A Fortune 500 company is an industry leader in manufacturing, predominantly supplying their solutions to the food and beverage sector. With a steadfast commitment to sustainability, the majority of their products are recyclable and derived from renewable resources. The firm boasts a widespread international presence, with over 120 facilities across North America, Europe and Asia.
Ambition: Cross-Site EAM System Deployment
The manufacturer recognizes the critical role that asset management and maintenance play in achieving the company’s strategic objectives. To align with their goals of operational excellence and sustainable growth, the company is implementing and deploying the Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) system IFS Ultimo across multiple sites. This initiative not only enhances visibility into asset-related processes but also stimulates standardization, efficiency and continuous improvement.
Approach: Blueprint and Change Management
The EAM deployment project is carried out at several sites in Europe and Asia. The ambition is to implement at all European sites. MaxGrip developed a customized blueprint with performance dashboards, relevant KPIs and reporting built in. This enables the company to get insights and formulate improvement actions quickly. The blueprint offers a structured roll out for sites but with the possibility of localization where needed. An important aspect of the blueprint and roll out is to have a connected database (historian) for spares among other things. This will enable the organization to collaborate and exchange spares easily making the organization more efficient as a whole.
According to the blueprint, all sites follow the following deployment steps.
Deployment Steps
- Start up
In the start-up phase of the EAM system deployment, preparation is initiated by the client, where they provide essential site information and identify key users. This is followed by an online Q&A session designed to support the onboarded key users who have completed the e-learning process. The stage culminates in a formal kick-off, marking the start of the project. This structured approach ensures that all necessary groundwork is laid for a swift and robust deployment.
- Initiate
In the initiation phase, the focus shifts to the handling of equipment data for the asset register. This involves providing and processing the data, followed by a thorough validation of the master data import conducted by the client. The complexity of the data structure is further addressed by adding parent-child relationships to the master data, which is again validated. The stage concludes with the finalization of the population of asset data in the system, ensuring that all information is accurate and well-organized.
- Execute
The execution stage starts with on-site workshops, which focus on work order processes for site-specific master data creation. This hands-on approach ensures that the data is tailored to the unique needs of the site while keeping to the cross-site blueprint. Support is provided throughout the testing stage to ensure that all components function as intended. Once the master data has been validated, it is transferred to production, marking a significant milestone in the deployment. The final steps include making the system user-ready by creating user accounts, setting permissions, and implementing other necessary configurations.
- Go-Live and Stabilize
The stabilize stage marks the go-live of the EAM system deployment. This critical stage begins with the actual transition to the live environment, supported by dedicated go-live assistance by MaxGrip consultants to ensure a smooth and successful launch. Once the system is operational and all objectives have been met, the local team can use the EAM system as agreed.
Change Management
Throughout all stages of the IFS Ultimo site deployments, change management plays a pivotal role. By proactively managing the transition at each stage, from start-up to go-live, MaxGrip consultants ensure that all stakeholders are engaged, informed, and prepared for the new processes and technologies. It facilitated a smooth integration of the system into existing workflows, minimizes resistance and maximizes user adoption. Through targeted training, communication, and support, MaxGrip’s change management approach enhances the efficiency and effectiveness of the deployment leading to robust and swift internal adoption of the new way of working.
Benefits: Short Time to Value
The project is still ongoing with multiple sites planning to deploy soon. The IFS Ultimo deployment according to the MaxGrip blueprint already shows some clear benefits:
- Short time to value: based on the blueprint we get a site live in six days.
- Thanks to the set up dashboards and reporting, the manufacturer has insights in performance which prove the critical role that asset management and maintenance play in achieving the company’s strategic objectives. The insights also stimulate continuous improvement by being able to single out areas for enhancement quickly.
- Support of safe operation of the plants under the responsibility of the client;
- Compliance with legal regulations and guidelines;
- Securing performance requirements agreed upon with suppliers and customers such as availability, reliability, budget and other requirements;
- Providing insight into the processes at all times (progress, status, costs, risks, etc.) and provide the right information for steering the organization, contractors and reporting requirements to (higher) management;
- Wide internal adoption per site thanks to the attention to organizational change.
Get inspired
AVEVA has acquired the APM software solutions and associated assets of MaxGrip. The company will continue as a worldwide, independent APM consultancy firm.
In this article we share our tips to proactively manage the maintenance backlog in times of change and a global pandemic.
Webinar in partnership with UReason and Ultimo. The webinar focuses on technology, processes and organization to kickstart asset performance improvements.
