Municipalities and public works departments maintain critical components of infrastructure that support communities, such as parks, transportation networks, public fleets, health and safety resources, and public utilities, among many others.
Proper maintenance of these assets can help facilitate quality of life, commerce, transportation, and communication, contributing to the economic growth and development of communities. Regular maintenance is a more cost-effective approach than repairing or replacing assets that have been neglected for a long time.
To maximize these benefits and make the most of assets, municipalities and public works are turning to CMMS systems. Timely maintenance can help identify and address issues before they become major problems that are more difficult and expensive to fix.
Why Municipalities & Public Works Are Switching to CMMS Systems
Municipalities and public works often identify one or more of the following reasons they switched to CMMS.
Reason #1: Easy Access to Data
CMMS software allows you to collect and report on data across your entire asset inventory, providing numerous measures to help you make better decisions and answer business-critical questions. That includes data on emergency maintenance, preventive maintenance, labor hours, parts and inventory, employee productivity, and more. Even simple data from work order records can provide powerful insights.
At a glance, you’ll know exactly how much money each work order type is costing your department in maintenance for a specified timeframe. And best of all, you can access the information in minutes, instead of spending hours or even days sorting through a paper filing system.
Reason #2: Better Asset Management
Asset management tools in CMMS software track your assets over their entire life cycle to maximize value. You can keep tabs on all asset types, including equipment, buildings, grounds, rooms, and vehicles. Using CMMS, you can capture a wealth of data with every work order or scheduled preventive maintenance task.
CMMS can help your team gather the right data, as well as help your organization get the most out of its investments. This data helps you make informed decisions about the condition of every asset, and whether it’s better to repair or replace it when the time comes.
Reason #3: Improved Accountability
CMMS software can help create accountability. That means all employees are responsible for their actions, behaviors, performance, and decisions. Often, accountability can increase commitment to work and employee morale, which leads to higher performance.
For example, you can use CMMS to build inspections and checklists into your workflows. That includes tracking employee health and safety information, documenting efforts to keep equipment safe and reliable, and ensuring all safety inspections and tests are done properly and on schedule.
Reason #4: Streamlined Maintenance Workflows
Work orders are the backbone of your operations, and CMMS makes scheduling, tracking, and documenting maintenance tasks easy. You can use CMMS to link all the elements of repair and maintenance work in one place. As a result, your team is recording work history with every work order.
This information improves response times and completion rates with better access to historical data and other important details, like documenting preventive maintenance tasks on key assets. The data recorded for assets, employees, inventory, schedules, and work orders also provides the basis for your compliance documentation.
Reason #5: Enhanced Budgeting and Cost Estimates
CMMS reports can transform your data into meaningful insights, helping you make data-driven decisions by analyzing historical costs and trends. Every work order or scheduled preventive maintenance task provides the data you need to track the associated maintenance costs of specific assets, so you know exactly what they’re costing you.
This data can be applied directly to purchasing or other important organizational decisions. You’ll be able to purchase, operate, maintain, upgrade, or dispose of assets in the most cost-effective manner.
Contact us for more information on how CMMS software can help municipalities and public works departments. We’re here to help.
