A Former Senior Living CMMS Administrator’s Perspective on the Realities of Asset Management

When I first started working part time at Royal Oaks Lifecare Community back in 2017, I never intended for it to become a full-time career. Fast forward seven years, and I was running both the warehouse and transportation department as their Ancillary Services Manager. 

I knew that when I left, I would do one of two things: either retire or come join the team at Brightly Software. I chose the latter because during my time at Royal Oaks, I led the implementation and training for TheWorxHub CMMS. And that helped me see just how much of a gamechanger it could be for teams like mine. 

Implementing a CMMS isn’t something you master overnight. It’s a journey, and I always tell people getting started to take a “crawl, walk, run” approach. When we first implemented TheWorxHub, it was all about getting the basics right – work orders. That meant training our techs to enter work order data correctly, holding managers accountable for reviewing the data, and making sure we weren’t just dumping in "garbage" that would lead to bad reporting. 

Once we had clean work order data, we could actually start running useful reports. We could see which assets were causing the most issues, which departments were overloaded, and where we needed to focus our attention. That’s when the real possibilities started to show up. 

My biggest “Aha” moment  

Once my team’s work order flows were operating smoothly, I felt like we had everything figured out and were using our CMMS to the best of its ability. Then I met some other CMMS experts and teams who were partnering with Brightly as well.  

During some of those conversations, I had my biggest "aha" moment when I realized that work orders are incredibly important, but asset management is where the real money is. 

Work orders tell you what’s broken, but asset management tells you why it’s broken, how often it’s breaking, and whether it’s worth fixing at all. Take HVAC units, for example. Once we started tracking repairs alongside asset data, we could see patterns. We had some older units that were costing us thousands of dollars a year in refrigerant and repairs. When we ran the numbers, it was clear we were throwing good money after bad. Without that asset data, we would’ve just kept patching them up, wasting money year after year. 

Asset management also helped us with resource leveling. For example, when we ran reports showing our PM schedules, we realized 90% of our outdoor preventive maintenance was being scheduled for the middle of June – in Arizona. That meant our techs were working on roofs when it was upwards of 110 degrees outside.  

Once we saw that, we started to adjust the schedules for outdoor PMs to spring and fall. It seems obvious now, but without the data, we never would’ve caught it. 

Building a reliable database 

When I realized the importance of asset management, the first thing I did was tell my team, “this is going to be our new focus.” But the only real way to get our assets in order initially was to invest in a facility condition assessment (FCA).  

It can seem like a daunting task and a big expense upfront, but the benefits greatly outweigh the costs in the long run. I always recommend investing in an FCA if you can. It gives you a clear picture of what you have, what condition it’s in, and what it’s going to cost to maintain or replace. 

But even without an FCA, you can start small. Every time you buy a new piece of equipment – whether it’s a refrigerator, an air handler, or a water heater – you can make sure to add it to your CMMS properly. Enter the make, model, serial number, and warranty information. That way you can track maintenance histories, see how much you’re investing to keep the asset running, and use the data to justify more budget from management. Then, when you retire an asset, make sure it’s marked as inactive.  

It might all sound tedious, but over time, you can build a clean, reliable asset database that will save you countless headaches and save your team countless hours tracking down information they need to do their job.  

Building a case for your capital plan 

The shift to asset management didn’t just make maintenance easier at Royal Oaks – it made budgeting easier too. When you can show leadership how much you’re spending on repairs versus replacements, it’s a lot easier to justify capital expenses.  

Instead of saying, "We need a new boiler," you can say, "This boiler has needed six repairs this year, costing us $10,000, and it’s projected to fail within the next 12 months." That’s a conversation finance teams can get behind. 

Looking back, I wish we had made this transition sooner. A CMMS is an incredible tool for managing work orders, but that’s just the starting point. The real value comes when you stop seeing it as just a way to respond to maintenance requests and start using it to take control of your assets.  

In senior living, where every system and piece of equipment impacts the well-being of residents, that’s a game-changer. So, if you’re using a CMMS in a senior living community, ask yourself: Are you just fixing things faster, or are you managing your assets smarter? Because one keeps you running in circles, and the other helps you move forward.