CMMS Helps Gather Information on Motor Performance
June 8, 2015
In order to make quick, cost-effective decisions on whether to repair or replace motors and drives, maintenance and engineering managers need the best information. But finding accurate, up-to-date information can be difficult. When considering motors and drives, it is important to recognize that both of these components are part of larger systems. Within the structure of a CMMS, motors and drives are classified as children of parent assets — a larger piece of equipment, such as an air handler.
Industry best practices recommend that a CMMS contain data about major maintainable equipment, such as chillers, boilers, cooling towers and air handling units, but often it does not contain detailed data about child assets. And facility condition assessments or asset inventories do not collect such detailed data.
If a CMMS does contain motor data, it is commonly limited to the motor-asset identification number, a short description identifying the piece of equipment as a motor, horsepower, the load motor serves, and the manufacturer.
Similarly, data about VFDs is not commonly found in a CMMS. In cases where a CMMS contains VFD data, it is typically limited to an asset-identification number and a short description identifying the piece of equipment as a VFD.
But in a growing number of cases, it makes sense for managers to require more data to make repair-or-replace decisions. In such cases, information collected from the motor or drive nameplate can be populated into the CMMS, and managers can put it to work.
In such cases, it is important to use consistent naming conventions for both asset identification numbers and asset names. Each motor tracked should have a unique number. Asset names should be consistent for the same type of equipment.
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