How do I get my team to buy in and use the CMMS?

Keep entry fast, put a QR code on each machine, give technicians something back, and make the CMMS the only route.

FixAhead team

A CMMS is only as useful as what technicians enter in it. When entry takes too long, they stop. The reports that still come in are half written or copied from the last job, so the system describes the last job, not this one.

Keep entry fast, put a QR code on each machine, give technicians something back, put phones on the floor, and make the CMMS the only route. Each one removes a reason to skip the system.

Make entry fast

The minutes each work order takes decide whether technicians keep using the system. Time how long a technician takes to close one work order, and remove every field nobody reads after it is saved. Completion should be one step: a tap, with notes and photos where the job needs them. In FixAhead’s Android app, a technician marks the job complete once required tasks are done, with completion notes and at least one photo; the app asks for both on every job.

Complete work order on an Android phone, with the note 500-hour service done. Drain valve tight, walkway clear. and a photo of the clear laundry walkway, and the job Completed. — Completion on the phone: notes and photos.

A technician should not need a course before the first job. FixAhead’s interface needs no training (legacy CMMS comparison).

Put a QR code on every machine

A technician who has to search for the asset record will skip it. Put a QR code on each machine, so one scan reaches the right asset. FixAhead gives every asset a QR code, and scanning it opens the Report an issue form with the asset’s name and location at its head. Anyone who scans the code can report a problem, with no account, no app download, and no training.

1. Open the asset and press Download on its QR label

The asset’s page shows its QR label beside its details. Press Download, the arrow above the label’s top right corner, to save the label as a PNG file.

Laundry Washer WM-01’s page with its tag laundry, QR label, location, custodian, and category. — The QR label on an asset's page. Download saves it as a PNG file.

2. Select the assets in the Assets table

On the Assets page in table view, select the rows of the assets whose labels you need.

3. Press Download QR Codes

The bar that appears with the selected rows holds Download QR Codes. It saves an A4 PDF sheet with a label for each selected asset.

4 items selected in the Assets table, with Update status and Download QR Codes above the rows. — The bar over the selected rows holds Download QR Codes.

A sheet of QR labels with Water Heater WH-01 in the Plant Room and Reception Downlights LT-01 in Reception, each signed FixAhead. — The sheet Download QR Codes saves, with a label for each selected asset.

Print the PNG or the PDF, and put each label on its machine.

Give technicians something back

Technicians use the system when it helps them do the job. Give them what they need in it: equipment drawings (prints), parts stock that matches the shelf, and the procedures and documents for each machine. A system that only asks for data gives them no reason to use it.

Put phones and tablets on the floor

Technicians finish jobs at the machine, not at a desk. Keep a phone or tablet with the CMMS on it where the work happens, so the record is made when the job is done.

Make the CMMS the only route

Every PM, work order, and part goes into the system. A PM done on paper and typed in later, or a part taken from a bin with no record, leaves the system wrong. Once the CMMS is the only route, there is no second record to drift out of step with it. In FixAhead, every work order has a timeline, with a date and time on each entry.

A work order’s head and technicians over its timeline: created by Johnathan, Neil assigned, In-Progress, then Completed, each with its date and time. — Each entry on a work order's timeline is dated. The timeline names who created the work order and who was assigned it, and dates each status change.

Never close open work orders to protect the numbers

Closing open work orders makes every figure built on them wrong. Leave open work open until it is done, and report the backlog as it stands. The real-time dashboard shows work order status, on-time completion, and open issues.

The dashboard’s Open Work Orders and Open Issues lists, 5 each, three work orders and four issues showing status, asset, and location. — The dashboard shows the backlog as it stands: open work orders and open issues.

Where to go next

To put these practices in place on the floor, start with FixAhead’s mobile app. If your team has used a system before, compare FixAhead with legacy CMMS.