How to make 15% more sales thanks to intelligent maintenance

Maintenance Planning

General Overview

• Shortening the processing and approval of maintenance orders from weeks to just a few days.

• Simultaneous handling of orders instead of manual, sequential, email-based processing.

• Reducing the error rate by over 90% in reconciling maintenance orders.

• Utilizing the platform from desktop workstations and mobile devices.

• A centralized system for the entire processing of maintenance orders.

• Seamless tracking of a maintenance order from its creation, through approval, to completion.

Challenge

The company needs to plan and track maintenance for its manufacturing facilities. Based on specific process workflows, work procedures, subprojects, and budgets need to be documented and monitored throughout the entire duration of a maintenance project. Additionally, there is a requirement for ad-hoc work orders with high urgency. Up until now, this has been organized using Microsoft Excel sheets, email communication, and daily meetings.

The entire process of planning and approving a maintenance order used to take several weeks from capture to final approval by the responsible individuals. Given the short time frame, especially for high-priority ad-hoc orders, management has mandated that an order must be coordinated, validated, and approved within 2-3 days instead of 2-3 weeks.

Action

Based on the bloofactory Prozess, a digital process based on Microsoft 365 was aligned within a few days. Process consultants and UX designers designed a web-based solution built on Microsoft 365 services, and it was developed within a few weeks. The company was able to test parts of the solution during the development process and provide continuous feedback.

Ad-hoc requests (Change Requests) and maintenance projects requiring approval are sent directly into a digital inbox by the involved process partners in the new solution. Employees can work on the maintenance packages that require approval directly from a digital maintenance process.

Maintenance projects exceeding a certain order value are sent directly to the respective supervisor or their representative for approval, along with all additional information. Approval or rejection also occurs digitally and within a day, timestamped for tracking. After approval, the responsible employees receive notifications from the system.

Relevant checks, corrections, and edits are carried out online using familiar tools like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint and can be tracked and edited in real-time by all involved parties. An entire maintenance process, including all documents, can be worked on by multiple individuals simultaneously within a day, coordinated directly in Microsoft Teams sessions, and finalized. Integrated task management allows for seamless tracking of activities, ensuring collaboration among multiple teams with deadlines and automated reminders. The integrated archiving system permanently stores the coordinated processes, fulfilling all necessary compliance and documentation requirements as mandated by regulations.

Results

The planning, coordination, and approval of maintenance orders have been reduced from 2-3 weeks to 2-3 business days. Simultaneously, the efficiency has increased by a factor of 10 with the same workforce through the parallel processing of maintenance orders. As a result, the goals set by management have been achieved, and maintenance is now carried out much faster with a significantly reduced risk of production downtime.

Perspective

With the implemented maintenance management system, processing times have already been significantly shortened. The company is already working on the continuous improvement of the maintenance management system and is also planning to incorporate and manage external service providers. Based on the Bloofactory process and the standard Microsoft 365 platform, new features can be implemented and rolled out within a matter of days and weeks.