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