What is the Difference Between EAM and CMMS?

Consider this metaphor. A CMMS was originally kind of like heartbeat monitoring equipment. It keeps an eye on the “pulse” of the factory’s assets, alerting maintenance technicians when they need to fix something, or perform preventive maintenance. Once a facility is too large for a CMMS to adequately cover every asset, an EAM becomes the right choice because of the sheer amount of factors that need to be tracked.

In this comparison, the traditional EAM would be like a computer system that tracks every vital sign, medication, and body fluctuation of a patient from their entry to the hospital to the moment they leave. So while a CMMS gives you a good idea of how your assets are doing right this moment and help you plan for the future, an EAM tracks the entire lifecycle of every piece of equipment you own, from the second it’s purchased to the moment it becomes scrap.

In addition to being larger in scope, EAM systems have additional features outside of preventive maintenance, including financial audits, lockout tagout procedures, and in-depth maintenance records and histories for decommissioned equipment.

Today, EAM and CMMS solutions share many of the same features and sometimes overlap in terms of capabilities. However, it’s important to understand the differences that remain, the advantages and disadvantages of each, and which solution is best for your company.

A Historical Perspective

It’s helpful to look at how both EAM and CMMS came into existence, along with the development of other related technologies, such as enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions, network computing, and the internet to better understand where we are today. Some of these developments happened one after another, while others occurred simultaneously in different industries.

Origins and Early Components of a CMMS

The origins of CMMS date all the way back to the 1960s. During that time, large companies that had to operate many assets were relying on a purely manual system to keep track of the four major operational areas that would eventually form the foundation of a CMMS.

These operational areas included: work orders, preventive maintenance, inventory control, and equipment history. Let’s take a look at each area and its origins.

Work Orders

Originally, work orders were simply paper forms that allowed supervisors to assign jobs to technicians. They were printed and passed out each morning, and as the work was completed, team members would jot down basic data on a time card or the work order itself. Clerks then needed to type the written information into a computer if they had access, which could then generate reports. However, not all businesses used computers, and often work orders remained on paper, which were easily lost or misplaced.

Preventive Maintenance

In the beginning, preventive maintenance requests were written down on paper forms, which were then manually reviewed and scheduled for the day. Supervisors needed to keep track of the highest priority items by shuffling through the files, and assistants may have organized them by period or order received.

Inventory Control

When this process was completed manually using a Cardex system, employees needed to record information such as part number, description, and supplier for every part held in inventory. Keeping track of when those parts ran low and reordering was incredibly time and labor-intensive.

Equipment History

This fourth area manually tracked data for each asset, which included identifying name and number, as well as description and location. Labor and material costs were all recorded manually.

The first improvements moved these companies to punch-cards and mainframe computer systems. These systems were extremely expensive, and only the largest businesses that operated many assets invested in them.

In this initial system, information and data were often collected, recorded, and re-entered multiple times by technicians, clerks, and other employees. This frequently resulted in inaccuracy, errors, and incomplete records over time. In addition, it was extremely difficult and inefficient to find and use relevant information.

Two decades later, companies were still using the infant-versions of CMMS as essentially automated storage of this data. Reports were difficult to run and often confusing to understand. No business analysis capabilities existed at this point. In fact, simply accessing the collected information in any useful manner was nearly impossible.

CMMS, Microcomputing, and Networks

The slow move from large, mainframe systems to the relatively less expensive mini-computers in the 1980s encouraged CMMS providers to beef up their functionality. CMMS solutions began implementing more user-friendly data entry and added better reporting capabilities.

However, technology still limited CMMS usage and application to a single department or one plant facility. Usually, individual CMMS vendors offered products that addressed something very specific, such as manufacturing plant equipment or highway infrastructure.

Ten years later, size and cost of computers continued to drop, while networking systems blossomed in complexity and reach. These developments encouraged CMMS companies to address security concerns, improve communication and workflow functionality, and broaden their planning and scheduling features.

CMMS, the Web, and Cloud-Computing

At the turn of the century, internet and web-based technologies were rapidly developing. As a result, most of today’s CMMS solutions are web-based.

As more daily business operations in all industries move their computing to cloud-based solutions, access and manipulation of data increases exponentially. Not only can a company’s employees enter and retrieve the information needed to do their jobs, but also outside partners and suppliers can also contribute to and access critical data.

Throughout its evolution, CMMS has continued to expand its functionality to include more sophisticated preventive maintenance, asset and inventory management, multi-site support, purchasing, and MRO management. Today, machine learning and artificial intelligence developments are beginning to expand predictive maintenance features.

Even with all the added functionality, the core CMMS solution is still based on efficiently executing work orders. Many of the best solutions on the market today are extremely effective and streamlined to help small, medium and large organizations better manage their maintenance operations.

In addition, most CMMS systems can be integrated with other software packages that provide the additional services that companies might need, including scheduling and accounting.

Origins of EAM

EAM finds its earliest roots about a decade after the seeds were planted for CMMS solutions. During the mid-1970s, manufacturing companies were struggling with problems on their production lines. They could see that things like equipment breakdowns and inventory problems contributed to many inefficiencies and lost production. Manufacturing management knew that computer technology had the capability to provide solutions and help them become more competitive.

The first solution for manufacturing companies came in the form of improved materials planning. Vendors began offering materials resource planning (MRP) solutions in the 1980s, which promised to help companies see what inventory materials they needed in the next day, week, or month, and then acquire them when the production lines were ready.

Soon, MRPs expanded to manufacturing resource planning (MRP II), which took a broader perspective towards boosting production efficiency overall. At around the same time, Toyota introduced the concept of just-in-time inventory, where parts and materials could be received immediately before they were needed to reduce or eliminate storage of inventory.

After another decade, MRP II blossomed to become enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, which promised to bring together different departments into a centralized location. ERP systems were designed to tie inventory management directly to the requirements of the production lines and focused on ensuring that the supply chain delivered materials to the production line as efficiently as possible.