MAINTEC survey reveals cost-cutting is driving CMMS purchasing decisions
March 23rd 2006

SoftSols Group, has just announced the results of a survey conducted at MAINTEC which addressed the trends within the maintenance environment, the average annual expenditure on maintenance and maintenance strategy. Respondents were predominantly SME and larger organisations from the process and manufacturing industries.

Results demonstrate that maintenance spend, even in SME’s is high. It revealed that forty eight percent of respondents are spending over £1 million per year on maintenance. However, 36% of attendees recognise that maintenance costs are too high, and stated cost-savings as their single biggest motivator for procurement of a Computerised Maintenance Management System (CMMS).

With cost being a key factor in purchasing decisions today, manufacturers are looking to gain value for money from their existing assets. Agility is a web browser based CMMS solution that provides the key maintenance management functionality manufacturers need at a truly affordable price. Agility is extremely easy to use and engineers can access just the features they need to perform their jobs. Simple fault reporting and analysis as well as full work order planning and scheduling can be carried out from any PC regardless of location.

Other results from the survey showed that almost a quarter of those surveyed still rely on Microsoft Excel or home-grown systems for maintenance management. It is not surprising therefore that 40% were either unhappy or indifferent to their system, claiming that systems were too time consuming, not used enough and were inflexible. Those with CMMS in place accounted for 42% of respondents, with the main complaints being that the systems were too complex to use.

Given this trend, it seems that Manufacturers need to streamline operations through more effective management using a CMMS system such as Agility. A well implemented CMMS enables businesses to gain a strategic view on how much maintenance is costing, how much of their work is planned or reactive and whether it is economical to keep repairing an asset. The use of browser technology means that this valuable data is now available to all departments and will help improve the flow of information between production and maintenance.

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