What a CMMS has to do
- An asset inventory with a hierarchy and technical records.
- Preventive maintenance plans with their intervals.
- Work orders with tasks, times and materials.
- Spare parts and stock management.
- The history of every piece of equipment.
- Reliability metrics, such as MTBF and MTTR.
You may also see it called maintenance management software, or GMAO in Spanish and French. It is the same thing.
A CMMS is not an ERP
The ERP runs accounting, invoicing and purchasing for the whole company. The CMMS runs maintenance. They meet at one point: the materials and hours that need to be costed or billed.
That is why they should talk to each other, but one does not replace the other. A maintenance module inside an ERP usually falls short for companies that live off maintenance. And a CMMS is not going to do your accounting.
The usual mistake
Buying a CMMS before deciding who will keep the inventory up to date. An outdated inventory undermines everything else: plans are generated for equipment that no longer exists and, within a few months, nobody believes the reports.