MAINPLANT

TENANCEPRACTICAL ADVICE from manufacturing experts on solving critical issues.

Optimizing the life span and

value of physical plant assets

22ADVICEOF PEERPIECES

NOTES FROMTHE FIELD

VOLUME 4

Plant maintenance plays a key role in

minimizing disruption to production schedules

and ensuring quality output. Many businesses

seek to introduce preventative maintenance to

increase machine uptime and minimize lifecycle

costs. Real time links to shop floor equipment

present opportunities for condition monitoring

and predictive maintenance.

PLANT MAINTENANCEManufacturers need the ability to make

proactive decisions that prevent equipment

breakdown scenarios and maximize staff

productivity. End-to-end maintenance, repair,

and overhaul (MRO ) support can enable control

over work orders, resource allocation, spare

parts management, and all costs.

WHAT IS “NOTES FROM THE FIELD”?

To help manufacturers with some of the

key industry issues Columbus has asked the

Manufacturing Community “What advice

would you give your peers to optimize the

lifespan and value of physical plant assets?”

Experts from our manufacturing customers, our

employees, analysts, consultants and partners

from all over the globe have fed back either

directly to Columbus or via our social media

channels to give their “Notes from the Field.”

We received hundreds of responses which were

distilled into this document which we hope you

will find useful and interesting.

“ Effi cient and timely maintenance of plant assets is crucial to the overall fi nancial performance of a manufacturing facility. Downtime caused by lack of ability to maintain and repair impact bottom line profi tability instantly. Plant Maintenance integrated with ERP provides the ability to perform real-time management of plant assets, thereby increasing the overall life span of equipment/machinery and prolonging the useful life and value. “

NIELS SKJOLDAGER, United States

Setup and maintain a preventive

maintenance program. Where

possible, have the OEM execute

the service of the asset, and

hold them accountable for

performance.

CHRISTOPHER JOHNSTON, United States I have seen in manufacturers

with an effi cient maintenance

department and eff ective

Preventative Maintenance

program improve delivery times

and production quality which

not only increased customer

satisfaction but also improved

employee satisfaction.

DEBORAH VERMILLION, United States

“ Proper maintenance of plant equipment can signifi cantly reduce the overall operating cost, while boosting the productivity of the plant. Although many management personnel often view plant maintenance as an expense, a more positive approach in looking at it is to view maintenance works as a profi t center. The key to this approach lies in a new perspective of proactive maintenance approach.“

KURT HATLEVIK, Norway

NOTES FROMTHE FIELD

Q:What advice would you give your peers to optimize the lifespan and value of physical plant assets?

Printing equipment manufacturedby Mueller Martini, a Columbus customer

Set required maintenance dates

in the system. I would recommend

using this with an asset quality

test once a month. The best way

to improve life span is to keep the

machine healthy!

DAVID ARONSON, United States

“ Having an integrated plant maintenance solution gives you the ability to predict when maintenance needs to take place and manage the impact on the business with down time. With the added benefi t of managing stock and labour to minimise the impact of down time is a great benefi t. Many businesses run separate plant maintenance solutions which means it is diffi cult to manage the impact on the business. “

MARTIN BURDEN, United Kingdom

It is important to have a

solution that handles the

preventive maintenance of

your plant machines. And that

the maintenance downtime is

incorporated in the production

capacity.

OLAV BÆKKEN NATVIK, Norway

Implement production equipment maintenance system.

ANONYMOUS, Latvia

Link directly to your production

orders to capture quantities to

drive your PM program.

DEBORAH VERMILLION, United States

“ Make sure you set up a Planned Maintenance routine and KEEP TO IT. Just cleaning a piece of kit once a week can make a big diff erence to its life span. Also get the operators of the machinery to buy into it, show them what happens and how much it costs when it goes wrong. ”

STUART MACKAY, United Kingdom

If we talk about our factory

machines and workers! Keep it

simple, start up small and built up

when ready/time.

KEN JARLFORT, Denmark

Provide timely updates and

optimize the spare parts

warehouse.

EDVINAS T, Lithuania

“ MRO supplies must be treated as inventory and managed with the same importance as raw materials and fi nished items. Too often maintenance supplies are an after-thought and the result is poorly maintained equipment, missed orders, frustrated staff , expensive repair parts hidden and off the books, over-ordering of parts, and machine down time. ”

JEFF POWELL, United States

By using an Enterprise Asset

Management system you would

be able to plan preventative

maintenance for your plant and

machinery. You would also be able

to better manage downtime of

said plant.

JOHN ROBINSON, United Kingdom

Pumping equipment manufacturedby Met-Pro, a Columbus customer

“ Constant equipment maintenance and technical support are necessary. Responsible people and deadlines should be assigned and production should be optimized constantly. The optimal goal is the effi cient replacement of products during production time. Production optimizing systems should be used to optimize the performance of equipment to collect and analyze work time and productivity data. ”

JOLANTA ŽALUDIEN�E, Lithuania

“ Production Schedule visibility is critical in optimizing the value of plant assets. Preventative Maintenance is obviously benefi cial for optimizing the life span of a machine, but when performing PM too often we assume that machines operate in a “vacuum”. To truly optimize the VALUE that machinery delivers over its lifespan it is critical that we incorporate the planning of maintenance into the production schedule to minimize impact to production. “

TOM NALL, United States

Track usage and schedule

maintenance on the plant assets.

Maintenance can be scheduled

based on counter registrations of

hours used or quantity processed

in addition to the periodic

scheduling.

KEVIN BRANDT, United States

Systematize your plant

maintenance. This is the 21st

century. Log books and PM

cards don’t allow maintenance

managers to easily evaluate the

eff ectiveness of maintenance.

MIKE MAKELA, United States

In order to get the maximum benefi t out of this process mapping, I would recommend the you go for an automatic closure of calendars when a breakdown happens. This will help in considering the work centers which are “breakdown” when the master planning engine is run. For this, a little bit of customization has to be done on the service order when it is approved. Currently, for each breakdown, you have to manually close the calendar for the respective date and time. This could become unmanageable when the number of resources are increasing as the organization is growing. For this, they will have to link each resource to the service agreements so that, the automation is easier. I also recommend updating the activities against each resource (Service Agreements) periodically so that the system generates a correct Preventive Maintenance Calendar. Otherwise, the maintenance calendar will give a wrong picture and the benefi t of this mapping will not help you. It is easier to go with the actual (Breakdown) maintenance, because these solutions are straight fi t to the requirement.

ANTONY PRABHATH, UAE

“ Start with planned worked orders and drive accountability for the process. Pay attention, gain from your learning, and as the organization grows in adherence, look to data history to assist you in moving to a Preventative Maintenance (proactive) scheme where regular maintenance occurs at proper intervals. At this evolved state, you will see your life span of key plant assets optimizing. ”

ROB TERRY, United States

“ Companies invest millions of dollars in capital equipment that needs to be maintained. But more costly than the assets themselves are the impact to orders it could have if a piece of asset is not working or poorly working. In order to optimize its use and life span, manufacturing companies should make sure they have a systemic way of doing preventative maintenance to assure a high uptime. Companies should also keep close track on costs associated with the maintenance of an asset as well as throughput as it could be that a new asset would yield a higher return than continuing to maintain and older one. The important part is that there is actionable information that is derived from an integrated system where assets and production are directly connected to drive results. ”

LUCIANO CUNHA, United States “ Planned maintenance systems can mean a big diff erence in a manufacturing environment. Nothing spells lost production/time more than non-maintained machine resources. Goes for Human Resources as well. “

HENRIK DALL, United States

HOW CAN COLUMBUS HELP?

The full ColumbusManufacturing solution includes our best practice business

process modeling with RapidValue, our own Advanced Discrete Manufacturing

and Supply Chain Solution modules, Microsoft Dynamics AX, and our proven

implementation methodology, SureStep+.

COLUMBUS PRODUCT ENGINEERINGTo maintain critical plant assets and resources and service customers effi ciently, your maintenance staff needs current, accurate information and guidance that help them achieve goals for up-time and longevity.

With Columbus Enterprise Asset Management, part of the ColumbusManufacturing ERP solution, businesses can make proactive decisions that prevent equipment breakdown scenarios and maximize staff productivity. Tight integration with Microsoft Dynamics AX eliminates the need to maintain a separate system. End-to-end maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO ) support enable tight control over work orders, resource allocation, spare parts management, and all costs.

Just as important, fl eet functionality allows you to manage, track, and maintain trucks, vans, or rolling stock. Whether you’re maintaining your own assets or servicing customers, Enterprise Asset Management delivers an investment that saves time and money from the start and contributes to performance and profi tability.

BENEFITS1. WORK WITH ONE SET OF DATA, ONE SET OF COSTS, AND ONE

SOURCE OF THE TRUTH. Enterprise Asset Management uses Microsoft Dynamics AX Inventory, Purchasing, and Planning modules, simplifying complexity and costs. You’ll eliminate redundant data entry, system duplication, and the need for third-party add-on solutions.

2. SMOOTHLY CONNECT ERP AND PLANT MAINTENANCE PROCESSES. Microsoft Dynamics AX automatically triggers the maintenance system with critical production information. Enterprise Asset Management capabilities will then reserve the corresponding downtime on the Microsoft Dynamics AX production schedule.

3. MINIMIZE PAPER TRAILS AND TRANSACTIONS WITH A SOLUTION PEOPLE WANT TO USE. Users can plan and schedule work orders, add standard tasks, back fl ush parts, spares, material, and labor in one transaction, automate creation of follow-up jobs to check quality, and monitor all work and inventory with fast access to relevant information.

4. MINIMIZE DOWNTIME FOR EQUIPMENT AND OPTIMIZE PRODUCTION. Preventative maintenance off ers a complete overview of the condition of machinery and tracking for all spare parts consumption, enabling proactive production planning, tight management over spare parts consumption and costs, and optimal scheduling for inspections and servicing.

5. IMPROVE BOTH SHORT AND LONG-TERM PERFORMANCE WITH ENHANCED KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS (KPIS). Gain signifi cant production benefi ts with enhanced KPIs for equipment uptime, Meantime Between Inspections (MT BI), Meantime Between Failure (MT BF), and Return on Investment (ROI ).

A big THANK YOU to everyone who has contributed to the Manufacturing Notes from the Field including:

Aleksandar Jovanovic, Antony Prabhath, Ashley Doust, Christopher Johnston, Claudio Tirelli, Dave Ward, David Aronson, David Csordas, Deborah Vermillion, Desikan Srinivasan, Dex Rimington, Edvinas T, Emad Akhtar, Eva Foss, Helge Hansen, Henrik Dall, Jeff Powell, John Robinson, Jolanta Žaludiene, Jon Anders Haugland, Jørgen Gjerde, Ken Jarlfort, Kevin Brandt, Kurt Hatlevik, Linas Tamkutonis, Luciano Cunha, Martin Burden, Mike Makela, Mike Wilson, Morten Skogbrott, Niels Skjoldager, Niraj Nanda, Norman Carmichael, Olav Bækken Natvik, Pål Linde, Rob Terry, Rune Kinden Sjursen, Sam Graham, Steve Weaver, Stuart Mackay, Thomas Hauge, Tom Nall, Troels Kjemtrup and Victor Waschtschenko.

The ColumbusManufacturing Notes From The Field Series:

Volume 1Engineering Change

Volume 2Sales Quotations

Volume 3Advanced Projects

Volume 4Plant Maintenance

Volume 5Service Management

Volume 6Supply Chain

For more information on Columbus, our clients’ experiences and our solutions, please visit www.columbusglobal.com

’Columbus’ is a part of the registered trademark ‘Columbus IT’

ABOUT COLUMBUS:

Columbus is the preferred business partner for ambitious companies worldwide

within the food, retail and manufacturing industries. We exceed 20 years of

experience and 6,000 successful implementations, and we’re proud to off er our

customers solid industry know-how, high performance solutions and global reach.