. In Robbinsville, principals can see the information but not take any action, Keener said.
The system creates a “trail of how and why” for the work her department undertakes, Keener said.
“I find that it’s protection for our department also because it shows what work was put in, what work is being done and just overall accountability for the work that needs to be done in a school,” she says.
Customize Your Settings
Implementing a system doesn’t guarantee success, though. To avoid failure, the National Institute of Building Sciences urges education institutions to conduct a thorough management study of their system to evaluate the use and determine cost benefits, according to its updated Whole Building Design Guide.
“Not all maintenance organizations require the use of a complete set of CMMS modules. Those that have implemented CMMS programs without a complete study typically fail to use the capabilities incorporated in the software and may eventually view the program as a failure,” the guide warns.
A CMMS system can be as simple or as complex as needed. Smith tells his association members that, at a minimum, the system should be able to account for the dates a request was received and approved, job-tracking numbers and job status (“received,” “assigned,” “ongoing,” or “completed”), according to a presentation he gave last year.
Smith also advises association members to look for systems that are network or web-based and compatible with standard operating systems, have add-on modules for functions like incorporating the use of smartphones and other hand-held electronic devices, can acknowledge the receipt of a work order, have the ability to capture labor and parts costs on a per-task basis, allow the maintenance department to set priorities and include preventative maintenance, and permit the originator of the request to track the progress of the work order and provide feedback on the quality and timeliness of the work.
Keener encourages schools to seek out vendors that offer training and customer support, especially during the initial stages of implementation. “It does take time to sit down and dedicate to get (CMMS) up and going but, once it is, it is definitely well worth it,” she says.
Keener says it is also imperative that everyone buy into the program and understand why it’s important to follow procedures when submitting a work order.
“Some people need a polite reminder, but it’s ok. Everybody’s threshold for what is an emergency is different,” she says. “It might take them a couple extra minutes to call me, text me or email to get it into the system, just so there’s total accountability for what’s going on.”
