Contributing Re.engineer:
UpKeep | An Innovative and mobile-first CMMS (computerized maintenance management system)
Challenges:
Prior to deploying UpKeep, a manufacturing company did not have a formal system in place for recording asset information and preventative maintenance. The organization relied on sticky notes posted on white boards for technicians to review and apply preventative maintenance tasks to assets. This process limited the organization’s ability to create comprehensive reports on asset health, which led to production downtime occurrences, lost records, and hours of unplanned work.
In the past, asset feedback would go from word of mouth to either emails, texts, or sticky notes. Because of that inefficiency at communication, work orders wouldn’t get done and slipped through the cracks. - National reliability manager, Manufacturer
Solution:
Since deploying UpKeep at seven of its facilities across North America, the organization has improved asset record keeping by allowing facility technicians to immediately upload asset information on their mobile devices and then find the information quickly with the application — saving hours in time spent looking for asset information on sticky notes. Improved record keeping is helping technicians to assess which assets need preventative work, reducing the number of downtime occurrences and time spent on unplanned work.
Results:
The client experienced the following risk-adjusted present value (PV) quantified benefits over three years:
Technicians were able to reduce time spent on filing work orders and locating asset information by 90%. UpKeep’s integration mobile devices reduced time spent by technicians traversing the facility floor to their workstations to record notes on asset information or file work orders. Likewise, technicians reduced time spent on retrieving asset information by having the information accessible on mobile devices.
The organization was able to increase preventative work on its assets by 50% to help avoid production downtime. Historically, the organization struggled with technicians consistently logging asset information for other technicians to review. As the organization logged more assets into UpKeep, it improved monitoring of asset performance and cadence for preventative maintenance. Because of this, the organization reduced production downtime and any resulting lost business.
Savings of over 3,000 hours for unplanned reactive maintenance work. With the organization conducting more preventative maintenance work on assets, fewer asset failures occurred. Each of those asset failures required time to ensure that the problem was resolved. With fewer downtime events since adopting UpKeep, technicians avoided more unplanned work sessions and were able to focus on proactive preventative and predictive maintenance.
Time spent on collecting asset information for monthly reports took 90 minutes. Before UpKeep, monthly reports on the status of assets took time to collect across seven facilities and totaled hundreds of hours annually. The organization drastically reduced time spent on this task with asset information regularly being logged into UpKeep through better reporting and dashboards.
Unquantified benefits. The interviewed organization experienced the following benefits, which are not quantified for this study:
Maximization of asset lifetime. With UpKeep helping the organization to stay up to speed and ensure preventative maintenance compliance, many assets experienced reduced wear and tear, and did not experience unexpected early failure. The manufacturer was able to store warranties to prevent excess work for its internal team and track which assets were still under warranty.
UpKeep provided technicians with a digital paper trail on assets. The organization now has readily accessible asset history, which helps to educate technicians on the status of their facilities and in planning for future initiatives based on past performance.
How long it takes now to file a work request is almost instantaneous. From when it’s filed, colleagues within the plant receive alerts on their mobile devices and we’re able to look at the request and then triage it. - Local reliability manager, Manufacturing
Costs. The client experienced the following risk adjusted PV costs:
UpKeep training costs. Twelve facility managers spent two days learning how to use UpKeep and best practices for their day-to-day work. The company also paid for training services from UpKeep itself.
UpKeep Subscription costs. The organization paid a monthly fee per user for access to UpKeep.
The financial analysis identified that the organization experienced benefits of $1,375,379 over three years versus costs of $331,189 of 315%.
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Website: www.onupkeep.com
Customer Page: www.onupkeep.com/customers