How No-code drastically simplifies operation and maintenance management (CMMS)
Reading time : 8 minutes
Over the years, the computerization of plant maintenance in the industrial, healthcare and agri-food sectors has continued to progress. The stakes are high, and choosing 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 as closely as possible to your specific activity and processes. This article explains how.
In this article:
Add functionality to your CMMS with No Code
Since 2020, the use of no-code and low-code technologies has been booming. These packaged solutions make it possible to develop human-machine interfaces, applications, automation systems or IT connectors without requiring any knowledge of programming languages.
Design is done visually - "visual programming" - using ready-to-use drag-and-drop elements.
This strong trend enables developers toaccelerate development times and gradually complete existing developments, for example by creating an automatic connection between an ERP and a CMMS.
It's also a gateway to computer design for people who don't have a computer science background.
No-code is a great opportunity to reinforce, complete or improve existing CMMS processes by adding new functionalities without having to rewrite the entire code or resort to costly development.
Maintenance management is by definition part of a rich ecosystem. The no-code approach helps to break down the barriers between these worlds, making complex contexts easier to access.
Visual programming allows you to complement and adapt your Maintenance Management solution in a variety of ways.
Personalized service requests
First and by no means least: your no-code platform will enable you to personalize service requests, so that they can be adapted as closely as possible to your employees' work in the field.
Tailor-made processes and graphical interfaces for requesting maintenance interventions on a site must offer a suitable ergonomic design. Interfaces should incorporate easy-to-use service request forms that provide access to :
- a selection of intervention categories
- file upload
- real-time notifications
- clear, concise data visualization
- responsive design for compatibility with different devices in the office or on the move
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 process of qualifying service requests, which enables us to review all the information that determines the service to be carried out.
These can be corrected, completed (e.g. by indicating the consignments to be made), documented (e.g. by adding photos), before being transformed into a work order and involving a technician.
In these cases, personalization helps optimize treatment quality and safety.
Mapping the locations and objects concerned
To enhance the employee's experience, interactive maps can be added to visualize the various sites and equipment registered in the CMMS database as points of interest.
This facilitates pre-diagnosis and intervention planning, as well as fine-tuned equipment management in a multi-site context.
By using skills such as localization on floor plans and single-line diagrams, it is possible to make the most of the information in this equipment database and gain a better understanding of how installations, power supplies, etc. work.
This level of personalization contributes to the efficiency and safety of the intervention.
Support for mobile operations
The aim here is to give technicians mobile access to the information they need to carry out work on equipment in the best possible conditions.
The right information to the right person, in the right place, at the right time: this phrase has never been truer, thanks to No Code's ability to personalize this digital approach to business and data.
This helps to improve safety and save time and efficiency by being able to carry out these actions on site.
The use of offline mode in CMMS
Underground or outdoors, working offline is also a frequent request from field teams.
Some No Code technologies allow all or some applications to work off-net, and support the specificities of offline use: temporary databases, synchronization, etc.
Intervention reports by voice dictation, accessible in real time.
Using customizable forms, it is possible to capture all necessary information on interventions, including intervention times, parts used and comments by voice dictation from the technician.
This makes it possible to document interventions more comprehensively and facilitate planning for future interventions.
In addition to semi-automatic report generation, we can also introduce upstream reminders of safety procedures and mechanisms to keep the technician vigilant in order to avoid accidents.
Building a knowledge base (knowledge management)
The purpose of intervention reports is to accumulate knowledge about the nature of the problems and the practices used 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 carried out.
The information generated, properly exploited, can be very valuable.
Examples include the creation of lists of experts by theme or by machine, to enable the creation of communities of practice, mutual assistance and support,...., to detect process failures, improve training and prevent incidents, etc.
All this information can be used as a basis for organizing preventive maintenance, or even combined with predictive maintenance AI.
All these techniques need sufficient data to be relevant and effective.
Combining CMMS and NoCode: where to start?
Over and above the functions described above, one of the great strengths of no-code tools lies in their ability to communicate with the CMMS via a connector.
Using configurable API connection or database query tasks, it is possible to integrate data from a variety of sources, such as ERP, quality management systems and even "home-made " Access or Excel databases (also known as "Shadow IT").
The platform also enables documented routes to be exposed in OpenAPI format, to facilitate opening up to external systems wishing to dialogue with the CMMS.
Ultimately, this means reliable information without the need for re-keying, better analysis and understanding, and therefore improved decision-making.
A complete CMMS in No Code!
In some cases, you may also decide to create a CMMS tool with a No Code tool.
In fact, some people find that the CMMSs on the market are far too rich for their needs, without sufficiently addressing the specific requirement they want to cover: "I'm only going to use 10% of your software".
Or that CMMS can't adapt to very specific organizational needs "...and what's more, I can't customize it the way I want".
This is where No Code really comes into its own, as it enables us to create customized applications much faster than with traditional techniques (between 5 and 10 times faster), without the need for programming language skills.
You certainly need a good background in logic and conceptualization, but such development is within the reach of a good non-computer technician or engineer, possibly with a little support. And it's even easier and quicker to make the application evolve according to your needs. And sometimes, having a tool perfectly adapted to your needs can be a formidable competitive differentiation tool.
Moreover, it is sometimes the only solution for integrating with existing systems, and bridges between heterogeneous tools can be a huge headache, and sometimes very costly when technologies are not "up to date".
Pitfalls to avoid when combining CMMS and NoCode
I'm sure you'll say, "There are bound to be pitfalls! And you're right.
No code does not mean no method! The trap is to think that anyone can develop without code. If the proportion of developers in the population is estimated at 0.3%, No Code will widen access to application development to 3 to 5% or even more.
This means identifying the soft skills of our business collaborators and ensuring that they can create a robust, long-lasting product.
Otherwise, we'll be faced with high application volatility, latency issues and data synchronization problems.
The support of a service company, possibly with the publisher's expertise, is therefore a plus when embarking on this adventure. Experience will do the rest, enabling you to gain autonomy little by little.
There's no point in trying to reinvent the wheel, either. Software packages on the market offer best practices, the latest business innovations and a customer experience that's much stronger than your specific No Code application.
Indeed, developing your own application also means getting organized to maintain and evolve it over time. And even if this is greatly simplified with No Code, you still need to make sure you employ the right working methods and usual practices for designing an application, so as to have a long-lasting product that you can support.
Conclusion: to make the most of the opportunities that no-code brings to the world of CMMS
No Code has a bright future for the maintenance professions. It brings specialization and personalization to the company's work processes.
Combining a tried-and-tested CMMS solution with specific applications to meet a given use case is therefore an avenue worth exploring for technical directors, maintenance and methods managers, enabling them to meet expectations for continuous improvement of company practices and your CMMS.
Vision by Algo'tech is an all-in-one No-Code platform for creating professional applications.
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 lets you host your creations in a centralized space for managing multiple applications, users and their rights.