How CMMS Helps Construction Enterprises Increase Profit Margins

Why use CMMS?

‘Should have checked that before,’ is a phrase that is commonly used in situations where we have to swallow the bitter pill of things not going as planned. Oversights don’t always lead to disasters in the traditional sense, but they can be lethal for SMEs. Construction delays, equipment downtimes, employee overtime, and substandard work are only a few of the dangerous outcomes of equipment oversight. Such outcomes are what escalate costs and damage reputations. Fortunately for construction companies, computerized maintenance management software (CMMS) is there to save the day. The software enables companies to plan equipment maintenance well in advance and avoid unexpected equipment breakdowns and related obstacles.

Most managers realise the importance that well-maintained equipment and inventory hold in optimising performance, reducing costs and decreasing construction delays. Despite this, many managers simply don’t find enough time in the day to keep track of construction equipment and its maintenance. This is why computerized maintenance management software is so useful for them. They are able to leave the maintenance tracking to the software. All they need to do is add equipment details to the software once, set up recurring alerts, and let the system do the rest of the work.

Here is how you can use the software to optimise your workflow, and decrease project completion time and construction costs.

Optimize Equipment Maintenance Strategy

The first step to guarantee that construction equipment remains functional throughout its lifecycle is to ensure that it gets regular maintenance and service. It’s difficult to keep track of previous and future maintenance for a whole fleet of construction equipment. CMMS allows you to record maintenance history, save service and maintenance manuals and setup recurring email alerts for future maintenance schedules all from the same browser window. Heavy equipment needs to be checked each time it is used. CMMS allows you to easily track this equipment by enabling you to automatically place returned equipment into service and allowing you to check it out after maintenance has been completed.

So, now that you can trust the system to remind you about regular maintenance times, what about unscheduled equipment repairs? The software allows users i.e. your employees to request equipment repairs from within the system. This means that the moment a fault occurs is detected, employees can automatically tag the equipment as damaged and request for it to be taken into maintenance.

Stay on Top of Equipment Performance

In the construction industry, it’s important to know what environment your equipment is working in and its condition on the field. With computerized maintenance management software, you can easily track the location of your equipment and update its status from the field. Knowing equipment condition and updating it from on-site locations allows construction enterprises to better predict equipment needs and provide necessary equipment maintenance. Preventative maintenance decreases the likelihood of unexpected equipment breakdowns and ensures that it works at maximum efficiency. Additionally, SMEs that wait for faulty equipment to be checked back in to find that it is not in working condition run the risk of delaying future construction projects. Such delays can be easily avoided by assigning alternate equipment to projects where the faulty equipment has originally been assigned.

Simplify Equipment Retirement

If your equipment maintenance is becoming more and more frequent, then the equipment in question has probably lived out its life and needs to be retired. Repeatedly servicing and maintaining such equipment only exacerbates costs unnecessarily. The question is how do you know when an equipment is due to retire without having to waste money on unnecessary repairs. Computerized maintenance management software offers a neat way of tracking this equipment lifecycle. The software calculates the depreciation of your equipment over time and informs you when it’s time to replace or retire the equipment. Timely disposal of equipment that has lived out its optimal lifecycle not only prevents additional sunk costs but also ensures that productivity is not hampered by the substandard performance of equipment.

It’s often difficult to decide whether or not large equipment should be replaced as both repairs and replacements are expensive. CMMS allows you to maintain extensive records of the purchase price, purchase date, life expectancy, usage and total cost of equipment maintenance. Such records give you the information needed to enable you to make the best decision about your equipment.

Optimize Equipment Usage

Construction equipment is expensive to procure and maintain. It is largely for this reason that construction companies need to be very precise about their equipment inventory. SMEs need to ensure that excess equipment is not eating up maintenance costs. Its especially useful to get rid of such equipment before yearly audits, and make procurement decisions based on usage and importance. Computerized Maintenance Management Software allows SMEs to track and record equipment usage and avoid having to rely on guesswork. Reports generated about equipment usage can give SMEs greater insights about which equipment is being used and which is not. This enables SMEs to distribute usage equally among similar types of equipment. It also prevents equipment pieces from being over or under used and increases the lifespan of assets. Therefore, CMMS helps in better budgeting, well-rounded procurement decisions and increased equipment longevity.

Track Equipment Maintenance

Powerful integrations like Zendesk within the CMMS enables construction enterprises to quickly identify equipment malfunctions and alert concerned individuals. The software increases accountability by making the requester’s information more accessible and transparent. This drastically decreases resolution time. Computerized maintenance management software also empowers managers with all the information they need to resolve service or maintenance tickets. With the software they can quickly identify which equipment needs work and what issues have previously been associated with it. Such integrations provide a holistic picture of equipment and its long term asset lifecycle leading a more efficient and cost effective way of managing equipment.

Conclusion

Computerized maintenance management software is an effective way to stay on top of construction equipment in order to lower costs, decrease equipment downtime, reduce construction delays and increase profits. By reducing downtimes and breakdowns, construction enterprises can deliver better quality work and improve customer satisfaction rates. Therefore, computerized maintenance management software provides an efficient way for SMEs to make the most of their equipment through preventative measures that do not interfere with their day to day operations.