Kevin Berry knows first-hand the benefits of using computerized fleet-maintenance programs. “We have to track more than 1700 pieces of equipment,” says the maintenance manager at Gore Bay, Ont.-based Manitoulin Transport. “I would hate to even contemplate trying to do that manually.” Lots of shops use computers in one capacity or another, but it’s hard to know about the wide range of ways maintenance managers can use computers to save time and energy.

“Just think about all the different types of safety inspections a shop has to contend with: PMCVIs, dump inspections, B-620 tank inspections, HM-183 inspections . the list goes on and on,” Berry says. “The last thing I want is one of my tractors or trailers sitting at an inspection station with an expired safety.”

Like a high-tech string around your finger, a good fleet maintenance management program can remind you when inspections are due for each piece of equipment, and the extent to which those inspections can be co-ordinated with their PM schedules. They can help you determine and analyze your cost-per-mile, schedule mechanics, manage your warranties-the sky’s the limit. Berry uses a program from Calgary-based Richer Systems Group-“Enrich”-but several other companies produce good shop software-TMW Systems, TMT Software, Innovative Computing, Arsenault and Associates, and Ron Turley and Associates come to mind.

But can these types of programs make you a better manager? Without a doubt, Berry told an audience at the recent Canadian Fleet Maintenance Seminar in Toronto. Here are a few areas to consider:

o Preventative Maintenance. Good software lets you easily customize different PM levels and intervals. “We can set intervals based on the piece of equipment, what it does, and where it runs,” Berry says. “We can tell the system to monitor calendar time, mileage, hours driven, or the fuel burned, and it will flag necessary PM actions by whatever ‘trigger’ we consider most appropriate.”

Tracking your PMs also can help you quickly and accurately predict the weekly or monthly workload for your shop staff. Whatever you choose, versatility is the key. “We use 14 different service intervals for all our different types of equipment, and, yes, we spent a lot of time customizing the system to our specific needs. But trying to achieve this kind of tracking in a manual system would be out of the question.”

o Productivity. Berry, who manages about 85 service technicians, uses his system to track productivity and efficiency. He defines productivity as the amount of billable time a mechanic logs each a day, and efficiency as actual time spent on a job versus the “book” time. “Our software has a timekeeping module that lets payroll and attendance accounting be automatically downloaded from the inputted shop-floor activity to our payroll department,” he says. “It’s fast and accurate.”

Berry also points out that his system can similarly track repair costs at third-party vendors, and provide comparisons with what it would cost to perform the same activity in-house with his own mechanics.

o Warranty Actions. “This is an area where a good software system can pay back large amounts of money,” he notes. “A lot of fleets assume they’re doing a good job tracking this area when they’re really not. We track warranty activity by VMRS [Vehicle Maintenance Reporting Standards] codes, and have developed a number of different warranty groups, into which all our vehicles and their components are put, such as: one-year/100,000 miles; five-year/500,000 miles; seven-year/750,000 miles; extended engine warranty; extended frame coverage; aftermarket warranty; replacement parts warranty.

“Our system creates a warranty claim when the work order is opened and work is defined to it, then tracks that operation from conception to collection. When a warranty collection is made, the software automatically credits the cost-per-mile on that vehicle. We can also get reports showing how much warranty activity pertained to a given group of vehicles, which is handy when your fleet is preparing to tender for more equipment.”

o Inventory. How many dollars do you have tied up in inventory that you don’t need, can’t use, or is totally obsolete? “When we went fully computerized, we lowered our inventory values company-wide by 45% and increased our annual inventory turns by about 75%,” says Berry. “Also keep in mind the ability to later generate reports on what brands of parts last how long, on which types of vehicle. That can be an eye-opener!”

Another consideration is the ability to accommodate bar codes for your parts. When Manitoulin switched to bar-code identifiers, the company cut its annual inventory shrinkage by about 75%.

o Cost Per Mile. This is the most vital cost to track, according to Berry. A good software package will do the calculations for you, and allow other custom-generated comparisons so you can, for example, compare the performance of different vehicle specs within your fleet.

o Fuel Mileage. “We use our system to track down to the tenth of a mile per gallon,” Berry says. “It’s still a fair bit of work to enter all the individual transactions, but once you know total gallons and total mileage, you can track by categories of equipment and get a better handle on where savings are possible.”

o Compatibility. The shop is so vital to a fleet’s overall success that its computer system can’t work in isolation from the rest of the company. Networking the system is a lot of work, but it’s a feature you’ll need. Being able to seamlessly exchange data with accounts payable, payroll, and dispatch avoids needless repetition in data entry.

“For example, we enter each of our invoices to capture the cost for our cost-per-mile tracking,” says Berry. “It would be silly for accounts payable to take that paperwork and have to enter the same numbers so they could generate the cheque to pay those parts suppliers or whomever. Going the other direction, we get daily downloads from dispatch on the mileage that our vehicles have gone, which saves us a lot of unnecessary physical yard checks to determine what mileage each unit has logged.”

Notwithstanding all the benefits Berry enjoys from his software system, he’s the first to acknowledge that getting to where he is now hasn’t been quick or easy. “Start by phoning some fleets that are similar to yours and find out who’s using what and how they like it,” he says. “Then be prepared to make some changes: there will always be some mismatches, and you’ll have to either alter your business procedures or try to re-program parts of the software.”

Getting all the basic raw data in and establishing the ongoing processes to keep the necessary information flowing in can be a real headache, Berry admits.

“Just when you think you’re ‘there,’ something will crop up and you’ll have to make more changes,” he says. “But ultimately you’ll have created a system that will give you benefits for years to come-and that payback makes it all worthwhile.”