The Company
International Snack Food Company
The Situation
An international snack food company with over 40 North American plants was dissatisfied with their lack of a world class maintenance process or organization in their manufacturing footprint. Its senior management determined that implementing this process or organization was one of the last ‘untapped oil wells’ of opportunity in both increasing their plant and overall footprint capacity, as well as reducing costs via more efficient maintenance operations. At the time, the Company was recognized in its industry for leading in many functional areas desired to be known as world class in maintenance operations.
The Scope
The scope of the engagement required a team of three consultants paired with three internal technical managers to develop and implement the Asset Reliability Model in 40+ plants in North America in less than two years. This included the development of equipment PM routines and strategies, functional development of key maintenance roles, establishing technical libraries in each facility and creating best-in-class storerooms. The development of the Asset Reliability Process also included providing technical advice and support for a new Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS) and integrating the new CMMS into the reliability process.
Focus OCG Action
Professionals of Focus OCG developed the Asset Reliability Model Process with a cross functional team made up of Technical Managers, Maintenance Managers, Production Managers, Mechanics, Operators from numerous plants. The model was implemented in the larger manufacturing plants followed by the mid-sized plants. Eventually, all plants had the model integrated into their day-to-day operations. Separate teams were established to develop PM routines (including lubrication and essential care cleaning) and storeroom improvement (including redesign or building a fully functional storeroom) and to also work with the CMMS provider in integrating the reliability processes into the software program.
Technical Expos, pre-implementation visits, assessments, post-implementation audits, staff evaluations and seminars were part of each facility implementation. Focus OCG Professionals provided training for the internal technical staff to ensure the process would be championed by internal company staff and remain successful. This included working regularly with operational staff to fully integrate maintenance and production operations.
Results
The Company achieved their goals and objectives through the implementation of the Asset Reliability Model. The business now possesses a company-wide, world class maintenance program that has significantly lowered equipment, maintenance and production downtime, decreased maintenance and operating costs and significantly increased capacity, allowing for several plant consolidations, best practices, growth and profit gains.
The Company currently manages the process internally and has continued to grow into increasingly advanced maintenance processes, such as predictive maintenance, and utilizes the CMMS system to document and control the maintenance organization.
