SAP Plant Maintenance vs. CMMS System in 2026

Paweł Bęś, Logistics and Maintenance Marketing Expert, QRmaint

Posted 12/10/2025

Maintaining physical assets is essential for any organization with significant infrastructure. Nearly a decade ago, Kamal and Petree (2006) reported that less than 25% of enterprises worldwide had an asset management system. Around the same time, Gartner estimated that 30% of organizational leaders did not know what assets they owned. These figures seem accurate based on our experience in several industries.

Most companies (45%) store their ITAM data in spreadsheets and follow poorly defined processes, resulting in poor data quality. Nevertheless, the last 3 years have changed this trend forever. This happened due to the emergence of AI and its widespread availability. A funny fact is that the AI trend has now pushed many companies to implement basic systems that they never had before. So, relying on the manufacturing report, Technology investment became an attitude with a global focus, remaining a priority, with 97% planning to invest in new technologies over the next three years.

Therefore, asset management also emerged, and technology investments now clearly focus on business benefits, with 95% of manufacturers reporting at least one positive outcome. Manufacturers also noted reductions in downtime (42%) and operating costs (42%). For this purpose, asset management plays a huge role.

For years, there were two primary software solutions for asset management: SAP Plant Maintenance (PM), an integrated Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) module, and a dedicated Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS).

What is SAP Plant Maintenance Software?

SAP Plant Maintenance (PM) is a core module within SAP ERP that helps organizations efficiently manage and maintain their technical assets and equipment. It provides a structured framework for planning, executing, and monitoring maintenance activities, ensuring the smooth and reliable operation of machinery and facilities.

How Does the SAP Asset Management System Work?

SAP PM, as an asset management system, integrates maintenance activities and processes across the organization. It typically follows a structured process:

Technical Objects Management: It begins by managing all technical objects (functional locations, equipment, and materials), along with their corresponding technical specifications and maintenance history.
Maintenance Planning (Proactive): Users define maintenance plans, which are time-based, performance-based, or condition-based.
Maintenance Notification: When a fault or maintenance need is identified, a Maintenance Notification is created to capture the issue’s details, urgency, and location.
Maintenance Order Creation: The notification is converted into a Maintenance Order, a detailed set of instructions for the maintenance work. It specifies required labor, materials (spare parts), tools, cost tracking, and scheduling.
The maintenance team does the work and confirms all time, materials, and completed tasks against the order.
Reporting and Analysis: The system captures all data. This is enabling detailed reporting and analytics on costs. So, companies are keeping an eye on equipment performance, breakdown statistics, and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).

A key feature is integration with other SAP modules: Materials Management for spare parts, Comaintntrolling for maintenance costs, and Human Resources for labor planning.

Why do companies use the SAP Plant Maintenance module?

Large companies with complex operations rely on SAP PM for several strategic reasons:

Enterprise-Wide Integration: Its primary strength is the seamless, native integration with other essential business functions within the same SAP ERP system (Finance, Logistics, Production). This provides a single, unified source of truth for all financial and operational data.
Asset Lifecycle Management: It supports the entire asset lifecycle, from acquisition and installation to maintenance and eventual disposal.
It supports regulatory compliance by automatically documenting every maintenance step, creating a strong audit trail.
SAP PM is highly scalable and supports the complex needs of large, multi-site, and global organizations.

What are the Features of a CMMS System?

A CMMS is software that streamlines and automates maintenance. It centralizes asset data and maintenance activities.

Key features of a CMMS system typically include:

Work Order Management: The core feature enables the creation, assignment, scheduling, tracking, and closing of all maintenance work orders (reactive, preventive, corrective).
Asset & Technical Data Management: Centralized repository for all asset information, including technical specifications, maintenance history, meters, warranties, and Bills of Material (BOMs).
Preventive Maintenance (PM) Scheduling: Tools to easily set up and automate time-based or usage-based recurring maintenance tasks.
Inventory & Spare Parts Management: Manages MRO spare parts inventory, tracking stock levels, locations, costs, and automating purchase requisitions.
Mobile App Support: Technicians use mobile devices to view and update work orders, check asset history, and log field data.
Reporting and Analytics: Real-time dashboards and reports display key maintenance metrics, including MTTR, MTTF, equipment availability, and labor costs.

What are the Differences Between SAP PM and a CMMS System?

Here below, we prepared for you the main differences, which are scope, complexity, and integration approach.

Conclusion

Software assets offer a major opportunity for cost savings across all business sizes. Effective management is critical, as Gartner estimates show that for every $100 spent on purchasing software, organizations will spend an additional $500 over its useful life. Leaders who actively manage software throughout its lifecycle can save 20–40% on their IT budgets.

The choice of management system depends on organizational priorities. SAP Plant Maintenance (PM) is generally selected by large corporations seeking a comprehensive, integrated view across financial and materials management. In contrast, a dedicated Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS) is often preferred by companies of all sizes that need a user-friendly, faster-to-implement, and maintenance-focused solution to boost technician efficiency and streamline daily operations.

Paweł Bęś

Paweł Bęś, Logistics and Maintenance Marketing Expert for QRmaint. He is a B2B marketer with 8 years of experience in the logistics industry in the Netherlands. His work included business analysis of distribution and supply chain operations of high-tech companies in EMEA and APAC. He was responsible for directing, coordinating, planning and supervising transportation tasks and internal operations. He is currently responsible for marketing activities at QRmaint, a company that provides CMMS systems for various industries.

Practical Guide to Equipment Hierarchy

Equipment hierarchy is the foundation on which the technical database is built. Since the technical database is a key element in allowing efficient planning and scheduling, the equipment hierarchy is a building block of the entire work management system. Nearly every business unit from accounting to purchasing and from operations to maintenance will benefit from a well-organized and complete equipment hierarchy.

The 8 Key Elements to Look for in Maintenance Software

Facility management personnel in all industries have waited a long time for computer technology to become applicable and affordable enough to implement in their respective maintenance efforts. In recent years, flexible, dependable and economical computerized maintenance management systems (CMMS) have become available to help fight the never-ending struggle to operate and maintain buildings of all shapes, sizes and functions.

Managing an EAM / CMMS Selection

The latest ARC Advisory Group study of the enterprise asset management (EAM/CMMS) software market profiles more than 80 maintenance application suppliers. This number of choices is enough to make any plant manager shudder. How can you pick the tool that is right for you? The tug-of-war between decision makers can make or break the success of an EAM/CMMS implementation. This article addresses the delicate balance of wants and needs, and how they apply in the application selection process.

Artificial Intelligence vs. Reliability Studies

Because of the telemetry available from modern equipment, the amount of well-organized data we have available to us is orders of magnitude beyond what we had just a few years back. It is very common now to have access to literally 1000’s of devices, each sending out data payloads with many data elements, at sub-second intervals. There can easily be terabytes of data available for us to analyze and then make decisions with. With so much data available, how best to ingest and use it for making near-real time decisions?

Technologies That Make Asset Monitoring Boring...in a Good Way

Many experienced maintenance professionals are at or near retirement age. With fewer replacements on the horizon, manufacturers are increasingly looking to industrial technology to maximize worker productivity to unlock capacity and improve overall equipment effectiveness (OEE). Better uptime starts with better data. These four technologies help provide better data quality and access to the teams that keep plants up and running.

Autonomous Maintenance: Maximize Equipment Uptime with CMMS

Today's maintenance departments can benefit from autonomous maintenance functions in CMMS systems that go a step further in controlling the daily tasks of plant and machine operators.

Maintaining Process Control Field Devices

It is not necessary to totally restructure maintenance practices. A plant can start small and expand the use of process floor information as needs dictate and budgets allow. The key is to begin building a database from the smart devices now in operation and expand the use of the available information as the number of such devices grows. A scalable and expandable platform can grow into a plantwide system that supports the reliability and maintainability of all field instrumentation.

SAP Plant Maintenance vs. CMMS System in 2026