Money from maintenance

Colours specialist Crown Paints (now owned by the Danish Hempel group); industrial plastics manufacturer Thermotech; and fresh produce packer Huntapac: three very different operations, but with one key aspect in common. All have bought into enterprise asset management (EAM) software, and each tells a compelling story not just of resulting cost-cutting achievements, but also, variously, of significant efficiency, quality and even customer service improvements. What's more, every one of them demonstrates that the world has moved on from the old days of CMMS (computerised maintenance management systems). Although the common currency remains managing engineering activities, technicians and materials, the reach of these implementations is considerably greater. Notably, they bring a whole new angle to business intelligence, operational flexibility and integration – and one that's grounded in real-time shopfloor analytics and control. ERP software conglomerate Infor describes the new reality of EAM as critical to manufacturers' sustainability, competitiveness and CSR (corporate social responsibility). Why? Rod Ellsworth, who heads up EAM for the organisation, says that at one level it's all about using intelligence from maintenance (equipment status, trends, impact on production schedules) to reveal priorities for improving production quality and uptime, but also visualising routes to ramping up the business' bottom line, at another. "EAM offers some important new dimensions," he explains. "Manufacturers are now using the software to look at optimising assets for availability, production capacity, machine life extension and energy consumption. So they're using it to feed into opex and capex decisions via condition-based maintenance and operations data, but also energy reporting and even compliance." For Ellsworth, the central point is that enlightened manufacturers have cottoned on to the fact that EAM – especially EAM that's integrated with core ERP – helps them automatically recognise interdependent functions. And those can also include HR (appropriate skills or accreditations), quality and waste, as well as strategic aspects, such as machine lifecycle issues – when to repair and when to decommission and replace. His views are broadly shared by competitor Epicor's James Norwood, senior VP for product marketing, who believes that the global recession forced different thinking. With customers buying less, he argues, many manufacturers have had to find new ways to make ends meet – not least by cancelling investment in the shopfloor infrastructure. However, that has put greater emphasis on scheduled maintenance: ensuring that machines don't break, because they can't be replaced; planning for those times when they do fail; and linking maintenance activities more robustly into production schedules and QA. "Manufacturing SMEs might not be thinking about EAM as a strategy, but they sure are thinking about preventive and also joined-up maintenance as something they have to do, because they are running leaner and can't afford to let customer service drop," he says. "So maintenance management that used to be done on a spreadsheet or third party system, outside the main ERP solution, is now front and centre of day-to-day operations, with EAM as a module of ERP." We get the gist, but how does this translate into real business benefit? Crown Paints' story goes a long way towards providing an explanation. Barry Shackleton, engineering manager at Crown's Hull paints and wood stains plant, describes his implementation of InfoServe365's web-based AssetManager production reporting system, initially on its no 3 line, as effectively enabling leaner and smarter production. Two years ago, says Shackleton, the engineering department wanted to install a data collection system on each of the plant's filling lines, to identify problem areas and hence help to prioritise remedial work more efficiently. "If the line stopped, the operator would simply choose from a selection of reasons on a touchscreen. The point is, we couldn't rely on operators to know the causes, but we could ask them to tell us the symptoms. Then we could take care of the rest. We might see that 80% of the problems are caused by a palletiser, so we could focus on that." However, just as the pilot was due to begin, Crown's management launched a downtime reduction initiative, taking in all processes, not just maintenance, to drive plant-wide continuous improvement. Shackleton explains that initial proposals were for clipboards mounted at the end of each line, with operators charged to record reasons for stoppages – until his intervention. "The paper-based approach was madness, so we presented our work on an EAM system and offered to expand its remit." That meant increasing the operators' pick list of potential issues from a planned eight to around 40 that plant managers agreed would give useful direction for continuous improvement. Not trivial, but nesting them in a clear self-selection hierarchy, he says, has been very successful – avoiding confusion while also maintaining consistency of problem descriptions. Further, configuring the system such that operators can't restart the line without entering a cause ensured its adoption. "So we installed AssetManager ourselves in September last year on one line and, with help from InfoServe365, started collecting machine operations data electronically," says Shackleton. And he adds that the team very quickly started seeing plant problems in a different light. He cites, for instance, machine changeover times for different tin sizes and/or colours – with the system revealing significant differences between shifts. "In that case, it wasn't about chastising a team that takes 35 minutes, when someone else takes 20. It was about finding out what's going on and establishing best practice, in terms of the process but also the equipment they need and its location," he explains. Other examples include excessive downtime on palletisers and problems with the flow of paint tins from depalletisers. Among causes of the former were high level safety switches on the machine guards failing to make contact, but being invisible to operators – who kept having to return to them, when the machine wouldn't restart. "We brought the switches down so they can now see them light up and get that right first time." As for the paint can problem, studies revealed too few operators serving too many lines at peak production. Shackleton agrees that, with hindsight, some issues may seem obvious. But operations managers know that in large-scale production plants, it's a case of not being able to see the problems for the finger pointing. The value of this kind of system is that, with the data collected – and he concedes that Crown uses InfoServe365 remote services for some of the data analysis – a new clarity dawns. And while he can't provide financial data, Shackleton insists that hidden productive capacity has been unlocked. Vegetables processing and packing firm Huntapac's experiences, using a different system – Mainsaver from Spidex – are remarkably similar. Health and safety manager Colin Sigsworth explains that the imperative to install the system came after an audit by one of its main supermarket customers, which criticised maintenance management. "So we started looking at electronic systems as a means of improving efficiency," he explains, "but many of the solutions would have required delegating someone to administer them. So we selected Mainsaver, because anybody could access the system and enter fault and cause information, or update jobs, as they go. With our own engineers and external contractors on site – and with 850 pieces of equipment in the pack house, ranging from conveyors to washers, pumps and fridges – that was important." Touchscreen kiosks are dotted around the site. If an operator notifies the system of a breakdown (like Crown, from a pick list of problems), the maintenance team is immediately alerted and can prioritise the job according to its implications for production, health and safety, and so on. Sigsworth confirms that the system has brought a new structure to Huntapac's engineering department and facilitated a move to preventive maintenance (PM), instead of the previous reactive approach. However, from a business perspective, he says, it's also brought better information, available immediately to everyone. And that, in turn, has meant significantly improved auditable performance and greatly reduced downtime. Sigsworth says the savings have been massive. "Twelve months ago, we were experiencing two or three breakdowns a week at about £300 per hour – and we still had to fulfil customer orders when the machines restarted. Now, breakdowns are very rare. We've been running this system for six months and it's already paid for itself." All well and good, and plainly transformational. However, if you're seeking even greater inspiration, look no further than US-based plastics injection moulding firm Thermotech, which this year implemented EAM as part of an ERP upgrade, from Vista to Epicor 9, at two of its manufacturing sites – Hopkins (Minnesota) and Queretaro (Mexico). It's goal: not only bolstering PM but also providing critical asset data right across the business. Matt Mahmood, chief operating officer at Thermotech, makes the point that, with some 2,70 machines worldwide and several Fortune 500 customers, Thermotech needs to keep tight tabs on its assets at several levels. "When we schedule production, we're limited on time if we're to produce to customer expectations," he says. "So we need to keep on top of PM and track the ongoing status of our assets. But we also need to track the cost of repairs and maintenance, and depreciation. "For example, if a machine starts to eat into our scheduled process time, then we need to understand the implications and whether we're talking about minor maintenance, some process issues, overhaul or replacement. For us, that's the value of EAM. Before this system, we couldn't see, on a real-time basis, how good our situation was. Each plant was semi-autonomous so, even with manual processes, there was very little oversight at the corporate level." Hence the importance of integrating with ERP and plant control systems. For Thermotech, making EAM work at multiple levels has been achieved by linking local machine data (uptime, yield, material consumption, machine hours per job, etc), via its PLC control systems, with Epicor 9. "That tells us if the line performed to schedule, but it also gives us information by job for margin and profitability, as well as variances. So we can make decision using real-time information." And it's working. For example, Mahmood says that Thermotech's most recent quarterly analysis revealed that some jobs the firm had believed were profitable, in fact were not. "We used the system to look for common denominators and found that, in some cases, although maintenance on our injection moulding machines is scheduled according to machine hours and parts produced, our rules were not being followed. Technicians were assuming that, because machines weren't showing symptoms, they should let production run. They didn't realise the impact of downtime at the P&L level." How does Mahmood characterise the benefits of this level of EAM? "I can see every machine's status, scheduled maintenance and production data. So at one level, we use EAM to ensure that planners don't schedule jobs until the next PM is completed – and there are penalties for those that don't follow the rules. At another level, we can see trends, which enable us to reduce maintenance costs and cut unplanned downtime. But at the corporate level, our EAM software tracks assets in terms of the P&L, giving us a real-time window on replacement schedules and capex justification." As for making this stick, he advises a focus on accountability and process auditing: "First, you must hold people accountable – maintenance has to be part of plant people's day-to-day workload, while at the same time addressing the concerns of the finance team. And secondly, there must be tight rules on who can change schedules and who can't. For example, if PM on an assembly is going to impact a key customer order that needs parts tomorrow, then maybe you can override it. But the audit is there to check whether the impact is real or imagined. So before anyone can override anything, they must get written permission that details the cost impact for us and the customer if a machine is not up in the next 24 hours."