CMMS - Designing and implementing a project

When the challenges of computerizing a company's maintenance function have been clearly identified (see file and the decision is taken to actually implement this computerization, most of the managers involved consider that the essentials have been accomplished, and that implementation is merely a trivial operation ("il n'y a qu'à ..."). However, the reality of the situation soon dawns on everyone involved, and it soon becomes clear that the only way to successfully implement computer-aided maintenance management (CMMS) in a production system is to consider it a "project" in its own right, requiring the implementation of a structured approach under the responsibility of a "project manager". Whether the end product is a stand-alone software package, or the CMMS module of a global management system such as ERP (enterprise resource planning), the question arises in the same terms. In many cases, we need look no further for the root cause of partial or complete CMMS implementation failures. As we shall see below, the problem is essentially one of management, within the framework of a rigorous methodology, which is the only way to guarantee the success of the operation.