Times have changed, so have companies to optimize their performance. Adaptation to computerized systems is mandatory. The context in which today’s companies operate today obliges companies to be rapidly flexible in order to adapt to very complex economic scenarios characterized by high variability of key performance factors. This requires companies to optimize the use of resources through timely and prompt management. In this framework, the need to implement a high level of management efficiency together with increasingly ambitious cost reduction objectives, find in the solutions of EAM (Enterprise Asset Management) a strategic instrument for effective control.
The increase in the management efficiency of the company assets through an enterprise asset management software system can’t ignore the use of the same
EAM IT solutions are typically characterized by a set of modules that allow, in
an overview, the detailed analysis of every aspect that concerns the life cycle
of the assets and services related to them, referring to a data-base single.
Therefore, within this information system for Asset Management, it is possible
to identify the integrated module dedicated to the Asset Maintenance service,
the CMMS (Computerized Maintenance Management System).
A CMMS system software is therefore aimed not only at the decisional and operational support related to the maintenance service activities, but above all to the governance of the life cycle of the assets and more generally to the governance of the company assets. Naturally EAM and integrated CMMS constitute the IT tool that allows the management of the Information System respectively of the Assets and therefore of the Maintenance of the same. One can then simply, but more properly, talk about Computerized Information System of Maintenance.
The “Information System” therefore represents the component that
manages the information used in the company processes in order to achieve the prefixed aims, while for its automation the “information system” which represents the technological component that supports the information
system is used.
The application of an automated system, such as the use of a CMMS, generally implies the expectation of well-defined results, including those related to
– to improving the performance of goods,
– reduction of maintenance costs,
– increasing the effectiveness and efficiency of maintenance actions,
– to the improvement of maintenance plans,
– to optimize the mix of maintenance policies adopted,
– to improve the management of technical materials and their procurement,
– to improve the management of external companies and suppliers in general,
But the level of these results will be strongly influenced by the accuracy of
the design of the Maintenance Service and the quality of the data processed.
The latter will depend on the robustness of the acquisition infrastructure of
the same data that many times unfortunately in practice it is found to be weak.
The software application is therefore the indispensable tool to support maintenance services, but the improvement results expected from its use can only be pursued by creating an informative system in it that is consistent with the maintenance requirements of the assets and with the requirements expressed by the maintenance service organization.
Following the thought expressed up to now, the introduction of an EAM / CMMS system can also represent the opportunity to eliminate the inefficiencies of maintenance management through the revision of the maintenance process or the opportunity to force its complete redesign in terms of Engineering of Maintenance and RCM (Reliability Centered Maintenance).
