Looking for the keys to successfully pass compliance audits? Whether its OSHA, EPA, GMP, ISO or FDA that your organization contends with, thousands of CMMS users leverage their system to comply with strict standards. Using the reporting, archiving and Preventive Maintenance (PM) tools within a CMMS can help organizations meet compliance standards for quality, environmental, energy, food safety, and more. This piece outlines ten key steps to leverage your CMMS system for compliance.
ISO Standards
Before we dive into that, I want to offer a more in-depth explanation of one of the primary standard-setting bodies that maintenance professionals engage with, the International organization for Standardization (ISO).
Almost all of eMaint’s clients have some perspective with working on some aspect of this standard, such as ISO 55000 Asset Management, ISO 9000 Quality Management, ISO 14000 Environmental Management or ISO 3166 Country Codes.
- ISO 55000 Asset Management – provides and overview of asset management, its principles and terminology, and the expected benefits from adopting asset management. It can be applied to all types of assets and by all types and sizes of organizations.
- ISO 14000 Environmental Management – addresses various aspects of environmental management. It provides practical tools for companies and organizations looking to identify and control their environmental impact and constantly improve their environmental performance.
- ISO 22000 Food Safety Management – addresses food safety management and helps organizations identify and control food safety hazards. As many of today’s food products cross national boundaries, standards are needed to ensure the safety of the food supply chain.
- ISO 50001 Energy Management – supports organizations in all sectors to use energy more efficiently through the development of an energy management system. As a result, organizations are able to save money and conserve resources.
- ISO 3166 Country Codes – the International Standard for country codes and codes for their subdivisions. The purpose is to define internationally recognized codes of letters and/or numbers that we can use when we refer to countries and subdivisions.
- ISO 31000 Risk Management – helps organizations manage risks and perform well in an environment full of uncertainty. Risks can have consequences in terms of economic performance and professional reputation, as well as environmental, safety and societal outcomes.
- ISO 9000 Quality Management – addresses various aspects of quality management, providing guidance and tools for companies and organizations who want to ensure that their products and services consistently meet customer’s requirements and that quality is consistently improved.
Ten Key Steps To Leverage Your CMMS For Compliance
1. Track Work Order History
Effective CMMS solutions include asset tracking and work order capabilities. Within an asset record, you can view all work order history and charges related to each asset, including work order type, status, due date, and description. Auditors are interested that the appropriate SOPs, standards and interpretation of those standards are being complied with, and that there is evidence that the organization is in control. Work History shows who did the work, how long it took, the associated documentation, and an overall view of the history of assets from cradle to grave.
How it Helps Pass Audits – Provides detailed documentation on equipment scheduling and proof of work to track mechanical integrity
2. Document Procedures
Within a CMMS, you can associate multiple procedures with a PM Schedule. This is related to recording soft documentation, like on Microsoft Word or Google Docs, or any pictures and PDFs with SOPs. When the PM Schedule is generated into a work order, all assigned PM Procedures will be copied to the Work Procedures table on the Work Order.
How it Helps Pass Audits – Provides documentation of all procedures and verification that they are being carried out in accordance to written documentation procedures.
3. Attach Documents to Records
Document Storage capabilities allow users to upload documents, drawings, images, or any rich media documents and attach them to assets, parts, work orders and contact records including:
- Lock-Out-Tag-Out (LOTO) checklists
- Safety procedures
How it Helps Pass Audits – Provides workers with easy access to safety manuals and procedures, documents compliance, and tracks processes.
4. Track Inventory & Spare Parts
Inventory tools in a CMMS solution make it possible to track history of part usage, associate parts with PM’s, and record which parts are in-stock in storerooms. Accurate parts recording is critical to answering questions such as: what parts are at which location? Which parts are being used? What is critical? What is aging? What is obsolete?
How it Helps Pass Audits – Accurately catalogs spare parts, records part history, and maintains parts storeroom values (actual parts vs. recorded parts). Auditors will have the knowledge that inventory and spare parts are in control of the organization, and organizations have appropriate documentation as proof.
5. Track Labor & Hours Spent
A Sign On/Sign Off feature allows workers to start a timer when starting a work order, and stop it when the work is completed. A labor charge will automatically be created for that work order, with the elapsed time for the quantity of hours.
How it Helps Pass Audits – Maintains accountability for all maintenance activities performed by each technician throughout the facility, and the hours spent on each activity. This is important to understand exactly what is happening on the ground. There’s a level of accountability involved here as well: who’s working on what, how and when? Are the correct resources being applied? Are they properly trained, working on the right activities?
6. Auto-Generate PMs
CMMS software allows you to establish and auto-generate an unlimited number of calendar and/or meter-based PMs for each asset. Within the PM task record, you can include a detailed description that can contains the task procedures, guidelines, and any other important information.
How it Helps Pass Audits – Provides documentation of all completed and scheduled PMs on each asset.
7. Generate Reports & Dashboards
Personalized reporting and dashboard tools within a CMMS enable you to create and modify reports, output them as text, PDFs, charts or graphs, add them to dashboards, or generate and email them automatically.
How it Helps Pass Audits – Allows you to run reports to show data required for inspections and audits, as well as generate reports on KPIs for management visibility.
8. Track Work Requests
Work requests can be submitted by internal team members or customers via email, an online form, or through the Work Request module. The request can then be automatically routed to designated individuals for approval. It’s important for transparency, visibility, and from a service level agreement and a customer satisfaction perspective, time stamping related to these types of requests is important. It is also useful for the full overarching eyes and ears on the ground, to get a perspective of the types of issues that are being requested across the organization.
How it Helps Pass Audits – Allows you to improve workflow efficiency and ensure on-time completion of work orders.
9. Automate Email Alerts
Most CMMS solutions allow you to setup automated email alerts that notify teams when documentation needs to be updated, safety-related PMs need to be performed, and inspections need to be completed.
How it Helps Pass Audits – Keeps technicians up-to-date with inspection and audit PM tasks from anytime, anywhere.
10. Track Calibration
Your organization can manage, schedule and track calibration, as well as set calibration reminders, on equipment and instruments.
How it Helps Pass Audits – Provides documentation of equipment calibration schedules and procedures, and tracks completion and on-time performance.