By Paul Lachance

The strategic plan for San Francisco, California, highlights the need to increase use of the city’s computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) as a key step in reaching sustainability goals for 2015. In Buffalo, New York, city staffers tap into a robust CMMS to operate municipal facilities at peak energy efficiency.

These cities provide only two examples of the growing recognition that modern, cloud-based CMMS technology plays a linchpin role in governmental efforts to improve the sustainability of urban centers and small towns alike. That recognition is based on a simple fact: even the most energy-efficient buildings and infrastructure systems will not achieve sustainability targets if not properly maintained.

Key Benefits

But how exactly does a CMMS contribute to reaching sustainability goals? Here are a few of the environmental benefits these systems offer:

Preventive maintenance. At its core, CMMS technology promotes and enhances Preventive Maintenance (PM), which contrasts with the reactive approach of making repairs only after equipment or building systems have broken down. A PM strategy heads off maintenance problems before they become big headaches, saving time, money, and energy.

With a PM scheduler, facility managers input and track important information on individual pieces of equipment, including parts specifications, maintenance schedules, repair history, and other relevant data. A PM calendar can also produce alerts so maintenance teams can service equipment in a timely manner. If valves at a wastewater treatment plant, for example, need regular adjustments, that task can be requested or entered, and CMMS can automatically produce a work order for it.

Local agencies can also find complete information on vendor, supplier, and contractor relationships in one system, including costs, technician certifications, and performance details. All of these CMMS capabilities enable maintenance teams to operate with greater efficiency and effectiveness, which cuts down on waste.

Energy monitoring. Installing an alternative energy system does not necessarily produce higher energy efficiency, unless the equipment is monitored properly. Creating a condition-based monitoring link, however, enables a variety of data types to be fed directly into a CMMS, making it easier to check on equipment performance in real time.

Operators analyzing such data types as pressure, temperature, voltage, and hours run can easily identify energy peaks or spikes as well as specific pieces of equipment that may be “energy hogs.” By tracking and monitoring the utility consumption of physical assets, maintenance teams can then take appropriate preventive steps to keep equipment operating at optimal levels and reduce energy waste.

The facilities maintenance supervisor in one Colorado county, for example, used CMMS reports to show how much energy and staff time was being wasted by an old HVAC system that needed constant repairs. Armed with clear data from CMMS reports, the supervisor successfully lobbied for the purchase of a new, more efficient system.

Asset management. A CMMS system offers distinct advantages to public agencies when it comes to managing their complex array of capital assets, which can range from streetlights and sewer systems to administration buildings and senior centers.

Because it provides a historical record of equipment performance over time, CMMS identifies which assets are poor performers by ranking every component. Instead of automatically projecting capital expenses to replace old equipment, CMMS enables managers to analyze an asset based on a variety of factors: energy consumption, frequency of failure, frequency of work orders, cost trends, and more.

In snowy Gilpin County, Colorado, maintenance managers took information from CMMS reports to show the driving time required to operate the snow plows and to document the 700 hours spent repairing them one winter. Those reports not only helped justify paying the appropriate amount of overtime to drivers, they also pinpointed which plows were worth repairing and which ones needed to be replaced.

Other Uses

While CMMS technology clearly offers improved preventive maintenance, energy monitoring, and asset management, these systems also facilitate sustainability initiatives in other ways. Public agencies can set up their CMMS so staff members from any department can input repair requests and see updates on the status of those requests from their desktops or mobile devices—and across multiple languages.

A technologically-advanced CMMS also simplifies the process of achieving LEED certification for building projects, and it can cut down on the amount of staff time needed to comply with regulatory reporting requirements from governing bodies like OSHA.

As local governments face increasing pressures to manage dwindling resources, CMMS technology will continue to support sustainability efforts. Because ultimately, when equipment and infrastructure systems run more efficiently, they use fewer materials and less energy.

Resource Information

Here are websites with more information on the two city’s initiatives outlined in this article:

San Francisco, California Strategic Plan:

– http://sfdpw.org/modules/showdocument.aspx?documentid=2655 (see pages 22–23).

Buffalo, New York:

– http://www.cannondesign.com/our-work/work/city-of-buffalo

– http://www.cannondesign.com/news-insights/news-item/big-data-how-%20one-city-took-control-of-its-facility-assets-with-data