What Is a CMMS? A Guide to Maintenance Management Software

A CMMS (Computerized Maintenance Management System) is software that manages a manufacturing plant’s breakdown, preventive maintenance and work order processes digitally. In this article we explain what a CMMS does, how it differs from paper/spreadsheet tracking, and when a plant actually needs one.

What does a CMMS do?

At its core, a CMMS answers four questions: what maintenance/fault work was done, on which machine, and when; what did that work cost (labor + materials); when should the next preventive maintenance be triggered; and, overall, which equipment fails most often. When the answers live in paper forms or scattered spreadsheets, looking back and analyzing trends becomes nearly impossible.

How is it different from paper/spreadsheet tracking?

Spreadsheets and paper forms are fine for capturing a single record at a time, but they fall short on cumulative analysis over time, automatic reminders and linking costs to work. In a CMMS:

• Preventive maintenance is triggered automatically by date or by machine counters (run hours, output) — in a spreadsheet this has to be tracked manually and is easy to forget.
• Material added to a work order is deducted from stock automatically and reflected in cost — this link is never built manually in a spreadsheet.
• Which machine fails how often is visible instantly from a single report screen.

When does a plant need a CMMS?

As a general rule, if you answer “no” or “not sure” to any of these, a CMMS is worth evaluating:

• Do you know which machine had the highest maintenance cost last month?
• Are you confident preventive maintenance is always done on time, or do some get missed?
• Can you pull up a fault’s history (how many times, when) within seconds?

For more criteria, see our guide to choosing maintenance management software. If you’d like to measure maintenance performance with metrics like MTBF/MTTR, read how to calculate MTBF and MTTR.

How does bakimo handle this?

bakimo is a CMMS that brings the work order process, preventive maintenance/counter tracking, material and stock integration, automatic cost calculation, and machine integration (PLC/Modbus, OEE) together in one system. See all features on our Features page.

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