Facility Maintenance System (FMS)
- The FMS package is a major refinement of a hospital maintenance package that I wrote
in 1982 in dBase II to help a local hospital comply with JCAH (now JCAHO) requirements. At that
time there were no "canned" packages available. That situation has changed and now
there are many excellent packages. Hopefully this package will merit your
consideration. Obviously, in the years since 1982, software functionality and design have
made tremendous advances. Design features that are now taken for granted were
great breakthroughs in the early 80's . . . in the dawn of computer time. With these
design enhancements comes the power to totally manage the data and produce user-definable reports of
useful, pertinent information.
- The FMS package is centered on one construct . . . the Equipment Record. The
Equipment Record contains all pertinent information about each specific equipment
item: manufacturer, model, type, serial number, location, maintenance intervals (major
and minor), checklists for preventive maintenance activities, purchase information,
parts lists, special instructions, etc. The Equipment Record is the "bucket" into which
all of the maintenance activity, labor costs and parts costs are "poured". Each
Equipment Record is linked to all of its' related maintenance activity.
- Once all equipment files are set up, with the accompanying files (parts, checklists,
departments, craft type, and personnel), the system will then automatically print
Preventive Maintenance (PM) cards. These cards are printed when the printing date
matches the PM Interval in the Equipment Record. Each week PM cards are scheduled for printing.
The card contains all information that a technician will need to identify the equipment item (by
description, serial number, stock number, or whatever identification system you choose),
what needs to be done, what spare parts will be required and an estimate of the time it
will take. Upon completion of the work, the technician notes on the card what parts
were used, how long it took, when it was completed and what was done, along with his
identification code. This information is then entered into the system and becomes part of the permanent
maintenance history for that item. Cost of labor and parts is calculated by the system
and attributed to the maintenance cost of each item and the department to which the
equipment is assigned. Departmental (loosely defined as a cost center) reports are then
easily generated to provide accurate forecasting of maintenance costs for the future. This information
also clearly identifies the value provided to the facility by the Facility Maintenance Department.
- Not all maintenance is scheduled, however, and things break down. The prime motivation for
deploying a Facility Maintenance system is to prevent breakdowns, as it costs about ten times more to repair breakages
than to prevent them. However, breakdowns and stoppages will occur. When it happens,
a Work Request is created and corrective maintenance activity is scheduled, based on criticality. These
activities are also entered into the system, adding to the maintenance history of the
affected item. The system differentiates between scheduled PMs and unscheduled
breakdowns and permits evaluation of PM schedules to prevent, or minimize,
breakdowns.
- The system provides a variety of reports concerning manpower requirements, inventory
status, outstanding PMs and Work Requests, completed PMs and Work Requests,
supervisor reports and departmental reports, along with listings of all the major files.
These reports may be customized by using the query-by-example (QBE) power of the Informix
database engine.
- Query-by-example permits the user to specify the exact class of equipment by any data
field in the file, or any combination thereof. Complete versatility is thus provided for
any permutation of data retrieval. For example, let's assume that there is an upgrade
for a "Z" type Widget that must be performed to maintain proper function of the Widget.
By selecting a list of equipment with type "Z" and description "Widget", the system will
return just those records. That means that the operator will have just those records to
work on and they will all be "hooked together" when worked on, eliminating the need to
search for them one by one or looking through the entire file.
- Through bar code technology, the system decreases the amount of keyboard input
required for processing PM cards. We also plan to implement an equipment label
barcode module in the near future. This will permit use of laptop computers with
barcode scanners by maintenance personnel to identify equipment, retrieve equipment
information, check parts inventory and enter work completed. At days' end, the worker
will plug the laptop into a port on the main computer and upload the maintenance
information, updating all pertinent equipment, personnel, parts and history files.
This can also be done across the Internet to a Net server from any location in the world.
Just imagine the flexibility of an enterprise-wide maintenance network,
with remote dial-up or direct Internet connectivity, coupled with the speed of
true client-server technology.
- Computer-Aided Software Engineering (CASE) tools were used to develop much of the computer code
in this program, achieving module standardization and independence, greatly
simplifying development and reducing testing and debugging time. This also enables
end-users, with proper personnel and training, to purchase and modify our source code
to more closely fit our application to their requirements. In most cases, however,
modification will not be required, as the program is extremely comprehensive and
flexible.
- Feature improvements or new features may be requested by users at any time. If the
requested feature has universal application and would result in a better overall product,
it will be added to our developmental "To Do" list and will be provided as
part of the monthly support fee when completed. If a feature will only benefit a specific
user, that will constitute custom development and we will negotiate a fee for that service.
- We are also planning to put our own server on the Internet, in
which case, users will be able to subscribe to the system and run on-line. The Internet
provides sufficient performance for remote processing in our client-server environment,
even on dial-up lines. All reports would print on a local printer at the users'
location and we would maintain data backups and provide system and data security for
$250 per month. This option is very exciting, as it permits using our system worldwide
at a very reasonable cost. This is a "try it before you buy it" option that seems to
have great appeal to many prospective clients, especially those in foreign markets.
- Running under UNIX or UNIXware, the system provides true multi-tasking, multi-user
power, along with many advanced user-definable features such as: Personal To-Do
Lists, User-definable Help screens, User-definable Hot buttons (for shortcuts),
Navigation features within the program, adding custom data fields on the fly,
context-sensitive help, online user manual.
Note: This page was created in 1987...thus the antiquated system requirements.
- Minimum hardware recommended is a Pentium computer with 24 megabytes RAM, 1.2
gigabytes of hard disk space, SVGA monitor, laser printer, tape backup and 28.8Kbaud
modem (for on-line updates and troubleshooting). If bar-coding and/or data acquisition
systems are desired, additional equipment may be required. We recommend that high-quality
equipment be purchased for better performance and system longevity. We can also sell
hardware packages appropriate to this application. Please contact us concerning
current pricing and configuration.
- I apologize that this brief introduction to the Facility Maintenance System is not more
complete, but just describing all of the system features would take several pages and
still not adequately acquaint you with the systems' full capability. If you would
like to learn more, arrange an on-line demonstration, or just ask questions, please call
me at (208) 221-3784 or e-mail me at steve@streeper.com
Note: I'm no longer involved with this package and I'm not certain it's still available. Steve Streeper-Dec. 2011.
- Thanks again for your interest. I look forward to hearing from you in the future.
Sincerely,
Steve Streeper