B2W Flipbooks

2 Integrating ERP and CMMS capabilities to manage equipment An ERP system and CMMS software like B2W Maintain – working in cohesion – can help contractors minimize equipment costs and maximize uptime. This edition of the B2W Fleet Maintenance & Management Best Practices Series covers the capabilities of each system and the best practices for integrating and leveraging them. Scope Equipment management is the balance of reliability, cost and age of equipment to obtain the greatest utilization over the lifetime of the asset. Maintenance managers should leverage a combination of Accounting Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Software and Computerized Maintenance Management Software (CMMS) in order to effectively manage equipment reliability and age, while controlling costs. The key is to use both systems in tandem to ensure the best possible equipment management results. The ERP system captures actual equipment ownership and operating cost data to produce complete and detailed reports in conjunction with financial statements. The CMMS is a tool to manage and plan maintenance activities, capturing important historical data to assist with controlling costs and managing the age and reliability of equipment. While the CMMS has the ability to capture a portion of the operating costs, they are not entirely actual costs. The costs in the CMMS are typically standard or average costs, while the ERP system captures the actual costs. It is important to remember that while operating costs in the CMMS may not be exact, they must be accurate enough to provide meaningful tools for management action. Careful planning must be considered in establishing standard or average costs to be used in the CMMS software. When calculated and established properly, costs will be within a fair variance from the actuals, rendering a true-up process unnecessary. The following recommended practice addresses what should be captured in both an ERP and CMMS, and how they integrate to provide valuable data to assist a maintenance manager in controlling costs, age, reliability and increasing utilization to run a best in class maintenance organization. ERP ACTUAL COSTS CMMS STANDARD/AVERAGE COSTS OWNING COST - DEPRECIATION OWNING COST - TAXES OPERATING - TIRES OWNING COST - INSURANCE OWNING COST - LICENSE OPERATING - FUEL OWNING COST - INTEREST OPERATING - PARTS OPERATING - LABOR/BURDEN Jennifer Angrisano has helped organizations improve maintenance practices in the heavy construction sector for more than 15 years. Before joining B2W Software as business analyst, she was a total process management consultant. Previously, she led the conversion to a software based program for a heavy highway construction enterprise with a fleet of more than 300 pieces of equipment, turning a $1.3 million loss in the shop into a $200,000 gain in a single year.

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