Using MicroMain's software as part of its maintenance excellence practice, Mammoth, a leader in manufacturing excellence, has reduced overall maintenance costs by 52 percent. And that's just the beginning.
An industry leader in custom heating, ventilation and air conditioning equipment (HVAC), Mammoth has embraced many technological changes since opening its doors as the Brown Sheet Iron and Steel Company in 1935. Innovation in the form of MicroMain’s computerized maintenance management software (CMMS) system was implemented in 2000, as part of the company’s new maintenance excellence program.
“Facility maintenance costs decreased by 52 percent,” says Jeff Nevenhoven, technical support manager at Mammoth’s headquarters in Chaska, Minn. “Overtime is down by 48 percent, and more work is getting done with 42 percent less manpower. Overall, our emergency responses have decreased greatly. This is a direct result of an increased focus on corrective and preventive maintenance work.
“These achievements were accomplished with the help of MicroMain’s software, which is a very important part of our maintenance excellence practice. Before we had MicroMain’s software, we lacked a lot of the information necessary to make informed decisions. Now we input the data, develop reports and track our trends so that we can make better decisions.”
Prior to using MicroMain, Mammoth used a manual system for maintaining its facility and equipment, with an emphasis on responding to down equipment. That was quite a challenge considering maintenance is responsible for Mammoth’s multi-million-dollar sheet metal equipment, paint booths, welding machinery, overhead cranes and water test tanks in addition to the entire facility, grounds and support systems. With the CMMS, maintenance technicians and a planner/scheduler are now able to easily schedule preventative maintenance and focus on preventing problems rather than resolving them.
“One of our main goals is to increase capacity, which means that we need to eliminate non-value-added activity,” Nevenhoven says. “We used to spend a lot of time chasing down parts, manuals and other items, but now we have everything we need on a work order. That has saved us a lot of time and we are much more efficient in getting technicians from one job site to the next. This has allowed us to increase the capacity we can provide to the plant.”
According to Nevenhoven, the CMMS also helped streamline Mammoth's daily maintenance process. Each day, new work orders come in, get processed and get closed out. In addition to tracking people, parts, machines, preventive maintenance tasks and inspections, the computerized system provides a daily procedure that enables work to get done efficiently and effectively.
Nevenhoven first implemented MicroMain's software in the sheet metal department, which was a top maintenance priority. Following a successful pilot project, which included about 12 assets, the CMMS was rolled out to the rest of the plant and grounds, which includes nearly 800 assets.
“We hit our multimillion-dollar sheet metal system with it up front and it paid off tremendously,” Nevenhoven says. “We immediately realized that we were getting our work orders out on time, completing our preventive maintenance and corrective work promptly and reducing our problem areas and emergency work.”
Although Mammoth’s maintenance staff didn’t have much exposure to computer systems, the transition to CMMS has been quite painless.
“MicroMain’s trainer did an excellent job helping train all of the users here at Mammoth,” Nevenhoven says. “In fact, our lead technician was able to complete the training via a conference call and a lap top computer. He had no computer experience at all, but the trainer was able to familiarize him with the software quite easily.”
Mammoth is currently using MS2000 and msREQUEST, MicroMain’s network-based work request module, and has recently purchased msMOBILE, the module for PDA-based work orders and inspections.
“When we began looking at CMMS vendors, we saw that many of the systems available were very expensive,” Nevenhoven says. “With MicroMain, we are getting everything that the competition offers and more, for a fraction of the cost.”