5 Advantages of a Mobile CMMS

Ask any maintenance technician in an equipment-heavy facility to describe a typical day to you, and more often than not, the word “chaos” will come up.

Even in the most streamlined facilities, breakdowns and problems can come out of nowhere to knock everyone off-balance, and technicians are frequently required to be in two places at once.

Thankfully, mobile maintenance solutions have gained traction in recent years and are a great tool for modern maintenance teams to combat this chaos.

Maintenance has always been mobile

While many of today’s CMMS solutions offer a mobile app, it wasn’t always this way.

Before cloud-based CMMS technology entered the market, on-premise solutions meant that an investment in maintenance software went hand-in-hand with an investment in hardware. Before mobile maintenance apps became available, technicians and managers would have to log work on a central computer.

As you can imagine, dealing with hardware caused a consistent delay between work being completed in the field and recorded in a CMMS. The advent of mobile maintenance solutions retrofitted maintenance teams with the tool they were missing all along.

In a recent appearance on the Rooted in Reliability podcast, Scott Deckers, Manager of Customer Success at Fiix Software, summarized maintenance:

My opinion is that all maintenance is already mobile. Whether it’s a guy pushing his tool cart around the shop floor, or a team of guys going out into the field to do a repair on a wind farm, it’s inherently a mobile position. I don’t know any maintenance guys complaining about sitting at a desk all day.

When you reframe maintenance this way, it’s incredible that some organizations are still hesitant to give their technicians a mobile solution.

Advantages of a mobile CMMS

Besides the fact that it allows technicians to do their job the way it was always meant to be done, what are some advantages of a mobile CMMS?

1. It creates more reliable data

Without a mobile solution, technicians have to rely on notes or their own memories to record data on work they’ve completed. This opens up a huge chasm between memory and accuracy, where human error often creates problems. With a mobile CMMS, technicians can record information at the site where they work, ensuring information is accurate and timely.

2. Asset information is at your fingertips

Without a mobile solution, it can be impossible to know when a piece of equipment was serviced last, and for what reason. Also, when a technician needs to access a manual, they’re looking at lots of wasted time trying to track down the information they need. With a mobile app, finding the asset information you need is often as easy as a quick barcode scan, saving time and sanity.

3. Scheduling work is more intuitive

When technicians have immediate and up-to-date information in the palm of their hands, prioritizing the workday’s tasks becomes much easier. This, in turn, makes it easier for management to see how a breakdown might affect the work in the queue and adjust upcoming work requests accordingly.

4. Work can be tracked more easily

With a mobile CMMS, technicians can update and complete work orders as they’re actually doing the work, which means management gets a more accurate view of who’s working on what. It also lets technicians see which tasks they have coming up so that they can plan their day better.

5. Inventory and spare parts are tracked more accurately

When parts consumed are not recorded in a timely manner (or at all), it leads to inaccurate inventory levels. This can cause chaos if a critical part is not available during a breakdown or major repair. With a mobile app, technicians can record parts consumed as they’re used, ensuring that inventory levels are always up-to-date.

The bottom line: Mobile maintenance is here to stay

Maintenance has come a long way in recent years, and the digitalization of the industry is only going to keep accelerating. While developments in the Internet of Things will continue to make facilities more connected, mobile CMMS solutions will continue to bring more value to organizations.

About the Author

Sarah Bellstedt is a Content Marketing Specialist at Fiix Software, where she regularly contributes to the Fiix blog. She writes about all things reliability-related, from TPM to tips and tricks for maintenance best practices.

About Fiix

Fiix Inc. creates easy-to-use, intelligent maintenance management software that empowers businesses to organize their maintenance departments and turn data into actionable insights. Its innovative, multi-tenant cloud-based CMMS mobilizes the maintenance workforce with an unparalleled mobile experience and seamlessly interfaces with enterprise software to connect your entire organization—revolutionizing how thousands of companies worldwide schedule, organize, and track maintenance.