What Is Equipment Maintenance Software — and How Is It Used?

Imagine that you’re in charge of maintenance management at a manufacturing plant, and your current maintenance plan involves a hodgepodge of paper work orders and Excel spreadsheets to track equipment maintenance tasks. Unfortunately for you, a piece of equipment breaks down, forcing you to halt operations in order to assign a maintenance technician to get it back to working condition. But you’re not entirely sure what caused the equipment failure, and this critical asset’s maintenance history is spread out across several files that will take you hours to sort. Time, like in most cases, is money.

Needless to say, this manual asset management process is prone to human error and slow-moving upkeep. That’s especially true in a reactive maintenance situation like this one, but an analog approach to your equipment maintenance program runs a higher risk of routine maintenance being more easily missed, which can lead to increased equipment downtime and more frequent production halts. In fact, a 2022 Plant Engineering survey reported that a whopping 80 percent of manufacturing plants cite aging equipment or machine breakdowns as the leading cause of operational inefficiency. Not good.

So, what’s the solution? Implementing equipment maintenance software provides a centralized location where all team members can instantly access information about an asset, submit and track work orders and generate automated reports — all in real time from a mobile device. The software solution not only simplifies a company’s equipment management process but also reduces equipment breakdowns significantly and cuts back on costly repairs. 

Case in point: A 2024 Siemens report showed manufacturing plants that implemented software, predictive maintenance programs and sensors into their equipment maintenance strategy now experience an average of 25 downtime incidents per month per facility, a 41 percent reduction from 42 incidents in 2019. Let’s take a look at what equipment maintenance software can do for your business.

Key Elements of Equipment Maintenance Software 

Equipment maintenance software provides businesses with the necessary tools for streamlining and optimizing the process of maintaining heavy equipment. It typically includes the following elements: 

• Asset inventory management: Teams can create a database of a company’s assets, including their part specifications, locations, and repair and maintenance histories.
• Work order tracking: The software streamlines the creation, assignment and completion of work orders, allowing all team members the ability to monitor tasks from start to finish at every point of a project. 
• Preventive maintenance scheduling: The manual scheduling of preventive maintenance hasn’t always been foolproof. Due to human error, some parts of the process may be incomplete or missed altogether. Equipment maintenance software automates these tasks so that no steps are ever incomplete or missed. 
• Analytics and reporting: Maintenance teams can generate specific reports to analyze an asset’s maintenance performance, identify patterns and make informed decisions on proactive maintenance based on the data collected.
• Mobile app: Anyone on a project can view a work order’s status, access maintenance checklists and communicate with each other in real time, from anywhere.

Benefits of Equipment Maintenance Software 

Equipment maintenance software offers a wide range of benefits to a business. These include: 

Reducing Unexpected Downtime

When an asset breaks down due to an unexpected problem, it can take days or even weeks to order, receive and install replacement parts, particularly if they are on backorder. Scheduling preventive maintenance, however, can reduce the likelihood of stoppages, as regular maintenance activities ensure equipment is always performing at its best.

Maximizing Equipment Lifetime

Using machine learning and data analytics, equipment maintenance software identifies problems before catastrophic damage to an asset can occur. Proactively addressing problems with equipment performance helps prevent premature wear on an asset and prolongs its life cycle.

Decreasing Maintenance Costs

Some businesses avoid maintaining equipment because of the cost, and if it’s not malfunctioning, management may take the stance that it can wait, or they may be too busy to deal with it until it’s too late. A proactive approach reduces the need for expensive emergency maintenance and worker overtime and is, ultimately, less expensive in the long run.

Improving Communication

Using equipment maintenance software improves communication by allowing management, team members, departments and even vendors to send messages to one another and track the maintenance process in real time.

Providing One Centralized Location for All Equipment Maintenance

With all maintenance requests, work orders, schedules and records stored in one place, teams can easily track an asset’s maintenance services history, ensuring heavy machinery is always properly maintained and reducing the chances of unexpected breakdowns.

How to Choose the Best Equipment Maintenance Software 

Choosing the best equipment maintenance software for your business is crucial to the performance and lifespan of your assets and overall business efficiency. Consider the following factors when picking a software solution:

• Ease of use: The software you pick should be intuitive so that everyone on your team can quickly learn and use it.
• Scalability: As your business grows, so will your maintenance needs. A proper maintenance software should scale with your company’s growth by accommodating additional assets, work orders and reports without compromising performance. 
• Accessibility: You should be able to access the software from anywhere, so look for one that is cloud-based or mobile-friendly. This functionality allows you to make real-time updates and collaborate with teams from anywhere.
• Customization: No two businesses are alike, which means a simple equipment maintenance template will not do. Instead, choosing a solution that offers customized workflows, reporting tools and notifications to fit your specific needs is crucial to the success of your company.
• Affordability: An equipment maintenance software should offer flexible pricing plans that align with your budget. Look for one that gives you an equal balance of cost-effectiveness and value, with the option to upgrade as your needs evolve.

Example of Using Equipment Maintenance Software

Walmart’s distribution centers rely on a variety of machines — conveyors, sorters and automated picking systems — to keep its supply chain operations running seamlessly. Failures in any of these machines can result in severe disruptions to the company’s operations. 

In 2021, Walmart made changes to its infrastructure that allowed it to expand its ecommerce business while reducing shipping time and operating costs. Automation became key to this strategy — the retail giant needed supply chain software that could handle a variety of tasks, from inventory and parts management to preventive maintenance scheduling. 

Walmart found an equipment maintenance software with predictive maintenance capabilities to monitor equipment conditions in real-time, so maintenance teams were aware of issues as they arose. This made it easier for managers and teams to track equipment health across multiple locations. The software also keeps track of part inventory — ensuring that the right parts are always available when needed and without overstocking. Walmart also used the software to strategically place products across distribution and fulfillment centers during the holiday season.

Through the use of equipment maintenance software, Walmart has been able to increase operational efficiency overall by implementing various types of equipment maintenance. Now, equipment issue response time is much shorter, and the company has saved money, as the result of fewer breakdowns and emergency repair costs.

How Coast’s Equipment Maintenance Software Sets Itself Apart 

When you’re considering equipment maintenance software, Coast provides customization to match your specific business needs. This means that implementation is easier than ever before, as maintenance teams integrate the software to match their current processes — not the other way around.

With our computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) software, no part of your scheduled maintenance strategy will be skipped or missed. Our software will also grow with your business, accommodating new equipment, additional facilities and expanding teams. It will meet your needs as they arise, all while maintaining operational efficiency and minimizing downtime. 

Book a demo today to see how Coast’s equipment maintenance software will keep your company organized and productive.