The Swiss company is putting in place a preventive maintenance and cost control strategy
Centralised maintenance management
The activity employs 7 people for the various Swiss entities. This shared resource enables greater flexibility and skills optimisation. A manager leads this team in collaboration with the advisers from each company concerned.
Initial aims: reducing curative maintenance and cost control
Sometimes the technicians, who did not have a monitoring tool, would perform the same jobs within a few days of each other. Furthermore, preventive maintenance and routine cleaning (filtration) were not recorded. As a result, the activity was focused on curative maintenance instead of anticipating preventive maintenance.
This chronic situation had to be resolved, while remaining responsive and flexible — in particular via mobility — the aim being to control changes in the cost of maintenance on equipment and organise technicians’ work in a more streamlined manner. This necessarily involved implementing a monitoring tool to prevent these recurrent problems, based on precise information.
A need for a user-friendly and scalable CMMS
“DIMO Maint was chosen following close observation of the CMMS solutions on the market. Then, a supplier using this solution in addition to the same ERP that we use convinced us of its relevance and effectiveness in light of our needs,” says David Lanz, Industrial Sourcing Manager at Orolux.
The DIMO Maint MX solution fulfilled the company’s requirement for simplicity, user-friendliness and scalability. Management in Cloud mode, which was initially perceived to be limiting, ultimately enables teams to focus on their field of expertise while using an effective solution whose major advantage is mobility. Technicians also have reliable information on the ground to perform the tasks necessary without administrative constraints.
To each their operational scope!
For Mr Lanz, ‘the in-house ERP must be limited to routine management within the limits of its purview. We chose a slightly restricted use of MX because the ordering and stock management processes are managed by the ERP. However, the data is fed back to DIMO Maint MX via flat files.”
According to him, suitable software must fulfil a purpose within a specific field, in Orolux’s case, scheduling and maintenance. “It’s difficult to have a tool that does everything which is also scalable. This is why we are now choosing specific tools that add to the ERP.”
Better monitoring, optimised cost control and unified provision of information
The expected benefits relate mainly to the improvement of machine monitoring from an SAV perspective, warranties and work. The tool provides a clear and concise history of each machine and the work carried out. Implementation of the CMMS solution will enable a precise evaluation of the maintenance costs for each machine, as well as provide an overview of the distribution of resources, failures, etc.
Finally, Orolux will have a time management tool and indicators to gauge all the information mentioned above. The solution will integrate in the company IS and the method of operation to interact with employees and the ERP while facilitating access to information for everyone.
The maintenance of the future must offer a cross-functional vision
For D. Lanz: “The maintenance of the future must meld into the company’s activity by offering optimal access to the information relating to equipment and production schedules. It must facilitate access to the resources available to improve the flow of work and minimise failures.”
To summarise, the prerequisites of an effective maintenance management solution are as follows: speed and effectiveness in curative work and proactivity for preventive work across specific panel of specialisms. And all this must go through user-friendly and mobile interfaces that enable access to information in real time.
