Maintenance partnership recovers 4,000 hours of lost production capacity 06 November 2012

Automotive engines remanufacturer Autocraft Drivetrain Solutions, which supplies OEMs including Ford, Jaguar Land Rover, Aston Martin, Volvo, JCB and Chrysler, is reporting significant savings since establishing a maintenance partnership with PEME.

Autocraft's co-owner and commercial director Mike Hague-Morgan explains that its team of eight maintenance engineers, covering all machine tools and production equipment across the 56,000sq/m site, was attending an average of 30 breakdowns each week – leading to the loss of 30 shifts of machine production.

With 140 staff and more than 80 machine tools that strip down and re-manufacture over 1,200 engines each month, the company invited PEME to investigate the situation in May this year (2012), with the aim of increasing reliability and production up-time.

Peterborough based PEME developed a bespoke maintenance strategy for Autocraft to deliver maintenance services and reliability elements to PAS55 and ISO:9001 standards.

Using condition based monitoring (CBM), reliability centred maintenance (RCM) and root cause analysis (RCA), it identified 60 critical assets.

That led to PEME's condition register (PCR) internet based system, which provides a real-time dashboard displaying KPIs, CBM data and reports, plus safety audit information.

The PCR system now provides Autocraft personnel with site reports with an interactive map view displaying 3D models of the customer's facility, as well as a breakdown by section and machine.

Hence, says Hague-Morgan, Autocraft's maintenance department can now rapidly navigate around the factory and view the latest condition portfolio, using a visual traffic light system.

However, there is more to it, with PEME also having delivered a culture of 'operator asset care', with machine operators taking ownership and responsibility of their machines.

Now, the operator relays any potential issues to the maintenance department, where data is entered on to the PCR, which then triggers corrective maintenance action.

"The PEME team has integrated with our maintenance department and brought in fresh eyes and a fresh way of thinking," comments Hague-Morgan.

"With specialised maintenance professionals and flexibility, the PEME programme has delivered both strategic direction and software that has created a more structured and long term view of our maintenance needs," he continues.

"Of key importance are PEME's impeccable safety levels: they bring a culture of safety and professionalism that would benefit any manufacturer."

And Autocraft maintenance manager Lenny Drew adds: "We are continually audited and reviewed for our conformity to ISO standards, [and] the PEME system ensures we monitor and log our checks on coolant, chemical and oil usage.

"So, when we are audited by our OEM customers or a certification body, we have online and documented proof of our conformance.

"Since implementing the PEME system, we can actually schedule the work for the maintenance department. The PCR prompts the team to focus on specific jobs at defined times or dates. My team now has a balanced workload and are undoubtedly more productive.

"Additionally, we can see the service history of a machine and predict when a problem will arise. I am now able to manage my team and we can now take a pro-active approach to our plant maintenance rather than the reactive response culture that was previously in place."

Brian Tinham

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