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 Technology & Development Center |
| June 2000 | 7100 | 0071–2322-MTDC |
Wes
Throop, Project Leader
Dale M. Ward, Design Wizard Consulting
A Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS) is a software package that can track, schedule, and organize facility maintenance. It can include equipment history and inventory and also generate work and purchase orders. For very small facilities, paper records may be adequate. For more complex operations, a CMMS can be an invaluable tool for a facilities manager.
A CMMS is not intended to replace or duplicate the Forest Service's INFRA database. Instead, it is a tool to organize, schedule, and track the details of day-to-day facilities management.
Many CMMS software packages are available. This Tech Tip is designed to help you select the best system for your particular operation.
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A CMMS can keep track of past repairs, schedule future maintenance, and provide a ready list of vendors and parts sources. It can be used to generate detailed work orders for maintenance personnel. These work orders can contain specific safety precautions and special tools for individual jobs. A CMMS installed on a computer network can be used to manage the maintenance of several remote facilities from a central location. The ability to track historical costs and project future maintenance expenses make a CMMS useful for budgeting.
CMMS programs offer a wide range of features. A manager will have to decide which features are compatible with a particular facility and generate the information that is most helpful. One manager may be more interested in an equipment inventory and maintenance history. A manager who supervises a number of employees may want to prepare a work order for every job and schedule each worker's time. Another manager may only be interested in budgetary information.
For example, maintenance at the North Central Research Station is handled by one person who uses Maintenance Manager by Symbiotic Systems to track equipment part numbers and repair dates. The manager of the Mount St. Helens Visitors Centers uses Datastream MP2 Professional to track work history and equipment, and to generate work orders. The work orders include specific safety instructions and special tools required for each job.
Before picking a specific program, a manager should list goals in order of priority and try demonstration versions of several CMMS programs. Program manufacturers, phone numbers, addresses, and web sites are listed at the end of this report.
The Forest Service, United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), has developed this information for the guidance of its employees, its contractors, and its cooperating Federal and State agencies, and is not responsible for the interpretation or use of this information by anyone except its own employees. The use of trade, firm, or corporation names in this document is for the information and convenience of the reader, and does not constitute an endorsement by the Department of any product or service to the exclusion of others that may be suitable. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) prohibits discrimination in all its programs and activities on the basis of race, color, national origin, age, disability, and where applicable, sex, marital status, familial status, parental status, religion, sexual orientation, genetic information, political beliefs, reprisal, or because all or part of an individual’s income is derived from any public assistance program. (Not all prohibited bases apply to all programs.) Persons with disabilities who require alternative means for communication of program information (Braille, large print, audiotape, etc.) should contact USDA’s TARGET Center at (202) 720-2600 (voice and TDD). To file a complaint of discrimination, write to USDA, Director, Office of Civil Rights, 1400 Independence Avenue, S.W., Washington, D.C. 20250-9410, or call (800) 795-3272 (voice) or (202) 720-6382 (TDD). USDA is an equal opportunity provider and employer.
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