One of the great benefits of a CMMS is that it can help you do a better job of preventive maintenance (PM). It can schedule PM jobs according to manufacturer recommendations. It can also let you adjust PM schedules in response to actual conditions. For example, if a particular piece of equipment is in almost constant use, it may require maintenance more often than normal; if another piece of equipment is used rarely, it may not require maintenance as often as the manufacturer recommends. A CMMS will make it easy to change PM frequencies little by little until you have a schedule that really fits the way you work.

In preparing for preventive maintenance, you must create PM task descriptions. These are typically checklists or step-by-step instructions for what must be done in each PM job. PM task descriptions can come from a variety of sources:

• Your current policies—many companies already have written checklists or instructions for PM jobs
• Manufacturer specifications
• Your CMMS provider—many companies that make CMMS packages provide libraries of standard PM tasks for use with their products
• Professional associations—for example, BOMA (the Building Owners & Managers Association) offers its members standard PM task descriptions that cover all aspects of building management
• Government sources—for example, the U.S. General Services Administration has extensive PM requirements for government buildings that are often used by private companies too

Our rule of thumb is that one person can enter about 8 PM task descriptions per hour. This does not include the time required to gather the task descriptions in the first place. We don't have a good rule of thumb for gathering task descriptions; it just varies too much from case to case for us to establish a general average.

Next: Steps for phase-in