The arrival of Big Data signaled to businesses that anything that could be measured also could be analyzed and improved.

Among the largest lodes of data available to maintenance and engineering managers comes from technicians responding to work orders for inspection, repair and maintenance tasks. As a result, computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) databases have become valuable resources for managers, according to an article on the FacilitiesNet website from Facilities Maintenance Decisions magazine.

Managers with Chapman University in Orange, Calif., are among the many who have embraced the use of CMMS data.

“There is a greater understanding of what they can have available just by doing a work order browse and pulling up information,” says Susan Deane, facility data analyst with the university’s facilities management department. The university’s experiences offers a glimpse of the challenges organizations face in gathering, analyzing and ensuring the accuracy of CMMS data, as well as the benefits of using the results of that process to improve campus operations and conditions.

The role of the CMMS in the department has expanded in recent years. Deane has focused on training support staff on established CMMS data practices, providing ongoing training, and setting up and training technicians on use of the iOS app on their assigned devices. Develop, document, test, train and implement new practices for CMMS use provide administration staff data reports as requested.

Read the article.