CMMS and ERP Integration.
The need to integrate an organization's CMMS and ERP systems to improve data flow management and facilitate collaboration between the different departments of an organization is becoming increasingly ...
Currently, there are many digital technologies 4.0 that improve the efficiency of organizations’ processes, improve asset performance, and empower workers, all while reducing costs. Therefore, two of the systems that seem basic in the digitization of an organization are: CMMS and ERP.
A CMMS system allows the maintenance department to properly manage its assets and everything that “surrounds” them, such as: maintenance tasks and activities, costs, spare parts inventory, internal human resources, subcontractors, etc.
An ERP system includes the databases of all departments of the company (production, sales, accounting, inventory, human resources, etc.). It provides real-time information on all essential processes and facilitates the work of production managers.
There are many solutions on the market for both systems, and sometimes choosing which one to implement in the company is not easy. Simplifying the matter greatly, the technical aspects to consider when choosing these solutions are based on 2 fundamental principles: that they comply as much as possible with the functional requirements we want and that they have tools that allow “simple” integration with other systems in the organization.
The need to integrate an organization’s CMMS and ERP systems is becoming increasingly common in order to improve data flow management and facilitate collaboration between the different departments of an organization.
I Benefits of CMMS-ERP Integration.
1. Improved data flow between departments.
The main advantage of integrating both systems is the optimization of data flow between the different departments. This automatic data flow will allow organizations to be more agile and efficient in decision-making and always based on objective data.
In this way, the maintenance department will have a specialist system for maintenance management, while the rest of the organization’s departments will have the required data from the maintenance system. This will allow anyone in any department to have all the data necessary to develop their functions in an optimal and agile way, without depending on other people or departments having to provide that information.
2. Optimization of order management.
The most common thing is that the purchasing department of an organization manages all the purchases of the organization, both for production and for maintenance. These departments always work with ERP systems and it is essential that they can access real-time information on the needs of the maintenance department to avoid stock breakage, make urgent purchases or manage orders to subcontractors.
This integration will also allow optimizing the availability of spare parts at the time they are required, as well as a correct management of the stock of spare parts and consumables.
The integration of the systems is bidirectional, so the maintenance department will be able to know at all times when the material is scheduled to be received, thus facilitating the planning of the work orders to be executed by the field personnel.
3. Centralization of the organization’s costs.
For the financial departments of organizations, it is essential to have all the costs of the organization in a single system and with the detail they require.
Today, most CMMS systems have mobility tools (applications for mobile phones and tablets) where field technicians have everything essential to perform their work. In these mobility tools, technicians report the hours of work charged to the different WO, as well as the materials and consumables used. At the same time, the purchases made will be charged directly to the WO to which they affect. In this way, the CMMS system has all the information on maintenance costs with its respective traceability.
Thanks to the integration of both systems, the CMMS will automatically send all the information on maintenance costs so that it is available to the financial department.
4. Better HR management.
This benefit is mutual, both for the maintenance department and for the HR department. With a flow of data between both systems, it is possible to evaluate the skills of the technicians. This is possible thanks to the evaluation of the times invested in the same maintenance actions carried out by the different technicians, being able to have the average time and detecting deviations. With these data, the HR department will be able to evaluate together with the maintenance department the training required by the field technicians.
It will also allow an automatic update in the CMMS of labor costs according to the specialty of each technician. This update will come from the data entered in the company’s ERP.
5. Increased ROI of the implemented systems.
One of the most important benefits, and one that is often difficult to quantify, is the increased return on investment (ROI) of the CMMS and ERP systems implemented.
The return on investment is increased by several factors. Among them, it is worth mentioning:
- Enabling new contextualized information for better decision making
- Decreased time to receive required information
- Reduced decision-making times
- Elimination of inefficiencies derived from incomplete information
- Improved reaction time to possible problems
These factors are key so that the best decisions can be made based on objective data at the required time, optimizing the organization’s processes and procedures. This will allow organizations to be more efficient in their management.
I Conclusion.
In an increasingly competitive market, it is considered essential to have technological solutions 4.0 that allow improving the efficiency of companies while reducing their costs. Among these indispensable solutions are the CMMS and the ERP.
It is essential for the overall performance of any manufacturing plant to adopt a CMMS that can be easily connected to all the technological solutions existing in the company and, of course, to the ERP. This integration will allow many benefits to the company, but, above all, it will allow all the departments of the organization that work with these systems to have all the data and information required for their correct performance.
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