How Lean Manufacturing Can Be Attained Through Using A CMMS

CMMS, or Computerised Maintenance Management Systems software, is software aimed specifically to allow users to track and manage changes to their manufacturing procedures. Through putting in place ideas such as Just in Time and lean manufacturing, costs can be diminished, facilitating a growth in margins, and the flow of production can be streamlined to ensure stability of production and avoidance of any stock-outs. But in order to achieve these targets, a sound and planned and computerized maintenance system is necessary.


In the difficult economic environment manufacturing companies have to be competitive in order to tough it out, and it is consequently essential that costs are kept to a minimum. Lean manufacturing is aimed at enabling production while at the same time minimizing the volume of resources required at any one point in time. The technique naturally is to minimize the amount of working capital required, whilst at the same time making certain that the stocks of raw materials and parts never totally run out. It is a fine balancing act which has to take into account material lead times compared to the forecast, and forward allocated production requirements. By actively taking care of the production plant, CMMS programs enable these desirable, strategic objectives to be realized.


The modern computerized management maintenance systems on the market today, help to advance the reality of lean strategy as part of an evolving regime of continuous improvement; a set of principles that Japanese manufacturing cherishes, and which they term "Kaizen". Not only does CMMS assist the progress of lean principles, but it also embraces the striving for business excellence while promoting a continuous process of increased efficiency in the workplace at the same time.


The most important thing about computerized maintenance management software is that it is proactive. Before computer maintenance management systems were developed, maintenance was usually a reactive process. If something needed doing it happened either when signs indicated that the manufacturing process was running less well than usual, or when parts of machinery stopped working altogether. But machinery "down time" is not only incredibly expensive, but it is consummately disruptive too. There is the obvious cost of lost production, but there are also other detrimental factors that have to be taken into consideration as well.


Down time means that production ceases. All too frequently it is very costly to restart production once it has stopped. There is the idle time of employees to consider, and the inconvenience to clients whose order will be late as a result. Indeed, if this sort of disruption happens regularly, it can force clients to move their business elsewhere.


CMMS results in for proactive maintenance. It reduces the possibility of any down time by ensuring that the equipment is maintained and serviced at the right time. Not only does it get rid of down time, and limit the number of quality defects since the plant is kept in superb condition, CMMS also allows lean principles to be implemented without the alarm of production stoppages. Lean doctrines will give rise to a growth in profits, and these increased profits can usually cover the expense of the computer maintenance management system implementation in 2 - 6 months! After that, all of the gains go straight into your company. You won't get a much better return on investment than that with any other production technique.