Plant Services CMMS/EAM Review methodology

The detailed information presented at is the result of a 181-question survey probing in detail some 450 attributes of vendor companies and their packages, covering 30 aspects. Vendors that complete the survey are required to demonstrate their performance for every question under the watchful eyes of Contributing Editor David Berger, P.Eng. When vendors' self-evaluations don't align with Berger's criteria, he corrects the survey responses accordingly.

The six-hour, in-person reviews guarantee consistent interpretation of each survey question and ensure that the same criteria are applied to every vendor. Berger examines responses that cannot not be audited (number of sites, pricing, annual sales, etc.) for reasonability in the context of his considerable experience.

Participating vendors pay a fee of $4,000 (plus travel and related expenses, where applicable) to partially defray the costs of performing and Web-hosting the Plant Services Review.

One of our most experienced contributing editors, Berger is a Certified Management Consultant (CMC) registered in Ontario; a principal of Western Management Consultants, Toronto; and an adjunct professor at York University in Toronto, where he has taught operations management for the MBA program for 16 years.

From 1994 to 1998, he was vice president, projects and process engineering, operations and technology at banking conglomerate CIBC, responsible for the fundamental design and redesign of business processes and information technology. Before that, he held several positions in industry with Maple Leaf Foods (formerly Canada Packers Inc.) and Ferranti-Packard Electronics Ltd.

Berger has conducted numerous maintenance audits; helped senior managements develop maintenance strategies involving maintenance, operations, and engineering; assisted companies in implementing process improvement initiatives with significant results; and led a variety of IT projects, from developing a detailed specification to package selection and implementation, for CMMS/EAM, PdM, RCM and supply chain software. He was recently awarded the Sergio Guy Memorial Award in recognition of his significant contribution to the maintenance and asset management profession.

You can use the data in our CMMS/EAM Software Review with confidence to help refine your requirements, find packages that best fulfill them and compare them feature-to-feature with assurance that they were judged and are represented fairly and consistently.

--Paul Studebaker, CMRP, Editor in Chief