The growing maturity of AI, IoT, and wireless connectivity has changed how work is done in the MRO (maintenance, repair, and operations) sector. Where new tools powered by advanced technology have ended many traditional jobs, it has opened up new jobs as well for people with significant skills. The role of the CMMS administrator is one such creation of powerful technologies such as IoT, data analytics, and artificial intelligence.
Who is a CMMS administrator?
A CMMS administrator is usually a part of the equipment maintenance teams, depending upon the organizational structure. The role of the individual includes configuration and management of CMMS (Computerized Maintenance Management Software).
The person is responsible for data entry, administration, the configuration of KPIs, and the automated distribution of reports across the organization, based on the requirements. The individual has to oversee asset management, including but not limited to updating CMMS with information about new equipment and tracking their existing status and their release from inventory to operational use.
The Importance of CMMS Administrator
The role of a CMMS administrator is getting new traction in the market because of the excessive use of CMMS software. The software is primarily used for maintaining a computerized database of information, which facilitates seamless service operations. CMMS streamlines maintenance processes, planning, and management. It automates the work order creation processes and when integrated with field service management software, it allows automatic scheduling and dispatch of jobs to ensure faster turnaround time and increased efficiency.
Typical CMMS software functionalities include asset management, preventive and predictive maintenance, work order management, inventory management, and scheduling and dispatch of maintenance workers. These types of software solutions are widely used for managing maintenance service operations in the oil and gas and manufacturing industries. These are asset-intensive industries, where data on asset health is collected through advanced sensors and IoT technologies.
Key Skills to Be Successful In the Role of CMMS Administrator
In the era of servitization, to be successful in any role, you are required to have both soft skills and hard skills. The range and level of skills vary from organization to organization. However, we must first identify the routine tasks of the administrator that would help in understanding why certain hard skills and soft skills are required to perform the tasks.
Routine Task of CMMS Administrator
- Measure and interpret data to publish metrics, troubleshoot processes, and make recommendations to the management team.
- Configure and maintain equipment metadata and create accurate categories of inputs to help in transparent and quick identification of maintenance items, such as manufacturer, model number, serial number, and date of purchase.
- Create and maintain work order-related data, such as the creation of jobs out of the work order, user setup, employees, crews, and team-wise categorization of supervisors, tasks, and territory.
- Adding equipment data to work orders, PM plans, schedules, routes, and recurring schedules, defining scheduled due dates, and setting up types of dispatch information.
- Guide staff on the CMMS functions and best practices for performing tasks in CMMS and provide support for the reliability and proper functioning of the tool.
Below we have categorized the skills into two categories, which a CMMS administrator must possess to perform their routine tasks and achieve greater success in their career.
Hard Skills
Software Programs: CMMS administrators must have a degree or diploma in computer programs that proves their knowledge in understanding software configurations and their requirements. Apart from that, basic knowledge of SQL, Microsoft programs, and Excel is expected by many companies with maintenance service operations.
Workplace Understanding: A general familiarity with maintenance and industrial equipment is expected from a CMMS administrator. As they have to maintain critical inventory configurations, having a deeper understanding of power tools for maintenance operations makes it easier to create categories and plan out data management.
Safety Standards and Compliance: Knowledge of occupational safety standards and compliance makes it easier for them to configure compliance requirements. A CMMS administrator must be aware of ESD, security, occupational, health, and environmental safety requirements. Familiarity with compliance helps them create work instructions in the CMMS system and set guidelines about how to follow them effectively.
Technical competency is essential to perform these tasks for CMMS administrators. However, certain soft skills are also required to complete the tasks with efficacy and reach newer heights in the career.
Soft Skills
Execution excellence: It is one of the essential soft skills for maintenance professionals which helps them perform their role from beginning to end with a commitment.
Communication: It is a business essential skill. It does not really matter what part of the maintenance service profession you belong to, having great communication skills is mandatory to perform routine tasks.
Learnability: Technology keeps on changing with time and so for CMMS administrators, it is critical to have learnability, which induces curiosity to explore new aspects of technology to implement in the software.
The Final Thoughts
CMMS has become critical to the maintenance strategy of asset-intensive organizations. Individuals seeking the role must develop both hard skills and soft skills to effectively serve the business requirements, ensuring proper collection, management, and utilization of CMMS data.
