InterPro's EZMaxMobile Helps CMU Reduce Data Entry Time By 92 Percent, Move To 100 Percent Electronic Work Logs
Providing mobile access to Maximo boosts team efficiency, leads to better record keeping.
At a glance
Company:
Objectives:
- Reduce time spent on data entry
- Reduce use of paper
- Better work log tracking
Results:
- Time spend on data entry reduced by 92 percent - from 120 to 10 hours per week
- Eliminated approximately 50,000 sheets of paper per year
- Went from 0 to near-100 percent participation in electronic work logs
Challenge
CMU’s facilities and operations department had used IBM Maximo since 1995, but had struggled to find the right approach for mobile access to the platform. Over the years, says Jeremy Smith, Director of IT for CMU’s Facilities Management and Campus Services Department, they tried many different solutions, going back to the Palm Pilot days. “Nothing quite fit our needs,” says Smith. “They were either too rigid, or needed too much customization, and some of the interfaces were really difficult.” Some required the team to enter data twice: once into the mobile system, and then again into Maximo.
The team’s most important objectives with regard to mobilizing Maximo were to reduce manual data entry, reduce or eliminate paper work orders, and move the team onto electronic work logs.
Solution
Carnegie Mellon learned about InterPro’s EZMaxMobile from a colleague at Princeton. Smith, along with a team from the University’s Facilities Management Services Department, took a field trip to Princeton to see the platform in action. “The Facilities Management Department at CMU does not have a large IT team,” he says. “EZMaxMobile supported every one of our Maximo business processes out of the box, and allowed us to modify the screens with minor configuration changes to fit our specific needs and deploy quickly. That’s what made it the best choice for us.”
Results/Benefits
When CMU implemented EZMaxMobile, the team quickly saw an impact on productivity. “We rolled out team-by-team,” he says, “and soon teams started coming to us saying, ‘When can we start using it?’ They could see how much easier it would make their (work) lives.” Today, CMU has about 150 people using EZMaxMobile, mostly full-time staff but also multiple contractors.
Prior to implementing EZMaxMobile, CMU’s staff used paper work orders (about 50,000 per year), which they notated in the field and turned into the office at the end of each day. A team of three full-time support specialists then entered the data into Maximo. During busy times, data often wouldn’t make it into the system until several days after the work had been performed, and data accuracy was an ongoing issue.
With EZMaxMobile, data instantly goes from the technician’s iPad directly into Maximo. Data entry time has been reduced by 92 percent, from 120 to about 10 hours per week. In addition, labor data corrections have been reduced from an annual high of 13 percent of all chargeable labor entry to just under one percent.
EZMaxMobile also allows technicians to create work orders from their mobile device on the fly – if, for instance, they are walking the grounds and see an issue that needs to be addressed. “Instead of making note and then filling out a paper form at the office, the technician can create a work order on their mobile device, and if appropriate, assign it to themselves, perform the work or repair, enter their labor against the newly created work order, and submit the completed order electronically,” says Smith. “It’s much more efficient, and that capability has been especially useful to our third-shift team.”
EZMaxMobile has also enabled CMU to move to electronic work logs. Previously, all work logs were paper, which made finding data extremely difficult. Now, all that data is kept in Maximo.
“EZMaxMobile had an immediate impact on operations when we implemented, and has continued to bring us benefits every day since,” says Smith.