recommend a PM (preventative maintenance) software system?

Ahm no 'spert, but goddamm, you must have one really big small shop, or still have DOS Lotus 1-2-3.

In fact, I think Lotus 123 would suffice. Really, what is PM but just a big goddamm calendar?

And frankly, properly-strategized index cards should suffice. They come in colors, donchaknow.

I"d use green for daily stuff, blue for weekly, pink for monthly, yellow for yearly. Just go through each pile, and check shit off, make notes. One card for each machine in each pile. Have a master sheet with all the explicit dates, if yer into all this super-accountability shit, and need signatures.

If you must, a simple relational database would more than do the job, and would allow infinite tweaking for your particular setup. Access.

In fact, an index-card system would help strategize the database, relationally.

Depends on what you really want to track. I track all the FD gear maintenance, inventory and repairs with a few simple Excel sheets. One sheet per vehicle/pump/air-pack. Items that we have multiples of (hose,air-bottles and the like) all go on individual sheets with 40 per sheet.

Use simple color coding and sheet tags to keep track of tests/maintenance. For instance on the air bottle sheets I enter in the FDID number, serial number, make and type of cylinder, last hydro test, last visual test and last fill date. The last hydro gets compared to todays date and when the date hits 4 years 11 months the cell the hydro date is in turns red, Visual is the same but every year.

When one of the above items is completed you just enter the date of completion and it reverts to the green OK color. That could be changed by making a simple check box for each item.

VERY simple formulas for the above as well.

I'd be leery, but you might find something better than useless.

In general, most multi-thousand dollar database-derived systems can be done better in house with someone who actually understands what you need done and a general purpose database (usually under $1000, or under $2000 if you need a server and a bunch of seats for users, and are not delving in the (IMHO) painful-but-free solutions) - unless you have a spreadsheet-oriented guy like Steve in-house who prefers to do it with spreadsheets. Open Office's version may get past the painful part while still being free, but I have not done anything with it, being invested in and having experience with a non-free database, that I therefore find easier/faster to use. There are tradeoffs either way; I'm on the database - preferring end of the spectrum, but am not doing exactly this at the moment. Even though you are obviously looking to avoid "doing database stuff", canned database solutions nearly always are either solving someone else's problem, or nobody's problem, and have holes or excess detail in various places due to not fitting your actual problem.

Be very wary of things which you subscribe to or buy that keep your data hostage if you decide to use something else - once you have pile of data in, if you can't get it out it's a huge disincentive to use something better, cheaper, or more appropriate to your use.

In my personal opinion, any PM tracking system should be able to track failures as well as "tell you when to change part X" - so you can use any actual failures to either modify your time to maintain, or your parts to stock in case of failure.

I"ve set up a couple of PM systems on a number of plants that I was chief engineer at. The one that I've had the best results with is MEX

You can download a working copy to give it a trial. It can be as simple or as sophisticated a system as you want it to be.I usually set it up with only about three levels of equipment. ( department,machine,component). It has a selection of add ons like asset tracking and stores control but that may not be needed. Give it a try. its pretty well priced as well>

======= One task that you need to do before making a choice is to list all the tasks that you want the software to do.

For example do you want it to print out a simple list of the items to be done for the coming week, or separate job tickets/work orders for each item, etc. and how much time do you expect to spend administering the system, e.g. "closing the loop" by entering the information from the completed work orders showing exactly what parts were changed, services performed, etc.

Also how ready is your shop? Do you have every machine identified with a unique asset number painted on the front of the machine so the services can be tracked? [The green press in the northeast corner won't cut it] Do you have the manufacturers' suggested maintenance schedules? Who is going to input the data to get the program started?

One suggestion is to install Hobbs hour meters on the electrical equipment to track actual usage. This can be a real eye opener, particularly if you are a growing shop and about to spend big bucks for more machines. If you have any "wise guys" in the shop, versions are available that require minimum amp draw to activate the hour meter avoiding counting idling/warm-up time as running. Installing both total on time and load hour meters can be helpful on any expensive or bottleneck machines. for some examples see

Be reminded that in most cases the cost the prep the shop, e.g. identify and number the machines, collect the manuals and other materials, and input the data far exceeds the cost of the computer program and even the computer.

Unka' George [George McDuffee]

------------------------------------------- He that will not apply new remedies, must expect new evils: for Time is the greatest innovator: and if Time, of course, alter things to the worse, and wisdom and counsel shall not alter them to the better, what shall be the end?

Francis Bacon (1561-1626), English philosopher, essayist, statesman. Essays, "Of Innovations" (1597-1625).

Magic words: Google (preventive maintenance freeware) Example :

Slightly more expensive words: Google (preventive maintenance shareware)

Also Download of the Day, Giveaway of the Day etc.

For commercial software don't overlook Microsoft Works which is cheap (eBay etc) and often is enough.

Cribmaster software has a nice PM module and you get a complete tool crib management solution as well. It may be a bit pricey but you can get a free demo...

Doug wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@i6g2000yqj.googlegro ups.com:

Once you select a PM database be "absolutely anal" about nomenclature. I used to work for a small software company that provided a WO/PM system for hospitals...Biomed and Facilities. One of my jobs was to convert their old databases to our structure. One customer had 12 different spellings of "Bell & Gossett"...and 4 spellings for "pump" When you go to sort things by manufacturer, location, device description, and such, it makes a difference. Also use unique identification numbers for devices. Too many people think a serial number is great...until you run into several different devices with the same 3 or 4 digit number...or no serial number.

Ken