How No-code drastically simplifies operation and maintenance management (CMMS)
Reading time: 8 minutes
The computerization of the maintenance of installations in the fields of industry, health, food processing, etc. continues to progress over the years. The stakes are high and the choice of the right CMMS tool remains critical.
However, whatever the CMMS application concerned, it is always difficult to implement ready-to-use software for specific needs.
The no-code allows you to adjust your maintenance management tool to your specific activity and processes. We explain in this article how it works.
In this article:
Adding functionalities to your CMMS thanks to the No Code
Since 2020, the use of no-code and low-code technologies is booming. These packaged solutions allow the development of human-machine interfaces, applications, automation or computer connectors without requiring any knowledge of programming languages.
The design is done in a visual way - we speak of "visual programming" - from ready-to-use elements, in drag and drop.
This strong trend allows developers toaccelerate development times and to progressively complete existing developments, for example by creating an automatic connection between an ERP and a CMMS.
It is also a gateway to computer design for people who do not have a "computer science" background.
No-code is a great opportunity to reinforce, complete or improve existing CMMS processes in a company by allowing the addition of new functionalities without having to completely rewrite the code or resort to expensive development.
Maintenance management is by definition part of rich ecosystems. The no-code approach allows to decompartmentalize these universes by making complex contexts easier to access.
The visual programming allows you to complete and adapt your Maintenance Management solution in different ways.
Personalization of intervention requests
First and foremost, your no-code platform will allow you to personalize intervention requests in order to adapt to your employees' work in the field.
Customized processes and graphical interfaces for requesting maintenance interventions on a site must offer an adapted ergonomic design. The interfaces must integrate easy-to-use service request forms that provide access to
- a selection of intervention categories
- an upload of files
- Real-time notifications
- clear and concise data visualization
- Responsive design for compatibility with different devices in the office or on the move
The No Code with its numerous widgets and graphic adaptation capabilities offers all these possibilities.
We can also go into the details of processes in order to optimize them. This is the case for the qualification process of intervention requests, which allows a review of all the information determining the intervention.
These can be corrected, completed (e.g.: indication of the consignments to be made), documented (e.g.: addition of photos), before being transformed into a work order and involving a technician.
In these cases, personalization helps to optimize the quality of treatment and the safety of interventions.
Mapping of the places and objects concerned
In order to improve the employee's experience, it will be possible to add interactive maps to visualize the different sites and equipment registered in the CMMS database as points of interest.
This facilitates the preliminary diagnosis and planning of interventions as well as the fine management of equipment in a multi-site context.
By using skills such as the location of floor plans and single-line diagrams, it is possible to make the most of the information in this equipment database and to better understand the operation of installations, power supplies, etc.
This level of personalization contributes to the efficiency and safety of the intervention.
Support for mobile operations
The aim is to give technicians mobile access to the information they need to carry out work on equipment in the best conditions.
The right information to the right person, in the right place, at the right time: this phrase has never been more true with the ability of No Code to personalize this digital approach to business and data.
This helps to improve safety and save time and efficiency by being able to perform these actions on site.
The use of the disconnected mode in CMMS
Underground or outdoors, working offline is also a frequent request from field teams.
Some No Code technologies allow for all or part of the applications to work outside the network and take care of the specificities related to an offline use: temporary databases, synchronization...
Intervention reports by voice dictation, accessible in real time.
Using customizable forms, it is possible to capture all the necessary information on interventions, including intervention times, parts used and comments by voice dictation of the technician.
This allows for more complete documentation of interventions and facilitates planning for future interventions.
In addition to the semi-automatic generation of the report, it is possible to introduce upstream reminders of safety procedures and mechanisms to keep the technician in a state of alertness to avoid accidents.
Building a knowledge base (knowledge management)
The value of the intervention reports is to accumulate knowledge about the nature of the problems and the practices to solve them.
If they are generated in a simple, even quasi-automatic way, there is a much greater chance that they will actually be realized.
The information generated, properly exploited, can be of great value.
We can cite as usage the creation of lists of experts by themes or by machines to allow the creation of communities of practice, mutual aid, support, ...., to allow the detection of failures in the processes, better training and prevention of incidents,...
All this information can be used as a basis for the organization of preventive maintenance or even associated with AI for predictive maintenance.
All of these techniques need sufficient data to be relevant and effective.
How to combine CMMS and NoCode: where to start?
Beyond the functionalities described above, a great strength of no-code tools lies in their ability to dialogue with the CMMS via a connector.
Using configurable API connection or database query tasks, it is possible to integrate data from different sources, such as ERP, quality management systems and even home-made Access or Excel databases (the so-called " Shadow IT" ).
The platform also allows the exposure of documented routes in OpenAPI format, in order to facilitate the opening to external systems wishing to dialogue with the CMMS.
Finally, it provides reliable information without the need for re-entry, better analysis and understanding, and therefore improved decision-making.
A complete CMMS in No Code, I dare you!
In some cases, you may also decide to create a CMMS tool with a No Code tool.
Indeed, some people find that the CMMS on the market are too rich for their needs without addressing with enough acuity the specific need they want to cover "I will only use 10% of your software".
Or, that CMMS cannot adapt to very specific needs of the organization "...and on top of that I can't customize it the way I want".
This is where No Code comes into its own, because it allows you to create custom applications much faster than with traditional techniques (between 5 and 10 times), without the need for knowledge of programming languages.
You need a good background in logic and conceptualization, but such a development is within the reach of a good non-computer technician or engineer, with possibly some support. And then to make the application evolve according to your needs is very simple and even faster. And sometimes having a tool perfectly adapted to your needs can be a formidable competitive differentiation tool.
Moreover, it is sometimes the only solution to integrate with the existing system, and bridges between heterogeneous tools can be a huge headache and sometimes very costly when the technologies are not "up to date".
Pitfalls to avoid when combining CMMS and NoCode
You will certainly say to me "there are inevitably traps?! And you are right.
No code does not mean no method! The trap is to think that anyone will be able to develop without code. If the share of developers in the population is estimated at 0.3%, No Code will be able to expand the possibilities of access to application development to 3 to 5% or even more.
This implies identifying the soft skills of the business collaborators and ensuring that they will be able to create a durable and robust product.
Otherwise, we will be faced with high application volatility, latency concerns or data synchronization problems.
The support of a service company, possibly with the expertise of the editor, is therefore a plus when embarking on this adventure. The experience will do the rest, it will allow to gain in autonomy little by little.
There is no point in trying to reinvent the wheel as well, the software packages on the market offer best practices, the latest business innovations and a much stronger customer experience on the same product than your specific No Code application.
Indeed, developing your own application also means organizing yourself to maintain it and make it evolve over time. And even if this is greatly simplified with No Code, it is necessary to use the good working methods and usual practices of designing an application to have a durable product which will have to be supported.
Conclusion: to make the most of the opportunities that no-code brings to the CMMS world
No Code has a bright future for the maintenance industry. It offers specialization and customization to the company's work processes.
The combination of a proven CMMS solution with specific applications to meet specific use cases is therefore an avenue to explore for technical directors, maintenance and methods managers that will enable them to meet the expectations of continuous improvement of company practices and your CMMS.
Vision by Algo'tech is a No-Code platform for creating professional applications, all in one.
Create your mobile & desktop user interfaces + the database that feeds them + the processes to guide the user through the application + the API connections.
The platform also offers you to host your creations in a centralized space to manage multiple applications, users and their rights.