march2021 - 35

spend time to review all aspects
of the organization and standardization of information up front to
ensure success of the product. The
for-hire fleet integrated Cetaris
Fleet Management product in 2019.

He confirms updates were made as
needed to Reason for Repair VMRS
codes to ensure historical information would match the new system.

" Having an
experienced
partner can
make the
difference
between having
VMRS and
using VMRS. "

" That way we could continue our
benchmarking process of process
improvements, " Jeffress notes.

Bob Hausler, vice president,
marketing and technology
for Dossier Systems

" We took all the parts data and sat
down and reviewed every VMRS
code we used and worked diligently
with TMC staff member Jack Poster
to ensure we had everything
coded correctly, " Jeffress says.

Additionally, the fleet reviewed
warranty agreements and set
up a comprehensive process
in the new CMMS, as well as
making adjustments to ensure
data could be shared with the
accounting department to help
better track maintenance costs.
While implementation of this various functionality can be beneficial,
creating " paralysis by analysis " by
taking on too much information
at the start can have a negative
impact. It is best to not take on too
much up front, advises Bob Nolan,
fleet and facility manager for Hagey
Coach & Transportation Services.
" What I found through the years
is so many people try and bite
off everything all at once when
they go into the new system, "
Nolan says. " What happens is
they start doing it, and they get
overwhelmed and want to stop. "
The Pennsylvania-based school
bus and bus charter fleet has been
using the Dossier CMMS software
for more than 20 years, first
implementing the product when it
was known as Arsenault. The fleet
conducts all maintenance in-house.
" Take it one step at a time, get all
of your unit information in, get all
of your PMs in, then get all of your
permits and licensing in, " Nolan
suggests. " Don't even think about
parts or anything like that until you
have gotten that pertinent information in first. Then, start looking
at doing parts management. "

PARTS MANAGEMENT

Cetaris' Bedard shares insights on
the upfront work necessary for

setting up parts records and the
critical benefits it provides the fleet
after the initial setup is complete.
" You have to clean up parts
records, merging parts from multiple records into single records
by reducing duplicates and by
making sure descriptions of part
numbers are correct, " Bedard
says. " That is a project on its own,
setting up all of the metadata
around the part. Make sure you
have things like warranty [and]
chronicity, [and] that you set up
all of the data that is important
to running your operation. "
Once in place, parts inventory management integration
can help streamline the process for service work.
" If you code the part when you
set the part up in your inventory,
if you put all that VMRS information on there, then when you use
[the part] on the work order, [the
information] is already there and
the tech doesn't have to fill it in, "
Hausler says. " But that requires
that you did the diligence to set it
all up right. If you have thousands
of parts, like most fleets do, that
is no easy task. It is a running
work versus back-end benefit. "

Training of employees is critical
to ensure widespread adoption
and full utilization of a CMMS.
This means when the product is
first integrated into the shop, all
employees must be trained.
Dave Walters, senior solutions
engineer for Trimble, says fleets
who integrate the company's TMT
Fleet Maintenance software receive
access to a tool kit for newly-hired
employees learning the system,
covering basic functionality such
as logging into a workstation
and creating a repair order.
" We have created a whole library of
short three- to five-minute videos
that customers can access to provide that training, " Walters notes.

On-site training has been the
best method to answer any
questions. But due to the pandemic, more remote onboarding
and training has occurred.
" We offer everything from pre-implementation design and consulting through implementation and
post-startup reviews on an annual
or requested basis, " Hausler
advises. " Given the COVID-19 environment, we are delivering some
services on a virtual/online basis. "

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" Any new technology comes along
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March 2021 | FleetMaintenance.com

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march2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of march2021