Maintenance Management Software

Maintenance management software can have an enormous impact on your business, whether you have a separate maintenance department or just repair equipment once it's broken. By scheduling preventive maintenance and tracking work orders and expenses, you can know at a glance where you stand at all times.

Whether you manage a fleet of vehicles or a department full of computers, proper maintenance at the outset means more productivity and less downtime. Maintenance software allows you to organize the way in which maintenance is performed and ensures maximum productivity.

Maintenance management software is user friendly and allows users to submit their own work orders while maintenance technicians can retrieve work orders that management has approved and e-mailed to them. Regardless of the industry, maintenance software will save you time and money by organizing the entire system of maintenance.

Expenses are always a concern in any industry and by tracking maintenance operations, you'll be able to see at a glance when equipment needs to be replaced, instead of being repaired over and over again. You can also keep track of all information about your assets through asset management software such as warranties, licenses, make and model, and any other pertinent data.

Reports can be easily generated regarding each aspect of your maintenance software such as expenses, employees, work orders, inventory, and any other pre-defined set parameters you deem necessary.

By employing the use of maintenance management software in your business or organization, not only will the necessary tasks get done, but they will get done in a way that is time and money sensitive and help you make the most of your assets.

Maintenance management software is the proactive way to schedule maintenance, so even the most mundane tasks are not overlooked, which could cause costly repairs in the long run. Scheduling and assigning routine maintenance takes the guesswork out of simply hoping everything is running smoothly with overworked technicians doing their best just to keep up.

One of the reasons maintenance technicians are overworked is that too often they spend their days putting out fires when emergency situations arise, when many of those emergencies might never have occurred if routine maintenance had been scheduled and carried out. Maintenance software turns good intentions into work orders with scheduled and reliable results.

Maintenance managers and supervisors can take control of their maintenance departments with this kind of software, not only through the organization that results, but also through the inevitable savings that occur when machinery, vehicles, computers, and all types of implements used in the business world are properly maintained.

Regularly scheduled maintenance, even the kind that requires only a quick visual inspection, can help prevent large blocks of downtime when systems must be updated or maintained by scheduling such tasks during off-peak hours and keeping equipment in top-notch working order.

You can maximize the time your technicians are putting in when all maintenance, including preventive maintenance, is scheduled thus avoiding overtime or worse, avoiding the ill-fated situation of not having enough maintenance technicians on duty at any given time.

Work orders and work requests can be easily and efficiently managed using maintenance management software. This highly customizable software can be configured based on the needs of the company or industry. For example, employees can submit work requests to be approved by management and then e-mailed to the designated maintenance technician.

Requested and performed maintenance can be tracked back to each department or piece of equipment or both depending upon pre-set user defined parameters. Repeat work orders can be tracked and flagged to alert management of particular problems with equipment or ineffective servicing.

Codes can be implemented within the work orders, if desired, to help track specific problems so recurring issues can be addressed. Work orders can be printed for easy distribution and closed out upon the manager's approval. Expenses, time spent, and other pertinent data can be included on work orders to be imported within other areas of the maintenance software, if desired.

Work orders contained within maintenance management software can be easily searchable by maintenance technician, date, equipment, purchase order, or other parameters set by management.

Whether you have a fleet of vehicles or a room full of computers and related equipment, there are certain preventive maintenance tasks that need to be completed on a regular basis. Maintenance management software can automatically create work orders when preventive maintenance is due which will help ensure these important duties aren't overlooked.

PM software can be customized to flag and schedule maintenance according to the mileage in the case of vehicle maintenance or according to a daily or weekly schedule for computers. Meter readings can also be used to schedule preventive maintenance. Various PM software utilizes different parameters in which to schedule depending upon the type of equipment or industry.

Employees responsible for preventive maintenance can print out a daily or weekly to-do list and once jobs are complete, note the completion time, date, and any other pertinent data in the user-friendly PM software database. In addition, managers can add graphics or step-by-step instructions to listed tasks that require more information. This, too, can be printed out and taken along with the maintenance technician. PM software keeps maintenance departments running smoothly and eliminates the neglecting of mundane but essential preventive maintenance operations.

Asset management software is an integral component of maintenance management software. Asset management involves tracking key elements of assets such as warranty information, specifications, licenses and contracts, and any other pertinent data. Configuration of asset management software can be tailored to any industry and managed per user-defined parameters.

For example, in an IT environment, asset management software can be configured to track software usage on all workstations as well as any other user-defined parameters. Track software licenses, software and hardware upgrades, usage, work orders and repair costs per workstation, department, or employee.

Asset management software can keep track of tools and vehicles for those industries that depend on these assets in the running of daily business. For example, utilizing this component of maintenance software can let you know at a glance who has certain tools checked out, for how long, and for what purpose. The same application will work for vehicles. Know exactly where each vehicle and each employee is at any given time by tracking deliveries, service calls, and the like.

Asset management tracking is different than tracking inventory in that specific features of assets are noted within the tracking window that let the user know the specific condition of current assets, whereas the tracking of inventory keeps an accurate count of current assets.

Maintenance management software allows you to take control of your inventory status and avoid having surplus stock on hand, as well as ensuring you have all the parts you need at all times. With maintenance software, you can easily view an existing parts list, as well as create an alternate parts list in case the desired part or parts are unavailable. You can also generate a master list from which to order parts and import the ordered parts list to the part of your asset management software that tracks expenses.

You can see at a glance for which department or which vehicle or workstation specific parts have been requisitioned. In addition, purchase orders can automatically be generated according to a pre-defined list so stock is always at the desired level.

With maintenance management software, you can always know where parts and supplies are and reserve parts or materials for specific jobs, so they are not inadvertently taken for a new job unless it is approved by management. You can easily check to see which equipment has been put out of service or is in the shop for repair and plan accordingly.

Maintenance management software is appropriate for any industry that has maintenance needs whether or not the business has a separate maintenance department. In fact, many homeowners use maintenance management software to keep track of vehicle maintenance; appliance maintenance, such as when to change furnace, vacuum and air purifier filters; batteries in smoke and other alarms, and general household maintenance.

Maintenance management software is also used in large-scale operations such as hospitals, school districts, and trucking companies. Since it can be specifically tailored to individual industries and businesses, a company that manages a large fleet of vehicles would use a different type of maintenance management software than would a company who relies on industrial equipment to manufacture goods. However, this type of software is built upon a foundation that works equally well regardless of the industry.

Universities, for example, have a wide variety of maintenance responsibilities, non-specific to just one industrial format. They must maintain buildings, vehicles, equipment, and facilities using various scheduling formats. They must also replace assets on a timely basis and so can also benefit from the other aspects of maintenance management software such as asset tracking and inventory control.

This is the component of maintenance management software that brings it all together. Most maintenance software comes with a standard set of pre-defined reports that are generic for any industry and then allows the user to customize reports specific for their industry and needs. Reports can be generated based on a variety of parameters such as date, mileage, meter readings, or whatever else the user desires.

For example, once all the pertinent data have been entered and the expenses have been tracked, you can generate expense reports per department, per vehicle, per employee, as well as the same reports for repairs, inventory, open and closed work orders, and maintenance performed.

You can also generate the types of reports you'd like to see such as pie charts, line charts, or a strictly spreadsheet format. Once you start generating reports on a regular basis, you'll be able to analyze the data and quickly see what, if any, improvements or changes need to be made. You can easily see which maintenance technician is closing the most work orders, how much time it is taking him or her, as well as which equipment seems to need the most repair.

Maintenance software, if accurately managed, can show you exactly what is happening in all aspects of the maintenance department and guide you to make the right decisions for maximum productivity.

Maintenance management software has the ability to track all expenses related to the maintenance and management of a diverse set of criteria. For example, when tracking the maintenance expenses of a vehicle fleet, maintenance management software can track and generate reports based on user-defined parameters such as fuel costs, repair costs, preventive maintenance expenses, parts, and any other user-defined field.

The benefits of using this type of software to track expenses are numerous. Pre-defined alerts can flag those vehicles that are costing the company the most money, as well as expenses that are out of the ordinary.

By implementing expense tracking as a part of maintenance tracking, tax deductions can be easily highlighted and imported into the overall accounting program in most cases. The savings in time alone make this software an attractive part of any business software package.

Expense tracking as it relates to maintenance can help prevent neglect and theft as well. For example, in the case of vehicle maintenance tracking, if one vehicle suddenly starts costing the company a great deal more money than it did in the past, it can be flagged and easily assessed. If a look at the odometer reading then prompts further investigation, it can be quickly determined if say, a salesperson has an expanded territory, or if there is no apparent reason for the extra mileage and the resulting expense.

Because most busy managers and supervisors simply don't have the time to evaluate every receipt and transaction, tracking maintenance expenses just makes good sense.