A CMMS (computerized maintenance management system, GMAO in French) is the software that organizes maintenance at an industrial site: it lists the equipment, schedules preventive work, tracks work orders and spare parts, and keeps the history of every machine. It helps reduce breakdowns and production stoppages, and shows what the maintenance of each piece of equipment costs.
What is a CMMS?
A CMMS brings together in one tool everything the maintenance department needs to know and do: which equipment to maintain, when, by whom, with which parts and at what cost. It replaces spreadsheets, logbooks and paper forms, and makes the history of interventions available to everyone.
CMMS or EAM: what is the difference?
EAM (enterprise asset management) covers the whole life cycle of an asset, from purchase to decommissioning: contracts, warranties, energy, safety, multiple sites. A CMMS focuses on maintenance once the equipment is installed; it is often presented as a part of EAM (IBM, "CMMS vs EAM"). In large multi-site groups, the two converge: TotalEnergies describes an "industrial backbone" covering maintenance, inspection and shutdown campaigns (see below).
The types of maintenance a CMMS organizes
The EN 13306 standard distinguishes in particular (definitions as reported by Travail-Industrie, 03/09/2026):
- corrective maintenance: carried out after a failure is detected, to restore the equipment;
- scheduled preventive maintenance: carried out on a fixed schedule (time, cycles, operating hours), without checking the condition first;
- condition-based preventive maintenance: triggered when a monitored parameter (vibration, temperature, pressure) crosses a threshold;
- predictive maintenance: planned from the trend of a measurement, to estimate when the failure would occur.
A CMMS is first of all what moves a site from corrective to preventive maintenance: it triggers interventions at the right time.
What a CMMS does
The usual functions of a CMMS:
- equipment inventory, with its hierarchy (site, line, machine, component) and documents;
- work requests and work orders, from request to closure, with data entry in the field;
- preventive maintenance plans, by calendar or by meter (operating hours, cycles);
- regulatory inspections (lifting equipment, pressure equipment, electrical systems);
- spare parts inventory, with reservation for a work order and purchase requests;
- cost and KPI tracking by equipment, line or site.
The EN 16271 standard describes the functions to specify in CMMS requirements: it is the basis for comparing offers.
The KPIs to track
- MTBF (mean time between failures): operating time divided by the number of failures. The longer it is, the more reliable the equipment.
- MTTR (mean time to repair): total repair time divided by the number of failures. The shorter it is, the more responsive the maintenance.
- Availability: the share of time the equipment can produce; it is often calculated as MTBF divided by (MTBF + MTTR).
These KPIs are only meaningful if failures and interventions are recorded completely: that is the first condition for a useful CMMS.
On-premise or SaaS?
A CMMS can be installed on the company's servers or used online, by subscription (SaaS). SaaS is faster to deploy and works on mobile; an on-premise installation keeps control over where the data is hosted. For a sensitive site, hosting, reversibility (being able to get your data back when changing tools) and the connection to production systems should be addressed in the requirements.
How much does a CMMS cost?
Many vendors, especially French ones, do not publish their prices and quote on request. Three US vendors display their prices online (in dollars, per user per month, pages read on 04/11/2026):
- MaintainX: free plan (Basic), $20 (Essential, billed annually), $65 (Premium, billed annually), Enterprise on quote;
- UpKeep: $24 (Essential), $55 (Premium), Professional and Enterprise on quote;
- Fiix (Rockwell Automation): free plan with a limited number of users, $45 (Basic), $75 (Professional), Enterprise on quote.
Depending on the project, data migration, configuration, training and connections to the ERP or sensors come on top of the subscription.
How to choose a CMMS
- Start from the problem to solve: planning preventive work, equipping technicians in the field, tracking costs, preparing for an audit.
- Have the tool tested by the people who will use it. TotalEnergies had its future platform evaluated on 28 key processes, including tests run by operations staff.
- Check field use: mobile app, offline mode in areas without network, fast data entry.
- Think about connections: ERP (purchasing, spare parts), supervision and sensors, document management.
- Include safety and contractors: work permits, lockouts, contractor access limited to the information they need.
- Start with a pilot site before rolling out everywhere, around major production shutdowns.
- Write requirements based on the EN 16271 standard, and compare offers on total cost, not just the subscription.
CMMS, predictive maintenance and AI
The CMMS is the memory of maintenance: the history of failures and interventions it builds up is the raw material of predictive maintenance. Connected to sensors, it can trigger a work order when a measurement drifts, without waiting for the failure. AI is starting to find concrete uses: at TotalEnergies, a tool detects duplicate defect reports on the same equipment so that only one intervention is created, and AI suggests groupings to clean up item catalogs, under human validation.
What manufacturers say
At Tech for Industry Show 2026, at Paris Expo Porte de Versailles:
- TotalEnergies, IFS and Accenture presented OneAsset, the platform that is to bring together maintenance, inspection and shutdowns for exploration-production, refining-chemicals and power, across 88 sites in 45 countries and for more than 13,000 users. Their main challenge is not the software but the data: maintenance processes lived in 9 different data models, which made it impossible to compare a KPI from one country to another. Read the article
- Nerya showed that, even on well-equipped sites, the CMMS, production and safety often remain separate, and that the safety of interventions is still managed on paper. According to the speaker, around 80% of maintenance interventions are subcontracted in France, to companies often left out of digital tools. Read the article
The conferences can be watched as replays: From asset management to operational excellence, Maintenance 4.0: intervening quickly, effectively and safely.
2027 exhibitors equipping maintenance
To meet at Tech for Industry Show 2027 (in alphabetical order):
- CARL Software: maintenance and asset management software vendor;
- Nerya: digitalization of maintenance interventions and their safety;
- Probayes: artificial intelligence and predictive analytics;
- SpinalCom: operational digital twin for plants and infrastructure;
- YZAR: 3D digital twins for training, maintenance and intervention preparation.
Frequently asked questions
What does CMMS stand for?
Computerized maintenance management system: software that organizes and records equipment maintenance.
What is the difference between a CMMS and an EAM?
A CMMS manages the maintenance of equipment in service; an EAM manages its whole life cycle, from purchase to decommissioning, and often includes the CMMS.
Are there free CMMS?
Yes, some vendors offer a limited free plan (number of users or features), such as MaintainX or Fiix. They are fine to get started, rarely for a complete industrial site.
Can maintenance be managed in Excel?
A spreadsheet is enough to list equipment and due dates. It does not handle work orders in the field, spare parts linked to interventions, or reliable KPIs over several years.
How much does a CMMS cost?
Published prices range from a free plan to about 75 dollars per user per month among the vendors that display them; many vendors quote on request, and the project (data migration, configuration, connections) comes on top of the subscription.
