While data quality may seem both simple and obvious, many companies overlook this area due to a misunderstanding on how the CMMS and data are used. In some cases, companies are well aware of their data quality issues, yet don’t understand the affects that poor data can have on their organization. In other cases, companies believe that an expensive new CMMS will be the answer to all of their problems, only to realize six months down the road that they cannot conduct basic part searches and transactional reports.

At times, this debate has been contentious, pitting one department or function against another, with the winner being, in many cases, who can yell the loudest or who has the most sway with top executives. The key participants in the ERP vs. EAM debate are most often finance, IT and operations.

When exploring CMMS automation opportunities in your facility, there are many factors to consider. These include cost versus benefit by automating, cash-flow impact, organizational readiness, ease of implementation, availability of resources, technological maturity and availability, as well as probability of success.

Why automate, why improve? They’re all about the same question, so after covering the more general area, we’ll zoom in on the specifics of PLCs. “Why improve?” Because your competitors are, and you will not be in competition with them very long, if you don’t. “More and better” are today’s bottom line. With the customers being better educated, and having better availability of the product they seek, you have no choice.