Increasing overall system effectiveness with Connected Maintenance

However, the implementation of a manufacturing execution system alone is not enough in many cases. Instead, comprehensive solutions must be provided that not only monitor the status of the machines, but also simplify the entire maintenance process for employees and reduce their workload.

The Oetiker Group is the market leader in connection and assembly solutions. Products such as clamps, clips, rings and quick connectors ensure safety, performance and reliability in mobility and industrial applications. They can be found in cars and commercial vehicles, but also in areas such as sanitary and medical applications and household appliances. Due to the high quality requirements for the broad product portfolio, a machine park that is always ready for use and always produces top quality is essential. To achieve this, maintenance staff must not only be provided with efficient maintenance planning, but also with system-specific maintenance instructions. Together with the Connected Worker Platform Operations1 , Oetiker has been able to optimize its existing maintenance processes.

Status quo: Maintenance work is primarily carried out manually

Although Oetiker established a global lean manufacturing culture early on and uses basic methodologies such as Visual Management, 5S and Total Productive Maintenance in all production facilities, the full digitalization of the operational organization was previously lacking. In 2020, the starting signal was given and the company implemented a global Manufacturing Execution System (MES) called Leading2Lean. This ensured the very first technological communication with the machines and systems, which provided answers to fundamental questions - such as machine running times, runtimes, interruptions and their reasons, as well as necessary maintenance cycles. Although this information could be used to set up the maintenance periods, the detailed planning of the maintenance work itself still had to be carried out manually using Excel, Outlook and magnetic boards. This resulted in time-consuming and resource-intensive paper-based maintenance processes with media and system breaks, a lack of transparency and difficult reporting.

The individual challenges of the paper-based maintenance process affected three levels in depth: document handling, the process level and the global perspective. The handling of documents, consisting of analog creation, approval, revision, distribution and digital filing, was very time-consuming due to the manual approach and media disruptions, as hundreds of systems at Oetiker have to be maintained at different cycles on a daily, weekly, monthly, semi-annual or annual basis. There are also machine variances per location. The manual processes were unable to map this diversity across the board, meaning there was always a potential risk of error.

Creating an efficient maintenance process with Connected Work

Operations1 proved to be a suitable sparring partner on the path to global digitalization of employee-led maintenance processes. The popular Connected Worker platform was chosen due to its seamless integration options with Leading2Lean, its quick implementation and its high level of user-friendliness. In addition, the software solution is extremely scalable thanks to its modular structure, multilingualism and the ability to map different machine types using structure classes in the backend. For Oetiker Group employees, the implementation of Operations1 significantly simplifies the processes of their daily work: each employee now receives the maintenance instructions relevant to them at the right time. In addition, maintenance is carried out completely digitally using intuitive checklists and test protocols, with the workers going through maintenance instructions step by step via the touchscreen on the tablet. Detailed machine-specific instructions can now also be displayed digitally. In addition, all documents previously stored in mountains of paper are aggregated in a single point of truth that can be accessed at any time of day or night from any location.

This significantly reduces maintenance complexity and increases transparency thanks to real-time process data and automatically generated reports. Machine breakdowns can also be avoided thanks to better planning and regular maintenance. The well-maintained machines now provide a safe, modern working environment for employees. Last but not least, such an efficient maintenance process enables autonomous preventive maintenance: workers can carry out minor maintenance tasks themselves.

Significant increase in OEE thanks to digitalized maintenance

Oetiker has set itself ambitious goals for the complete digitalization of maintenance: the company aims to achieve an overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) of 85 % in the long term. This is considered an important key figure for the productivity of a plant and an increase in this figure secures sales in the long term. To achieve this value, the market leader has set itself sub-targets. "Thanks to a digitalized maintenance approach, we were able to increase overall equipment effectiveness at the Canadian site by 11 % after just 6 months," says Jacob Reid, Head Engineering, Oetiker Group. This is accompanied by an increase in plant availability of 5 %, while at the same time the mean time to repair (MTTR), i.e. the average repair time after a machine breaks down, has fallen by 23 %.

These figures speak for themselves and show that the potential of digital maintenance is far from exhausted. So far, 10 out of 13 Oetiker production sites worldwide have been rolled out digitally and the company already has plans to roll out the other 3 sites. "With Operations1, we are establishing a global standard for preventive maintenance in our 13 plants," confirms Susanne Conrad, Head Equipment Engineering at the Oetiker Group. The optimization of maintenance processes will therefore continue to gain momentum in the future.

Source: www.operations1.com www.oetiker.com