The verdict in three sentences
In a food plant, every point of line availability gained is worth more than a CMMS's annual budget. The choice between a SaaS CMMS at 50 to 120 EUR per user per month and a custom tool between 30,000 and 70,000 EUR excl. VAT depends on your IFS or BRC requirements, your PLCs and your number of technicians. Moving from 78 % to 85 % availability cuts unplanned stops by nearly a third, with a 4-month roll-out.
What one hour of line downtime really costs
In a 220-employee plant in the Lille area, a packing line typically produces 3,000 to 6,000 units per hour. An unplanned stop combines lost margin, idle labour, fresh products to downgrade and sometimes service penalties from retailers, who require service levels of 98 % and above.
Most plants capped at 78 % availability share the same symptoms: preventive maintenance kept in a spreadsheet and often postponed, breakdown history held in technicians' memory, spare parts that cannot be found in the store, and paper work reports that are hard to present in an IFS Food or BRCGS audit.
| Item per hour of downtime (2026 order of magnitude) | Packing line | Cooking or process line |
|---|---|---|
| Lost gross margin | 2,500 to 4,500 EUR | 4,000 to 8,000 EUR |
| Idle labour | 300 to 500 EUR | 400 to 700 EUR |
| Downgraded or destroyed products | 200 to 1,500 EUR | 1,000 to 5,000 EUR |
| Cleaning and restart | 150 to 400 EUR | 500 to 1,200 EUR |
| Possible customer penalties | 0 to 2,000 EUR | 0 to 3,000 EUR |
| Estimated total cost | 3,150 to 8,900 EUR | 5,900 to 17,900 EUR |
SaaS or custom CMMS: the comparison
SaaS CMMS products on the market cover preventive maintenance, work orders and spare parts well. Custom software wins when maintenance must link to quality traceability (cleaning after intervention, foreign bodies, food-grade lubricants), read PLC counters, or adapt screens for technicians working with gloves in cold areas.
| Criterion | SaaS CMMS | Kolonell custom CMMS |
|---|---|---|
| Initial cost | 5,000 to 15,000 EUR excl. VAT setup | 30,000 to 70,000 EUR excl. VAT |
| Recurring cost (25 users) | 15,000 to 36,000 EUR excl. VAT per year | 4,000 to 8,000 EUR excl. VAT per year |
| IFS or BRC traceability after intervention | generic forms | built-in hygiene checklists and quality sign-off |
| PLC counters and IoT sensors | paid connectors | OPC UA or MQTT reading included |
| Shop-floor ergonomics | standard | large buttons, rugged tablet, offline mode |
| 5-year total cost | 80,000 to 195,000 EUR excl. VAT | 50,000 to 110,000 EUR excl. VAT |
IoT sensors (vibration, temperature, motor current) cost about 200 EUR per machine, gateway included from 30 machines. They trigger condition-based interventions before failure on critical equipment: conveyor motors, pumps, refrigeration compressors.
Expected gains after 12 months
| Indicator | Before CMMS | After 12 months |
|---|---|---|
| Line availability | 78 % | 84 to 87 % |
| Unplanned stops per month | 14 h per line | 8 to 10 h per line |
| Share of preventive maintenance completed | 55 % | 90 % |
| Mean time to repair (MTTR) | 2 h 10 | 1 h 20 |
| Critical spare part stock-outs | 6 per quarter | 1 per quarter |
| Preparing an IFS maintenance audit | 3 days | half a day |
Roll-out follows a 4-month plan: equipment inventory and criticality over 4 weeks, development and preventive plan setup over 8 weeks, sensor installation on critical machines and training of the 3 shifts in 4 weeks.
Mini case study
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Sophie, maintenance manager of a 220-employee food plant near Lille, runs 5 lines totalling 70 hours of unplanned downtime per month. At an estimated average cost of 5,000 EUR per hour, that is 350,000 EUR per month. A custom CMMS at 55,000 EUR excl. VAT, plus 40 IoT sensors at 200 EUR or 8,000 EUR, targets a 30 % reduction in stops: 21 hours saved, or 105,000 EUR per month. Even counting only half of that gain, the 63,000 EUR excl. VAT investment is covered in under 2 months of stabilised operation.
FAQ
Does the CMMS work without network in cold areas?
Yes, the tablet app works offline and syncs work orders as soon as it is back in coverage. No data is lost, even after 8 hours without network.
Can we reuse our existing maintenance plans?
Yes, spreadsheet plans are imported and cleaned during scoping. Count 2 to 3 weeks for 300 to 500 pieces of equipment.
Does the CMMS really help with an IFS or BRC audit?
It logs every intervention, the related cleaning and the quality sign-off before restart. Auditors get an equipment's history in under 2 minutes.
Do all machines need sensors?
No, start with the 10 to 20 % most critical equipment. At 200 EUR per machine, 40 sensors cost 8,000 EUR.
What is the annual maintenance budget for the CMMS?
Count 8 to 12 % of the project per year, 4,400 to 6,600 EUR excl. VAT for a 55,000 EUR excl. VAT CMMS, hosting included.
Let's scope your project. Send us your number of lines, equipment and technicians, and your quality standard: we will price a CMMS between 30,000 and 70,000 EUR excl. VAT, delivered in 4 months. Detailed quote within 48 h. WhatsApp +221 77 596 93 33.
Mohamed Bah
Fondateur, Kolonell
Passionate about digital and entrepreneurship in Africa, Mohamed has been helping Sénégalese businesses with their digital transformation since 2020. Founder of Kolonell, he believes every SME deserves a professional and accessible online présence.
