How To Get Team To Adopt A New CMMS
The benefits of CMMS solutions are numerous. eMaint’s range of features work to help organizations better manage, monitor and control maintenance operations, resources, equipment and compliance. This might be well known to yourself and to management, but perhaps technicians, mechanics and other employees are not as excited to embark on the CMMS journey. Maybe they feel it is too complicated, or are comfortable with “the way it has always been” and do not want things to change.
This type of resistance contributes to the 60-80% of CMMS implementation failure rate that organizations face today. It is not enough to implement the software and start generating work orders and forego training or employee encouragement. To help make the transition as easy as possible, we compiled a few quick tips to help inspire your team to begin utilizing a CMMS.
Workers meeting outside gas plant
Outline the benefits thoroughly
Positive internal communication about a CMMS is a great way to start implementation. During a kickoff meeting with your team, outline how the system will empower employees to do their jobs more effectively, or that features like work order management will help make their lives easier. Mention the time and money savings others have experienced using the CMMS, reference case studies, and encourage your team to ask questions. This will make the team feel more comfortable, and get them excited to start interacting with the system to discover what kind of results they could achieve.
Gain acceptance from the top down
If leadership is emphasizing the importance of new technology, there is a much better chance of adoption. Leadership can function as your project champions, and demonstrate the benefits of a CMMS by interacting with the system themselves, or at least be prepped to discuss the advantages of the new solution. That way, everyone is on the same page, and the team can record progress as adoption continues.
Utilize all kinds of training methods on a continual basis
One of the primary things eMaint has learned is that everyone learns differently, and it is vital to have a variety of training options, both in-person and online. eMaint University is an interactive training tool, which gives users the flexibility to start and stop lessons when they need, and administrators can view user progress and assign sessions based on user roles. On a continual basis, eMaint offers monthly Web Workshops, Best Practice Webinars, and provides users with access to the eMaint Community & Knowledge Base. These services are designed to help users get the most out of their CMMS and achieve ongoing maintenance management success.
“Lock it down” for end users
Schneider Electric, a service provider that contractually manage maintenance for 18 live data centers and eMaint client, learned to help increase adoption they needed to “lock down” the system for end users. This means specifying what information end users can enter, and how they can enter it. This helps ensure consistency, and keeps the system more simple for employees who may be weary of making changes, or the complexity of a CMMS.
For information on how to begin implementing a CMMS, check out “10 Keys to CMMS Success“