Mobile CMMS Software : 4 main Benefits
Mobility, which has become a topic of concern for an increasing number of companies, is part of a digitalization approach of the plant: industry 4.0. Tablets, smartphones and touchscreens are among the most popular devices to carry out this transformation, and offer maintenance teams a more practical and efficient alternative to traditional desktop computers available in the offices, far from the production lines.
It is much easier for technicians to use the same tools in the factory as in their daily lives, and mobile devices definitely contribute to improve data entry and access to information for the employees of the company. This topic applies to all departments of the company, in particular the maintenance service, which often has to move throughout the factory to carry out operations.
This is why new maintenance management softwares came along, providing a user-friendly interface, available on smartphones or tablets. Offering valuable benefits, these softwares will make you want to adopt 4.0 maintenance. Here are their 4 main benefits:
All news related to ongoing interventions are available from Mobility Work mobile application’s newsfeed, available on iOS and Android.
1. Enter your data in real time
For a lot of technicians (too many!), daily maintenance routines mean successive repairs over the workday, and after that, one more hour to enter data on a Excel file or hard copies. This implies different issues for the maintenance service or for any other external person willing to access the information.
First of all, information quality losses are inevitable due to the time between the performance of the intervention and the creation of the CMMS report.
Then, the information which is not accessible in real time loses value. If a workshop manager can see on his newsfeed that a repair is in course on the boiler #12 the day after the repair was started, his decisions may be impacted and he may have to change his plans for production.
Real time data entry is a key factor in the decision-making process, and has to become the heart of your new mobile CMMS all tools promoting data entry are considered to be valuable benefits.
2. Add multimedia files
Pictures or video recordings in order to illustrate a problem during a maintenance intervention are way more explicit that a text. It is one of the main advantages of some mobile CMMS software: any maintenance technician can add multimedia files in a few seconds (sound recording of an engine, picture of a mechanical issue on bearings, video of a malfunction, etc.), which will give life to your intervention reports, and will allow you to store all the elements in one single app.
At Mobility Work, Next Gen Maintenance Management Platform, we decided to add a search bar in the maintenance management tool, in order to enable any user to quickly find a multimedia file linked to a maintenance intervention.
3. Access to live information
Imagine that you are facing an issue which has already been solved by one of your team members 6 months ago, but you do not remember the manipulation which was carried out, although you do remember that this information is available on the maintenance service’s desktop, located 10 minutes away from where you are now. Picture this: go there, find the information, and go back to repair your piece of equipment… what a waste of time and money due to the production shutdown!
On the other hand, a mobile CMMS enables you to carry out this operation in a few seconds: you only have to scan your piece of equipment’s QR code, to enter the few keywords associated to the failure, and to find a solution to your issue. The mobile asset management software is then no longer seen as a an obligation, but rather as a mean to ease repair interventions by providing easy access to equipment history in a few seconds.
The same goes for the access to technical documents: in a few seconds, from your maintenance maangement app available on your smartphone, you can access electrical, mechanical, plans, etc. of your piece of equipment.
4. Easy data entry using technology
Voice-activated features are constantly improving, and allow you to enter text and to improve the quality of the information available on usual maintenance reports realized by technicians. In the asset mobile management software, you have the possibility to dictate your comments and to upload them to your maintenance operation.
Integrating technologies such as QR codes or NFC chips can help you access quickly certain precise elements, including ranges of maintenance interventions, documents, informations about a spare parts, etc. These technologies are providing a better access to information, and turn the asset management software into a user-friendly tool for all technicians.
Finally, sensors connected to a CMMS will allow maintenance technicians to visualize equipment information in real time from a mobile device. Notifications are sent in case of heat variation or change of a sensor’s position.
Mobility Work’s search engine, also available on the mobile app (Android and iOS) allows you to find your equipment in one click, and access the results of your network and of the community.
Mobile CMMS is an indispensable tool for a quick, easy, efficient and sustainable transition to industry 4.0, thanks to the many features designed to improve maintenance technicians’ daily work.
