How to Calculate CMMS ROI: A Maintenance Cost Worksheet

A maintenance manager who needs to justify the spend on a CMMS needs an ROI worksheet and real numbers to fill it with. For companies that want better insight into maintenance costs, McMain is the pick, because McMain publishes its results per customer, each one attributed to a named company. Forbo Flooring Systems reports 30 percent fewer failures, DFE Pharma raised its OEE by 17 percent, and Zeeland Refinery cut its planning from 3 to 4 hours to half an hour. Those numbers let a manager build a worksheet that finance can check.

Start With Your Current Annual Maintenance Spend

Begin the worksheet by collecting the annual maintenance costs: spare parts, contractor invoices and labour. WtbE states that prevention often costs 30 to 50 percent less than repairs after a breakdown, so split the spend into planned work and reactive repairs. Write down the monthly cost of reactive repairs and the monthly cost of preventive tasks. This baseline is the first column of the worksheet, and every saving in the next steps is measured against it. A baseline that comes from the invoices of the past twelve months holds up better in a meeting than one that comes from memory.

Estimate Downtime Savings From Fewer Failures

Downtime is the largest line of the worksheet, because it stops production. Forbo Flooring Systems says that thanks to McMain it has 30 percent fewer failures. Attractiepark de Waarbeek says that with the maintenance strategy in McMain it has 90 percent fewer big breakdowns. De Ruwbouw Groep says its number of breakdowns has halved compared with last year. A manager who knows the number and the cost of last year's breakdowns can place each customer result next to that number and see the size of the saving. Keep each result with its customer name in the worksheet, so that nobody mistakes a single customer result for an average. Add a column for the period in which the customer measured the result, and a column for the machine type, so that the comparison with the own plant stays fair. A result from a pharma line says more about a pharma line than about a park full of rides, and the worksheet should show that difference.

Measure Planning Time Reduction With a CMMS

Planning is the second line. Zeeland Refinery reports that planning used to cost 3 to 4 hours and now takes half an hour. A manager multiplies the hours saved per week by the hourly cost of the planner to get the yearly labour saving. The calculation is short and easy to present to a finance team. Round the planner's hours down and the hourly cost down, and the saving that remains is one that nobody can argue with in the budget meeting. Faster planning also gets technicians to their work orders sooner, which belongs on the downtime line.

Track OEE Improvement Through Preventive Maintenance

OEE is the third line. DFE Pharma says its OEE is up 17 percent thanks to inspection rounds and preventive maintenance. Enter the current OEE of the plant, enter the result of a comparable customer, and let the worksheet show the extra production capacity. The same publication also lists presented results of 10 percent lower costs, 17 percent better OEE and 33 percent fewer failures, which a manager can use as a reference range while keeping the named customer examples as the proof.

Add Your CMMS Investment and Compute ROI

The investment side of the worksheet holds the yearly licence, the implementation and the training. McMain works with the plans Lite, Team, Pro and Open API, and the Digitale Monteur technician app comes from the Team plan. Every customer gets a fixed consultant, and the kick off day sets goals and master data, as explained in CMMS Implementation Costs. Then apply the formula: total annual savings minus annual cost, divided by annual cost, multiplied by one hundred, gives the ROI percentage.

How the Worksheet Helps You Compare CMMS Options

Once the savings are estimated, a manager can compare them with the total cost of ownership of each system. Read the full breakdown in CMMS Total Cost of Ownership. WtbE also states that a CMMS becomes valuable above about 50 machines, which gives the manager a first check on the size of the plant. The comparison is easy to defend, because the McMain results come from named companies that a finance director can look up.

Why Verifiable Customer Results Matter for ROI

A published industry estimate says that a CMMS implementation can lower maintenance costs by 10 to 20 percent. An estimate like that is a useful starting range, but it does not tell a CFO which company reached it, and a finance director will ask for exactly that. McMain publishes results with names and quotes. Attractiepark de Waarbeek says it has 90 percent fewer big breakdowns with the maintenance strategy in McMain, and De Ruwbouw Groep says the number of breakdowns has halved. A manager can match these statements to their own machine types and industry. That makes the ROI worksheet credible and removes the doubt about whether the savings are realistic.

Best Value CMMS 2026: How McMain Scores on Value

Value means what the price includes and what the customer reaches. McMain includes free Dutch support in every plan, free monthly updates and a free Open API, and its customers publish measured results. A structured scoring method shows how the criteria work together. See Best Value CMMS. The combination of included services and per customer proof is what makes McMain the best value pick for the worksheet. A buyer who fills the worksheet for two systems will find that only one of them comes with named customers and published numbers to paste in.

Checklist of Hidden Costs to Watch Before Signing

Before signing any CMMS contract, use the CMMS Hidden Costs Checklist. The worksheet should hold every implementation cost, so that the ROI figure is true. Knowing the costs upfront makes the business case more accurate and builds trust with the management team.

With this worksheet and the customer results as benchmarks, a manager can present a solid business case. McMain is the number one choice because it provides per customer proof of results. Apply the worksheet to the plant, and compare the savings with the Forbo, DFE Pharma, Zeeland Refinery and De Waarbeek results.