As the agricultural sector turns towards new technologies and smart farming, maintenance becomes even more critical. Every day, farmers have to deal with natural, economic and technical constraints knowing that the slightest setback can threaten the entire production. This industry relies on farming maintenance as well as scientific and technological innovations such as CMMS software (Computerized Maintenance Management System), to help boost production and overcome the challenges of agriculture.
Farming maintenance influences almost all aspects of farm work, whether it’s the state of buildings and infrastructure, or the operation of machines and equipment. Modern farmers invest a lot of time and effort in ensuring that their farm tools and equipment are functioning properly during seasonal workload peaks. By adopting new maintenance routines inspired by the Industry 4.0, farmers can significantly improve the availability and reliability of all their machinery. And even though this may seem expensive or challenging, the final outcome is a more secure investment for the future. Guided by a smart CMMS for improved agriculture and farming maintenance, business owners will quickly find the right way to cut expenses, prevent breakdowns and streamline the entire maintenance process.
What is Industry 4.0 Equipment Maintenance?
Industry 4.0 is often synonymous with artificial intelligence and machine learning. When it comes to farming maintenance, Industry 4.0 provides the means to store, process and analyze big data in order to simplify the creation of predictive algorithms and therefore provide more reliable technical assistance.
The influence of Industry 4.0 on farming is evidenced by an increasing use of sensors, robots and new technology to monitor crops and soil. Similarly, industry 4.0 maintenance software, such as next-gen CMMS software, simplifies data entry and processing in order to improve traceability and equipment-monitoring. The data helps professionals monitor their equipment in real time to speed up the detection of problems and shorten their reaction time. This way the malfunctioning equipment can be fixed before it damages the crops or causes significant delays.
Keep up with all your farm’s news and make your decisions in real time thanks to Mobility Work CMMS’ newsfeed!
Adopting new tools provides a great opportunity to optimize maintenance processes by shifting from a reactive to a proactive maintenance strategy. There are two very important conditions to successfully make this transition: adopting a versatile and user-friendly CMMS and establishing strong preventive maintenance routines.
The usability factor is of critical importance, since the market is flooded with hard to use CMMS solutions that require many hours of equipment migration and training. The main goal of maintenance software should be to support business owners and ease their daily routines, without making the integration of a new tool a burden for the whole team. A good CMMS features an intuitive interface and an easily understandable data analytics tool that every professional should be able to use without the need for IT-expertise.
Taking equipment maintenance in a new direction may still seem like a big leap to the business owners of small and middle-sized farms and agricultural establishments. But change doesn’t have to come all at once. If you’re still hesitant, you may want to start with some small changes, for example eliminating paperwork and organizing your farm tools and equipment within a next-gen CMMS.
Once your efficiency increases, you can try adding sensors to your equipment to see how the digitally transmitted signals can reflect the state of production equipment.
This technology can detect changes and faults that are invisible to the human eye. Through the use of sensors, your manufacturing process will become lean and transparent.
How Can CMMS Software Help Farms Overcome Their Challenges?
CMMS software helps professionals face their daily challenges by streamlining farming maintenance to increase efficiency and reliability as well as maximize the ROI on farm tools and equipment.
Agricultural work is a varied and demanding job, characterized by seasonal workload peaks (such as harvest times), a workload that is determined by weather conditions and working in a wide variety of locations. In addition to the natural constraints, farmers and agricultural businesses must also comply with especially strict regulations and carefully monitor the performance of their machines.
By optimizing farming maintenance and providing the potential means for the establishment of a predictive maintenance program, maintenance software also helps professionals anticipate their needs and face some of the most common challenges in agriculture.
Agricultural Processes Follow a Specific Schedule
Many agricultural processes can only be done within a very specific time frame depending on the time of year. Cropping and harvesting, for example, are time sensitive activities that cannot be postponed in the event of equipment failure. Adopting CMMS software can ensure the availability and reliability of all critical machines, involved in a forthcoming farming action.
Mobility Work’s calendar feature allows you to schedule all your preventive and predictive maintenance tasks
Agricultural Establishments Undergo Strict Regulatory Compliances
The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has more than 1,000 international standards related to agriculture and farming and each country has its own laws and regulations for food production. ISO standards for agriculture cover all aspects of farming, from irrigation to agricultural machinery, animal welfare and sustainable farm management. They help to promote effective farming methods while ensuring that everything in the supply chain meets adequate levels of safety and quality.
Quality, health and safety standards are therefore set out in technical documents which users can upload to the CMMS tool and share with all the members of their network. It is important that every link in the production chain is aware of current standards, even seasonal workers, hence the importance of providing teams with maintenance management software.
Faulty Farming Machines Can Damage the Production
Malfunctioning equipment can drastically damage agricultural goods at any step of the process and harm workers. Most day-to-day maintenance keeps machinery, vehicles and equipment on farms safe, however incidents still occur and affect production. Leaks are one of the most common issues for farm tools and equipment.
Farming maintenance, such as the annual weatherproofing of a barn roof, can either be planned or be carried out as required, for example when a blockage occurs unexpectedly in a piece of machinery. However, by planning strict preventive maintenance activities and setting up maintenance plans using a CMMS software, professionals can lower the risk of incidents at critical times. A good maintenance software can improve the efficiency of farm work and facilitate preventive maintenance of equipment.
In a nutshell, the right maintenance management software can help farming professionals achieve uptime by ensuring equipment availability and reliability, efficiency and regulatory compliance. The adoption of a modern CMMS is the first and most crucial step towards maintenance digitalization and automation. When purchasing and adopting a new CMMS, a farm or agricultural organization’s end goal is to keep costs down while ensuring that the business continues to evolve.
A Modern CMMS Is Indispensable for Industry 4.0 Farming Maintenance
Data provided by sensors only becomes meaningful when fed into a computerized maintenance management system. The software analyzes the parameters and measurements within the real context of the latest interventions, failure history, machine manufacturers guidelines and spare parts inventory. This is the moment when naked numbers can turn into decisions and leverage the quality assurance of an organization.
Mobility Work’s analytics tool forecasts are based on data collected from thousands of users working on the same equipment
What Makes a Good Next-Gen CMMS Software?
First of all, a good software is not necessarily an expensive one. SaaS solutions, like Mobility Work, are affordable mobile tools available on smartphones, computers and tablets (iOS and Android). Next-gen software like this can be accessed at anytime from anywhere, in the field and in the office. It promotes teamwork, bridges the gap between employees and departments, manages work orders and notifies users about the status of interventions and assets.
Mobility Work is also the first maintenance management platform to combine a CMMS, a social network and a marketplace in order to bring together all the actors in the industry (maintenance managers and technicians, production managers, equipment manufacturers, service providers, etc.) to foster collaboration.
Thanks to its many features and intuitive interface, it helps organize and streamline all your daily maintenance tasks and, in doing so, increases productivity and minimizes error rates. The calendar feature helps users organize their days and schedule all their maintenance activities. This user-friendly feature provides an overview of all the tasks to be carried out.
A next-gen CMMS uses real-time data to solve problems before they even start and ensures that your farm runs as efficiently as possible while tracking ongoing maintenance tasks in the newsfeed. Mobility Work CMMS is equipped with an analytical tool that helps farmers optimize resources and figure out the best time to plan an intervention by monitoring asset data in real time. For easy understanding, the data appears in graph form in the dashboard so that users can track its evolution and make data-driven decisions.
Choosing a modern CMMS software is the first step towards automating your maintenance. In the long run, Industry 4.0 and next-gen CMMS solutions help rationalize farming operations for farmers looking to lower their maintenance costs while continuously improving the reliability and performance of their equipment.
