Have You Outgrown Your Maintenance Spreadsheet?
Ten quick questions about how your team runs maintenance on spreadsheets today. You get an honest verdict, the places the spreadsheet is breaking and what to fix first. If a spreadsheet still fits, we will tell you that too.
Built by Andromeda Systems Incorporated, the reliability engineering team behind OptiAM.
Where a Maintenance Spreadsheet Breaks Down
Spreadsheets are a fine place to start. They stop working when more people, more sites and more assets depend on the same file. Here is what changes when you move maintenance into a CMMS.
| Maintenance Spreadsheet | OptiAM | |
|---|---|---|
| Work orders | Typed into a row, emailed or called in. Easy to lose track of what is open. | Every request becomes a tracked work order that is assigned, routed and closed. |
| PM scheduling | Due dates sit in a column until someone checks them. | PMs generate their own work orders on a calendar, runtime or usage trigger. |
| At the machine | Printed lists, or a walk back to the shop to check. | Work orders, procedures and manuals on the tech’s phone, even offline. |
| Asset history | Spread across tabs, files and inboxes. | Every job, reading and part tied to the asset, one click away. |
| Multiple users and sites | Copies drift apart. No record of who changed what. | One live system with logins, roles and every site in the same place. |
| Spare parts | A separate sheet with counts that go stale. | Parts tied to work orders, with reorder points on critical spares. |
| Reporting | Hours of copying and pasting each month. | Live dashboards for downtime, PM completion and open work. |
About the Spreadsheet Check
Do I need a CMMS, or is Excel enough?
If one person owns the file, you run a single site and PMs get done on time, Excel is probably enough for now. Once more people edit it, a second site comes online, or PMs start slipping, a CMMS pays for itself in time saved. The check above tells you which side of that line you are on.
When should a maintenance team switch from spreadsheets to a CMMS?
Usually when one of these shows up: more than three people editing the file, a second site, PMs getting missed, or an audit that takes days to answer. Any one of them means the spreadsheet is costing you time. Two or more usually means it is costing you downtime too. The check at the top of this page tells you which ones apply to you.
Is a spreadsheet good enough for tracking maintenance?
For a small, single-site team with one person who owns the file, often yes. Spreadsheets break down with more people, more sites and more assets, because they cannot trigger work, cannot work at the machine without a signal, and keep no history of who changed what.
How is my score calculated?
Each of the ten questions has four answers, scored from 0 to 3. A higher score means more strain on the spreadsheet. Your total is converted to a score out of 100 and grouped into five areas: size and spread, getting work done, one version of the truth, parts and stores, and reporting up.
Do I have to give my email to see the result?
No. Your score, verdict and top fixes appear on screen as soon as you finish. The form only shows up afterward, if you want a copy of your results emailed to you.
What happens to my answers?
We record answers anonymously to see how teams like yours answer and to improve the tool. Nothing is tied to your name or company unless you send the form. If you send the form, we email you a copy of your results and share them with the OptiAM team, so any follow-up starts from where you actually are.
