maintenance spare parts control 1

[jimcobb]

I am working as a consultant to a medium sized manufacturing company. Historically the maintenance of their machinery has been very poor, crude and haphazard. I have been hired to straighten this problem out. I am in search of software that will, at a glance, tell them what their inventory of spare parts is, record dispensation of parts, and tell them when and what to reorder. The size of the data base will not be large. I predict a maximum of 300 various parts. I would like a program that is simple, inexpensive and runs from Windows. Does anyone know of a program that they can recommend? Can anyone tell me where to look for such a thing.
Thanks for your help, JimCobb jcobb@cloud9.net

 

[automatic2]

Microsoft Access. I had used Dbase way back then, with custom input/edit screens. Very simple, very easy.

 

[Drazen]

if you put CMMS on any internet search engine, you'll find virtually hundrends of Computerized Maintenance Systems available for purchase. Some of them are very good, some are not really, but demands for your particular problem are really low, so just browsing through couple of demos will give you an idea of what can you get You can have low budget CMMS at a price of about 2500 $ that gives you basic features of spares inventory management: minimum quantity (reorder) alarm setting, catalog number matching, classification according to technical characteristics, analysis of expenditures, purchasing status follow-up, vendors price comparison, ABC and so on. For me it is not worth spending time in MS Access programming if you are not absolutely devoted programmer (it's more likely that you are maintenance organisation/technology specialist, so it's allways better to spend time in your field).
Access base construction seems like trap to me: you invest a lot of energy and time, achieve something, but miss the point that dedicated software company can give you much, much more at a modest price.

 

[Surfpac]

We use Maximo for inventory control, work orders, etc for all our MRO items.

 

[JOM]

Jim,

Your need, as you've described it, seem to be a question of Stock Control rather than Programmed Maintenance.

You'll find the many producers of Accounting/Book Keeping software for small businesses will have a Stock Control module. Your client's needs won't be any different to those of any other small business that keeps an inventory of parts. Not expensive.

Cheers,
John.