Mobile maintenance supports 30% production increase for Charles Wells Brewery

The company already brews more than 300,000 gallons of beer and lager every week, packaged in kegs, casks, bottles and cans, and uses Shire Systems’ FrontLine maintenance management software throughout production and packaging. However, the transition to 24/7 manufacturing puts more pressure on minimising down-time, whether for planned or unplanned maintenance. The new hand-held PDA-based remote system will help minimise downtime issues, and, says the company, improve productivity by allowing engineers on the floor to communicating directly with the software, thus eliminating admin and paperwork. The first phase has been completed with the installation of FrontLine’s HandiWorks and HandiParts modules alongside the existing modules for maintenance, stock control, purchasing and finance. During the initial trial of the PDAs, Charles Wells’ engineering administrator Graham Walker calculated an increase in productivity of 6%, and a 10% increase in the reporting of unplanned maintenance tasks, which were identified and completed by the engineers during routine work. “With the new hand-helds, communication to and from the engineering teams is faster and I get almost immediate confirmation that a task is finished, together with additional comments from the engineer,” says Walker. “By helping to log every routine and unplanned maintenance task, FrontLine builds a comprehensive service and breakdown history for each machine which helps to identify which plant is the most reliable and to target those where maintenance needs to be prioritised.” He also points to management reports, which allow maintenance schedules and productivity to be monitored and improved.