Development of vehicle computerized maintenance management system

Abstract

Vehicle maintenance operations at the Central Mechanical Workshops, Ministry of Works and Transport involves manual handling, which hinders adequate planning and effective maintenance performance leading to increased vehicle maintenance downtime. This creates the need for the design and implementation of an effective and efficient Computerized Maintenance Management System to improve vehicle maintenance information taken from the large number of vehicles at the Central Mechanical Workshops. The study aimed at designing and implementing a CMMS prototype for vehicles at the CMW, with the purpose of running maintenance operations efficiently and increase vehicle performance. The CMMS was created using XAMPP platform. MySQL was used to create the database, PHP and Apache were used for the design of the interface. The platform was used to design work orders, inspection and verification browsers basing on the key performance indicators and the requirements specified by the respondents. The key performance indicators and requirements included mean time between failures and manage corrective maintenance, track work orders and spare parts, track labor and fuel costs and manage inventory. Data collection involved conducting interviews with CMW staff using questionnaires and from existing vehicle logbooks. The information obtained was captured in the CMMS platform and saved in the PHP database. The prototype was then tested and was proven to be successful. The results indicated that with implementation of CMMS, the number of vehicle breakdowns can be reduced from an average of 4 times to 3 times per quarter (3 months). From the results of the KPIs (MTBF, MTTR), it was observed that the CMW is capable of achieving maintenance savings of about 500,000 UGX per quarter for each vehicle (achieve savings of savings of 20%). In addition, MTTR in 2019, from Jan- March was 27, April-June 16, July-Sept 20 and Oct-Dec 20, as the number of repairs and total repair time remained constant before and after implementation of XAMPP. Basing on the results, the CMMS can be scaled up and implemented at the Ministry of Works and Transport to ensure vehicle information is secured and easily retrievable. It was concluded that the implementation of CMMS improved the vehicle maintenance practices by increasing the availability of information that can be easily utilized by CMW staff for better planning and scheduling of maintenance activities. It also developed the database for swift and easy retrieval of vehicle maintenance related information.