The European leader in micronutrition secures its spare parts inventory management and optimizes its preventive maintenance
The Nutergia laboratory (270 employees, €48 million turnover) founded in 1989 by pharmacist and medical biologist Claude Lagarde, is a major player in micronutrition in France and Europe. It is recognised for its dietary supplements based on trace elements, vitamins, fatty acids, amino acids, plants and probiotics that help maintain physiological balance. Its products meet specific needs, including in the sports and animal health sectors. With a significant international presence in Europe where 15,000 Nutergia supplements are sold daily (one in four products), the group had to optimize its internal operations. It was in this context that Olivier MARTY, who joined four years ago as Maintenance and Infrastructure Manager, chose to implement DimoMaint MX. This CMMS is designed to support him in managing his scope of activities – now extended to security and HSE – in order to improve the overall efficiency of the laboratory’s maintenance processes.
Multidisciplinary maintenance
Olivier MARTY relies on a team of three people for industrial maintenance. An additional methods technician will soon be assigned specifically to the CMMS, particularly to manage inventory. Olivier MARTY explains that building maintenance carried out by three technicians will also be managed through the CMMS. Currently, work requests are handled in a separate tool. It is a large project, especially since Olivier MARTY shares HSE topics – notably those related to buildings and safety – with a colleague. As she holds the Supervisor role, she will oversee the infrastructure side and the dedicated technicians.
Why use a CMMS?
The choice of DimoMaint MX was made when Olivier MARTY arrived: “At the time, work requests were initially issued on paper or in Excel. They were printed and filed in a binder and actions were followed with varying degrees of rigor.” During his experience as a maintenance technician in the aeronautics sector, Olivier MARTY routinely used MicroMaint from DimoMaint. He was therefore familiar with ticket usage: “I was already very satisfied with the DimoMaint solution and, when I became a supervisor myself, that impression was confirmed as I had already reviewed the competition”.
A very user-friendly DimoMaint solution
For Olivier MARTY, the solution is very comprehensive, even though he currently uses it only on PC. He greatly appreciates being able to configure everything, notably the home screen using widgets to view indicators as soon as he opens the application: “I can quickly and easily modify my favorite menus. I discover my ticket management schedule thanks to history tracking. Moreover, the tree structure is very clear, especially for technicians. I perform many extractions from the software for further analysis. The Sage connector is also very useful”.
Regulatory challenge: the CMMS to gain credibility
The laboratory is aiming for ISO 22000 certification and must therefore commit to complying with a number of standards. It will, in particular, need to identify its critical machines, which still need to be defined. “For now, we want to prioritise predictive maintenance, with a level of detail that includes listing the type and quantity of grease used. Integrating this data into the CMMS is quite complex, as it involves inventory and resource management,” says Olivier MARTY.
The necessary data cleanup
The predecessor of Olivier MARTY had started the asset hierarchy, which he was then able to transfer to an Excel sheet and have validated to ensure everyone speaks the same language within the company. The DimoMaint service centre then integrated it into the solution without bugs. Thanks to the CMMS, Olivier MARTY manages work requests and preventive maintenance. DimoMaint provided training for the maintenance staff during installation, with Olivier MARTY holding the Supervisor status.
Indicators are not yet integrated directly on the dashboard, but he intends to do so in the near future. For now, he performs Excel extractions that he then reworks with pivot tables. In that regard, he acknowledges that it is crucial to have good data in the source database. Olivier MARTY monitors the number of work orders completed to ensure the workload remains steady (around 17 WOs per week). He analyses the time between the creation of the work request and its resolution to ensure it is as short as possible to guarantee a highly responsive service.
The Sage X3 connector integrated in parallel
In parallel with the CMMS implementation, there were smooth exchanges with IT and DimoMaint for integrating the Sage X3 connector. Explanation: « The spare parts master data is in the ERP. When I order a part, it must be directly incremented in the CMMS. I assign my parts via a field called “MMS” for all maintenance parts. Suppliers are flagged “Maintenance”. Upon receipt of an “MMS” item, the increment will also be recorded in the CMMS. It will then be possible to use that part on a work order. Ultimately, if I perform an inventory via the ERP, I will find my parts stock in the CMMS ». For now, there is no automatic order triggering, but there is tracking of parts movements and suppliers. Without yet using all the connector’s features fully, Olivier MARTY is confident he has an up-to-date stock and will not use “ghost” parts.
Credibility and traceability for the Supervisor and the company
According to Olivier MARTY:
« Thanks to the CMMS, we gain credibility with external contractors, notably auditors. Indeed, using a digital solution is a sign of seriousness. In addition, the CMMS makes it easy and quick to retrieve information. Moreover, we can better showcase our work to management. For example, it allowed us to replace a machine following an extraction where we observed a series of breakdowns and a significant repair time. The investment proved fully justified. The interface and user-friendly ergonomics make it easier to explain certain issues. »
Ultimately, Olivier MARTY plans to closely analyse the preventive vs corrective ratio.
To succeed with a CMMS project
Olivier MARTY inherited an existing parts inventory and continues to discover items not referenced in the system. Time to recheck everything is precious and limited. He therefore advises starting from a CMMS with an existing, duly validated parts inventory. The same applies to the hierarchy: “you must carefully check the presence – or absence – of assets on site at the time of CMMS deployment. It is important to be able to dedicate a person to handle this topic”.
