CMMS boost for proactive maintenance
12 Dec 2018
Installing a new CMMS at Wavin’s UK site proved its worth with a boost to preventative maintenance. Now the system is being extended to its European outlets too...
Dutch firm Wavin is a leading supplier of plastic systems and solutions for the water and wastewater sectors as well as for plant heating and cooling systems.
Among the 40 manufacturing sites it operates in 25 countries is one in Doncaster from where the firm produces hot and cold plastic push-fit pipe and connector systems for markets in the UK and Europe.
With an active order book and a need to coordinate carefully staff, inventory and work schedules as well as monitoring performance of people and processes, the company sought advice on finding a system that would improve efficiency.
Its goal was a computerised maintenance management system (CMMS) that would capture essential data and provide the means for greater cooperation, faster working, fewer delays and less downtime.
Shopping list
Specific needs included: management of the company’s asset register of planned and reactive work; scheduling jobs to engineers; managing toolroom and moulding form changes within production schedules; and reporting on engineering team performance.
The company turned to SSG Insight in order to find a suitable system. SSG recommended its hosted Agility asset and maintenance solution as the best suited to the client’s needs.
Agility was able to fulfil the required tasks and also deal with the network of 70 external contractors.
Agility was also installed at Wavin’s Chippenham site and more recently has extended to the Netherlands
Mandatory fields for completion comments and fault codes speedily identified recurring faults and problems.
Maintenance planner Paul Colley, who allocates planned and reactive work for the engineering department’s maintenance and toolroom teams explained the beenfits.
“We use over 200 fault codes, which are prefiltered depending on the work type,so we really get to what’s causing breakdowns and problems.
“Agility then shows us areas for improvement, better ways to spend our proactive time.”
The BARCO Plant Master Manufacturing Execution System (MES) is used by Wavin and displayed on screens to communicate the status of each production cell. The same colour coding is used within Agility to connect any breakdown, repair or form change work being done by the Engineers. This enables the Production and Engineering teams to have the same view and understanding of activity throughout the site.
Making time count
Production manager Mike Burnitt explains: “Agility allows us all to give the priorities focus and helps the two departments work together collaboratively.”
Agility also provides visibility for the health of 1,000 Wavin assets, ensuring routine checks and health and safety requirements are met.
The 70 contractors’ insurance and liability certificates are also stored and available for regular checks. System administrator Sam Shipley said this ensured “everything is in the right place, all our information is reliable and visible”.
Equally important it can capture the time spent on jobs and by extension, says engineering manager Adi Clifford, “which assets are demanding too much reactive work, so we’re really able to see what’s costing us as a business.”
One result of this information is improvement in spotting trouble before it occurs – the toolroom now runs at between 80-85% proactive maintenance.
The success of the Doncaster pilot has had positive repercussions. Agility was also installed at Wavin’s Chippenham site and recently to the Netherlands, with plans to extend it to bases in Germany and Italy.
