The Old Way
In the past, like many organisations, we used a paper-based process for tracking maintenance. Technicians documented repairs in logbooks located at each asset. After each repair, the technician would write the repair summary in the journal. While asset history resided in each logbook, reviewing it was time-consuming and laborious before each repair.
Technicians tended to jump into the repair as they saw it before them without studying the asset history. Overall, the old process was manual, labour-intensive, and inefficient. In addition, staying PM compliant or measuring any maintenance KPIs was challenging.
We used an Excel spreadsheet to track our PMs. The Excel document wasn't 100% accurate, so tracking PMs heavily depended on key individuals' memory. Frustrations like these triggered the search for a better solution.
When kicking off the CMMS project, the team identified five key objectives:
- Eliminate paper records
- Give technicians the ability to search and review an asset's history quickly
- Automate preventive maintenance scheduling
- Improve equipment reliability and reduce downtime
- Implement a system that would facilitate continuous improvement in the future
“We loved the simple layout and user-friendly interface immediately. It also ticked all our boxes in terms of the functionality needed.”
A System that Works for Us
We found several suitable solutions on one of the software comparison sites. We went through lots of demos, but Zoidii stood out immediately in terms of its ease of use and low start-up costs. We loved the simple layout and user-friendly interface immediately.
It also ticked all our boxes in terms of the functionality needed. In particular, we wanted Nested PM functionality to manage overlapping PMs on our presses.
Many CMMS vendors we evaluated had workarounds for managing Nested PMs, but Zoidii was the only vendor with Nested PM functionality that worked well.
The leadership team's biggest concerns were CMMS software user adoption and the culture change, but the technicians and operators embraced the new technology from the get-go.
Some technicians figured out the mobile app themselves with little or no training. Having Daniel assume the role of dedicated solutions architect to project manage the CMMS implementation definitely accelerated the process and made it more successful.
Nine months since going live, the feedback from the factory floor has been extremely positive. We see numerous noticeable improvements over the previous system already:
- We are capturing more information than we did before.
- Technicians are faster at making decisions. They can quickly review work order history to better understand the asset's current condition before starting a repair.
- Work order assignment is more efficient. Technicians can get work order notifications or see the jobs automatically pop up in their queue as they are assigned.
- Scheduling work is much more streamlined as we better understand the work order backlog.
- It's faster and easier to prepare for compliance audits. Previously, the auditors walked from machine to machine to check the paperwork versus the PM schedule. Today, we can quickly pull data from Zoidii to demonstrate preventive maintenance compliance.
- From a quality perspective, nothing falls through the cracks. All work requests from the operations team get logged in the system and get done.
- Having all maintenance resources in one place facilitates better decision-making. For example, Ger can check current work order assignments in the CMMS before assigning new work orders. That way, we are better at evenly distributing the workload across the team.
- The CMMS is improving knowledge sharing across the team. Technicians learn by reviewing work order histories during repairs.
“Overall, the technicians are less reliant on second opinions and are more empowered when doing their work.”
Two features stand out for making a big difference in our work. In the mobile app, technicians can snap pre- and post-repair images of the issue and upload them to the work order.
They can also add comments to the work order as they proceed through the repair giving a chronological history of the steps taken to fix the machine.
Together, it makes it easy for anyone on the team to review the repair. Overall, the technicians are less reliant on second opinions and are more empowered when doing their work.
Ongoing Partnership
While we wanted a solution to help us improve our maintenance, we also wanted a technology partner that would work with us and listen to our feedback. Zoidii is subscription-based, so they are incentivised to continue developing and improving the CMMS for everyone.
We highlighted some improvements in the Zoidii app to make us more efficient, and Zoidii took our feedback on board and implemented many of those changes.
Building Towards Smarter Maintenance
We believe there is always room for improvement. Our goal is to continue to increase equipment availability by being a best-in-class asset management organisation. We have been collecting baseline data since we went live one year ago.
Over the next few months, we want to explore the data in Zoidii more deeply and identify gaps or trends. We will use the data to make informed decisions and improve our work, such as reviewing the repeat issues across our most important assets to identify trends.
We will use the data within Zoidii to optimise preventive maintenance, thus reducing emergency downtime in the future. We also want to use more of the system's available functionality and get more value from it.
Overall, our experience with Zoidii is very positive. Implementing the system has had a significant impact on our business. The team is more efficient in our day-to-day operations through automation and eliminating paper, while Ger has better visibility across the maintenance organisation.
At Tricel, we are on a journey of continuous improvement, and we do not doubt that Zoidii will help us achieve world-class maintenance.
About the Authors
Ger Roche is the maintenance manager at Tricel Killarney, while Daniel Guerin is a manufacturing apprentice on Ger Roche's maintenance team. Daniel took the role of CMMS solutions architect for Tricel's CMMS implementation project.