Achieving control effective asset maintenance
Published: 24 August, 2023
The ability to have a clear view of all assets and maintenance to drive effective management and control is still a huge challenge. PWE takes a look at how Wienerberger has achieved this with the support of the Agility CMMS solution from SSG Insight.
The pursuit of complete control and efficient asset maintenance remains a major challenge for many industries. However, Wienerberger has found a solution to this predicament through the support of the Agility CMMS solution from SSG Insight. In this editorial, we delve into Wienerberger’s journey with Agility, highlighting the transformative power of this technology in driving effective maintenance management.
Ali Ben Henda, the Continuous Improvement Manager at Wienerberger, eloquently encapsulated the significance of Agility: “If I had to describe using Agility in a nutshell, for me, it is pivotal that all our data is in one place and that we have visibility of the reports...” This singular feature has proven to be a game-changer for the company, providing them with a unified platform to manage their assets and generate actionable reports.
SSG Insight, a prominent player in the CMMS realm, has always been committed to supporting its customers in achieving control over assets and maintenance to enable effective maintenance management. Its Agility solution has evolved over the years to cater to the evolving demands and technological advancements of its extensive client base, ranging from SMEs to massive global enterprises.
Wienerberger, a long-term user of Agility, has harnessed the power of this CMMS to achieve unprecedented control over its assets. By leveraging targeted maintenance practices, the company has gained better control over its maintenance team’s activities and time management. Additionally, the comprehensive reporting capabilities offered by Agility have vastly improved decision-making processes.
Back in 2016, Wienerberger’s team faced the ever-increasing challenge of how to manage its maintenance and assets more effectively. Ben Henda, explained: “Before Agility, we had no clear picture of what was happening across our 14 sites, and we didn’t have a ‘one source of truth’ when it came to managing assets. Maintenance was delivered on a case-by-case basis and not collated across our 14 manufacturing operations. Agility was particularly attractive to us as it standardized the way we were doing things, allowing us to make data-driven decisions on our maintenance team’s timetable.”
With the introduction of Agility, Wienerberger experienced significant improvements. The solution standardised maintenance practices, empowering them to make informed decisions based on data-driven insights and enhancing productivity across all 14 manufacturing operations.
The success of Agility at Wienerberger is evident from the statistics: 7500 assets listed, 4055 PPMs (Preventative Planned Maintenance), and over 320 user accounts, 70% of which have embraced Agility Mobile. Ali Ben Henda continued to explain: “Once we introduced Agility, we were able to start gathering our data in a more consistent and cohesive way and we were able to better manage our asset maintenance timetable. “Agility is designed for many different businesses across lots of different sectors however, it is not rigid, and the company didn’t need to change lots of its processes to fit Agility, Agility was and is flexible enough to meet with our specific requirements.
“I can see everything from the Work Order List to the Equipment Structure, to Job Analysis (completion, open, etc.), to Labour Utilisation, Priority Codes, Shift Logs, Checklists, and more. The way Agility has pulled all this information together for us and centralised it is now vital to our business and makes life so much easier when it comes to reporting.”
He continues to highlight that to simplify its maintenance procedures, the company embraced Agility’s checklists for all Preventative Planned Maintenance tasks, while introducing mobile phones empowered its teams to access crucial information on the go, significantly helping real-time job completions with comments and photographs. Admin tasks were also no longer an issue, with realistic timescales as to how quickly jobs are being completed.
Ben Henda adds that the company’s drive for continuous improvement led it to integrate a Criticality Factor based on the Failure Mode, Effects, and Critical Analysis (FMECA) matrix, following PIP+ guidance. Additionally, the company harnessed QR codes using Functional LOCation (FLOC) numbers and seamlessly integrated Meerkat Continuous Monitoring sensors through a custom API, elevating the capabilities of the system to meet its unique demands.
For Ben Henda, Agility’s greatest asset lies in its pivotal role as a unified data repository, offering unparalleled visibility through comprehensive reports, including maintenance time control, job completion by job type, outstanding work orders by priority and by overdue timescale, jobs raised, jobs by craft, and of course maintenance against the company’s KPIs. He highlights that “it’s all there in visual dashboards that I can easily share with others so that we can all understand what’s going on.”
Ben Henda commented that throughout this transformative journey, the support of the SSG Insight team was instrumental. The culture of innovation and constant exploration of new technologies resonated deeply with the company: “Their regular visits to our operations, witnessing Agility in action and understanding our unique methodologies, showcased a true partnership focused on maximising our software utilisation and adapting it to our future needs.” Notably, he explained that the responsiveness of the support team offering timely assistance whenever required. Sharing support responses across teams further promoted a unified and informed approach to challenges.
He continued that its relationship with the SSG Insight team is really strong: “We work closely with our account manager, but we also know the team in product, support, the tech consultants, and many others, as well.”
In addition to the support, Ben Henda said that his company has found tremendous value in the training and monthly webinars offered by SSG Insight. These resources have illuminated various aspects of the software, enriching it use and fostering a strong sense of teamwork across different sites.
Ali Ben Henda concluded by stating that as the company treads further on its Agility journey, the company envisioned a future of possibilities:
“We’re working with our Account Manager and having some great conversations about the art of the possible in terms of connecting through the API, taking our internal systems, and connecting them to Agility, and what this could mean. “With Agility, we have better control over our assets, more targeted maintenance, better management of the maintenance team and their time, and more effective reporting.”
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