17 November 2022

Tips for Successfully Scaling Maintenance Management Software to Multiple Sites

An organisation must make an informed decision when it comes to choosing an asset maintenance management software that suits their business needs. Even then, introducing and expanding the capabilities and implementation of the asset management solution from the main location to multiple sites is an important milestone that one must cover properly and efficiently. The need for scaling a CMMS or asset maintenance management solution may arise in two situations.

• The first is when a multi-site business implemented the asset maintenance management software at a single location as a pilot test to optimise its capabilities. Once all issues with the original implementation at the pilot site have been addressed, the organisation can prepare to extend the implementation to other locations.
• Then, scaling the solution to multiple sites may be required when a business expands from a single site to multiple sites as a consequence of organic expansion or an acquisition.

Proper scaling of the CMMS or asset management solution to multiple sites offers several benefits, like being able to use sophisticated reporting to compare the performance of equipment at various sites.

Regardless of the reason, if you are planning to scale your asset maintenance management solutions for multiple sites, here are some tips that can help you in the same:

Choosing the Right Asset Management Solution

Several employees across the organisation will be required to access and utilise the asset maintenance management software, which makes it essential to choose a solution that is not only scalable, but also easy to set up, deploy, and use. Employees being unable to adapt to the software will have a negative impact on efficiency.

Have a Detailed Strategy in Place

Scaling a CMMS or asset maintenance management software for multiple sites is a major project that needs careful planning. A comprehensive work plan should be created and a cross-functional team that includes maintenance managers, IT staff, and all other pertinent stakeholders should be established. The roles and responsibilities of each stage of the scaling process should be clearly defined and assigned.

Define a Naming Convention

Scaling to cover multiple locations or sites means a significant increase in the number of assets being tracked using the software. This leads to the necessity of having a proper protocol in place for naming each asset, across different asset types and locations, so everything is easily identifiable in the database. Whether it is “Location_Site Code_Asset Class_ID Number” or “Asset Class_Site_ID Number”, you can decide on a naming convention that suits your business, but ensuring it is applied across the entire organisation is crucial for efficiency.

Maintaining Tracking Capabilities

Asset tracking is crucial for identifying issues before they occur, optimising asset productivity, identifying ghost assets, and implementing preventative maintenance schedules. If you plan to scale asset maintenance management software across several locations, ensure the software’s tracking capabilities can also be transferred to multiple locations across the organisation.

Assigning Responsibilities and Accountability

There will be several levels of administration in a multi-location implementation of an asset management solution. It is important that you assign system administrators at various levels, so they can edit, add, delete, or modify assets, sites, processes, etc. that are under them, while also helping streamline the scaling process.

When done properly, scaling a single asset maintenance management software solution across multiple locations is a good idea. It not only helps save on IT support expenses but also enables better collaboration across different locations, which in turn helps improve ROI for the organisation.