Wherever You Go, There You Are

In the many years that I’ve been involved in work and asset management, I’ve noticed a recurring pattern of behavior that’s worth examining.

Organizations often struggle to realize the full value of their CMMS and grow frustrated. The beast that is work and asset management always seems to have the upper hand, and they decide they need some kind of magical weapon to slay it—something like the Infinity Gauntlet from the Marvel Cinematic Universe or that legendary sword from Excalibur.

Whatever metaphor you prefer, they’re looking for a silver bullet to kill the big, scary monster, and they believe that a new software platform will be that silver bullet.

It doesn’t seem to matter if their current platform has been an industry leader for decades—they assume that just means they’re stuck in the “old” ways of doing business. And if their current platform is a smaller, more artisanal solution, well, then it’s dismissed as not being sophisticated enough.

A quick trip around the internet will always uncover some new software that looks sleek and modern and has to be the answer to all your prayers. Those YouTube demos are polished and persuasive, and the smooth-talking sales pitches—full of quick montages of “limited-click” interfaces that are supposedly intuitive even for the most technologically challenged field staff—are designed to make you believe this new platform will solve all your problems.

You may have even changed software platforms before—maybe multiple times. And perhaps each time, your work and asset management processes improved a little. That can make it feel like switching platforms helps.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t the software that made the improvement. It was the process of re-examining the basic building blocks of your system and implementing them slightly better this time around. You remember those old implementations, right? The ones that were underfunded and rushed? The ones where you avoided making key decisions because doing so would have pushed you over budget and crushed your chances of completing the project on time?

So, before you consider another new software platform, ask yourself what’s really not working. The most common problem areas tend to be:

• Defining your assets

• Navigating your asset hierarchy to locate assets for work orders

• Planning and scheduling work

• Assigning labor to work orders

• Field technicians locating their scheduled work orders

• Creating robust job plans or instructions for PMs or repairs

• Managing work backlogs

• Performing QA/QC on completed work orders to prevent bad or missing data

• Providing adequate training for system users

• Enforcing accountability when work isn’t properly documented

I’m not saying that new software—with a great phone or tablet app—can’t add value. And I’m not saying your organization couldn’t benefit from a new platform.

But I am saying that if your work and asset management efforts are failing because your users can’t find assets, new software won’t fix that. If you’re struggling to manage the backlog, assign labor, schedule work, or perform QA/QC on completed work orders, these aren’t software issues—they’re process and discipline issues.

If you let “too many clicks” become an excuse, you’re doing yourself a disservice. You’re also wasting money if you believe that a new software will solve those same underlying problems.

Every CMMS platform—no matter how modern—requires you to generate repair and preventive maintenance work orders, assign them to field staff, and schedule them. Field technicians still need to open their list of work orders, find the one in question, read the instructions, document their work, charge time and materials, add photos or notes, and close the order.

All of this takes clicks.

The number of clicks depends on the amount of data you want to capture. If a technician finds something broken, it takes clicks to navigate to the asset in the hierarchy and create a repair order. If your asset hierarchy is incomplete or confusing, a new software system will simply import the same broken hierarchy.

You could label physical assets with QR or barcodes and let staff scan them to jump directly to the record—eliminating search clicks. But chances are, your current software already supports this. You’ve just never invested the time and money to set it up. And it’s hard to scan a QR code that doesn’t physically exist.

So before you burn another pile of money chasing a silver bullet, ask yourself: is the problem the software, or is it your organization and a flawed implementation?

Watch that sales video very closely. Slow down the frames showing the software screenshots, and you’ll notice something important: they assume your assets are already well-defined, that your hierarchy is intuitive, that work orders are properly assigned, and that your staff can find and execute them. They assume you’ve built detailed job plans and instructions. None of those things come magically packaged in the new software—you have to create them. And if you didn’t build those foundational pieces in your current system, what are the chances you’ll invest the time and money to do it in the new one?

If you focus instead on fixing the flawed or missing foundations of your current system, fully train your staff, and hold them accountable through a real QA/QC process, you’ll likely find that your current software already delivers what you need. It’s not the monster you thought it was—it’s a mirror, reflecting that we were the monster all along. The only magic needed to slay that monster is the hard, necessary work of setting up your system properly.

But if, after all this, you’re still absolutely convinced that a shiny new piece of software will cure what ails you, send me an email—I can connect you with a great team that sells a platform fully compatible with my LeanWAM Principles approach to work and asset management.