Marine Electrical Engineering: What is a PMS Software?

Planned maintenance system deals with planning, scheduling and performing of all the important machinery on board a ship. PMS software is deployed to each and every ship in order to carry out the ship's operations in an efficient way. Read more to find out what PMS software is all about.

Introduction

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According to the ISM code, all the planned maintenance system operations should be carried out as per their schedule. This will not only ensure efficient running of the machinery but would also help in preventing any kind of mishap due to poor maintenance. In order to ensure that all the maintenance works are carried out on time, PMS software is used.

Since the time, computers on board ships have become a common thing, several software applications have been developed to reduce the work load of navigation officers and marine engineers. One such software is planned maintenance software, also known as the PMS software. Since the time, PMS software has been deployed on ship, administrating and executing maintenance work has really become " piece of cake". Prior to PMS software, mariners had to keep a note of the running hours and the next scheduled date for machinery maintenance. This involved a lot of paper work and accumulation of PMS forms, often leading to disarray of forms and missed schedules .

PMS software has changed the way PMS data is being stored and executed. Let's take a look at what exactly this software consists of!

How does it look like?

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As you know, all types of ships have a huge number of machinery on them, especially in the ship's engine room. All these machinery requires to be overhauled at regular intervals as suggested by the manufacturers or classification society rules. But since the staff of the ship keeps changing regularly, it is imperative to have all the records stored in a meticulous manner.And this is when PMS software becomes extremely helpful.

• A PMS software for a ship is fabricated on the basis of the number and type of machinery the ship has. The basic software remains the same for every ship, what changes are only the components.
• Every machinery is assigned a job card which consists of all the details about the machinery.Each job card contains three main elements.
• A set of job routines are enumerated with maintenance instruction for each and every task.
• Job schedule for routine jobs, number of running hours, hours to go for the next maintenance job and the date on which the next maintenance is scheduled is precisely mentioned.
• History of the jobs that are already done with details and completion and defect reports is properly shown.

Benefits

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PMS software not only makes the job easier but provides some additional benefits too. The main ones are enumerated below:

• Gives an accurate figure of the maintenance schedule nearing or overdue, thus allowing the user to plan rest of his work.
• Enables the user to submit the completion and defect report, which will automatically reschedule the next maintenance date. If linked by an internet service, the report can be directly sent to the company or the concerned society.
• A meter measures the running hours and gives an approximate due date even for the second or third maintenance from the present time. The meter doesn't count the next schedule on the basis of last completion report but on the running hours at that particular time.
• Comments and inquiries can be noted against each job carried out by more than one user.
• There can be a separate defect reporting module, which directly sends the information to the concerned department.
• A data transfer system enables the transfer of planned maintenance database to an external storage device.
• A separate section for the required spare parts is also provided. The requisition is directly send to the concerned department