Maintenance management software is at the core of any successful maintenance operation. But choosing the right software can be overwhelming.
Which is better for your organization – an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solution, or a Computerized Maintenance Management Solution (CMMS)? Corporations often push for ERP solutions without fully understanding the benefits of CMMS.
Here’s why CMMS is ultimately more impactful than ERP.
CMMS vs ERP: Which Solution is Right for You?
CMMS software significantly increases operational efficiency, streamlines complex workflows, and maximizes uptime.
The Benefits of Using CMMS
CMMS is purpose-built for maintenance operations. The ideal CMMS software is a one-stop shop for maintenance teams: it documents maintenance processes, manages resources, and tracks asset performance.
Correctly implemented, CMMS keeps you and your maintenance team on track. It also makes important information easily accessible, right at your fingertips. CMMS software excels at assisting with planning, tracking, and optimizing maintenance processes. In addition, it extends asset lifespan and boosts efficiencies.
The Benefits of Using ERP
ERP is designed to manage business functions, like accounting, forecasting and budgeting, and long-term planning. ERP also delivers business intelligence, planning, and project management capabilities to users.
In contrast to CMMS, ERP provides an aerial view of the whole organization. ERP software can be used for select maintenance purposes, but it doesn’t deliver the same granular insights as CMMS. ERP is designed to facilitate holistic decision making by providing data-driven insights that can impact the larger company.
Capabilities: CMMS vs ERP
CMMS Software:
- Stores and analyzes asset health data
- Creates detailed reports and visualizations
- Tracks KPIs and other key metrics
- Tracks preventive maintenance (PM) tasks
- Tracks spare parts and automatically re-orders supplies when stocks are low
- Manages regulatory data for audits
Ideally, a CMMS software is easy to customize. In fact, it’s hard to create a complete list of CMMS capabilities because users are always adding more use cases. Simply put, CMMS can help you track and improve almost any maintenance process.
ERP Software:
- Tracks and plans manufacturing and production schedules
- Oversees procurement and supply chain logistics
- Manages inventory, forecasting, and budgeting
- Manages human resources processes like payroll, accounting, and employee benefits
- Manages customer relationships, including sales and key interactions with customers
The ideal ERP software can also track work orders and monitor asset health, but the functionality is typically much clunkier compared to CMMS. Customization is also a challenge, which makes it harder to track the metrics that matter most to your MRO team.
Choosing Between an ERP and a CMMS
There’s some overlap between ERP and CMMS capabilities. Both solutions can track maintenance tasks and create schedules. Both can also integrate with sensors and analyze condition monitoring data in real time.
However, there are some important distinctions to note.
Ease of Use: ERP vs CMMS
By design, CMMS software is easy and intuitive to learn and operate. Customization is straightforward. CMMS operation doesn’t require a strong technical background. It uses “real” language, not tech jargon, removing a significant usage barrier.
ERPs tend to be more cumbersome, particularly when used for maintenance. Navigating between processes – like work orders, inventory, and asset management – can be tricky. Often, more manual data entry is required. ERP output can also be hard to understand for those without a technical background.
Mobile Capabilities: CMMS vs ERP
A good CMMS is designed for work on the go. Typically, a mobile app that lets technicians access work orders from the field is integrated with CMMS software and accessible with or without an internet connection. When connected, users can remotely access asset data and safety guidelines. They can also update work order data in real-time.
Many ERPs also feature mobile capabilities but are typically less robust. ERP software is usually designed to deliver business intelligence or CRM features and may not work in areas without internet connectivity.
Reporting Capabilities: ERP vs CMMS
CMMS software is designed to track and analyze KPIs, like MTTR and MTBF. The system pulls data from work orders, condition monitoring sensors, and asset history, and uses it to build customizable reports. For example, you can easily monitor your overall maintenance spend, or analyze what owning a specific asset costs your company.
ERP software is also equipped with reporting features, but customization is relatively difficult compared to CMMS software. You can use an ERP to monitor spending, but it’s challenging to produce granular analysis of each asset’s maintenance costs, for example. That’s because ERPs are designed for big-picture, organization-wide reporting.
Integrating ERP and CMMS
What if you didn’t have to choose between ERP and CMMS?
For most maintenance teams, a CMMS delivers more value and more granular, data-driven analysis that drives greater uptime. However, ERPs also have value, allowing managers to visualize broader organizational needs. That’s where integration comes in.
A good CMMS – like eMaint – can integrate with an ERP, so you get the best of both worlds: forecasting and budgeting for the whole company, combined with actionable insights to transform the maintenance department.