CMMS — Identify objectives and challenges

The maintenance function was one of the last corporate functions, if not the last, to benefit from the contribution of IT tools, and even today, a number of maintenance departments, mainly in SMEs, still have no access to them. This goes to show just how far we've come since the first maintenance IT systems were introduced in the 1980s, and just how far we've yet to advance the cause of maintenance IT. Admittedly, what is commonly referred to as computer-aided maintenance management (CAMM), but which should rather be called computer-enhanced maintenance management, is no longer a novelty, but the number of failures is almost as great as the number of successes.

This is why we need to learn from a long-standing practice in order to ensure the success of a CMMS project. When designing and implementing such a project, we must be careful not to succumb to preconceived ideas that would lead us to believe, for example, that IT can solve all problems. Let's just remember that, while IT can help solve technical and management problems, it has never been able to solve organizational or managerial problems.

The extremely rapid development of microcomputing and associated operating systems is opening up hitherto unknown possibilities and user-friendliness. An open system, accessible to all those who may need it, the maintenance computer system induces a particular way of working, conditioning user behavior.