Every manufacturer has to deal with asset management and unfortunately, it’s an area that is fraught with inefficiencies.
This is primarily because managing assets requires approval from multiple departments and, therefore, is managed by multiple technologies.
In this age of digital transformation, every manufacturer should consider a new management so-lution, like Dynaway Enterprise Asset Management (EAM), to eliminate silos and increase productivity across the company. To understand exactly how a modern EAM solution can transform daily life within a manufacturing company, we sat down with one of the customers - Kelly Kane.
Kelly is the Manager of Information Systems for Algood, a premier packer of private label food products.
Transforming Manufacturing with EAM
HOW WERE YOU MANAGING ASSETS BEFORE IMPLEMENTING THE DYNAWAY EAM SOLUTION?
Kelly: It depended on location, but we were mostly using spreadsheets and SharePoint forms. We also had had an Access-based program called CWorks and an accessory inventory program called WASP. Believe it or not, we even had one location that was still using paper forms and binders.
WHAT SORT OF CHALLENGES DID THAT APPROACH PRESENT?
Kelly: When you have multiple management systems, it’s really difficult to ensure that records are accurate and readily available. Every time an employee wanted to know the maintenance history of a particular asset, they would need to consult each different system and cross-reference the records. To put it simply, it was a lot of manual work.
WHY DID YOU CHOOSE TO IMPLEMENT THE DYNAWAY EAM SOLUTION OVER OTHER SOLUTIONS?
Kelly: For us, the powerful mobile client was the key differentiator. We looked over a lot of different solutions, and Dynaway was the obvious frontrunner. Their EAM solution was easy to understand, easy to use, and it required far fewer clicks to navigate.
I’M HOPING YOU CAN TALK A LITTLE ABOUT THE IMPLEMENTATION PROCESS – WAS IT EASY? WHAT DID THAT LOOK LIKE FOR YOUR COMPANY?
Kelly: It was very easy. We had an initial sit-down with Dynaway to map out requirements and establish success criteria. Their team was instrumental in helping us understand the Dynaway product end-to-end. They guided us through common setup scenarios and helped us make the best choices for our company. Once we figured out the setup scenario we wanted to use, we had it installed in our test system. It wasn’t very long until the maintenance team wanted to use the Dynaway system in production so we actually rolled out the system ourselves. Dynaway reached out a few weeks later to ask when we would be ready to switch to production, and I told them we already had! It’s been one of the best implementations that I have ever been involved with.
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TALK ABOUT THE PROCESS OF GETTING EMPLOYEES TO START ADOPTING THE SOLUTION.
Kelly: We had one tech-savvy project lead from each of our locations start learning Dynaway EAM in advance. Having these power users up-to-speed on the product at the outset really helped to drive adoption and buy in. These power users are able to help others understand how to use the product, and as more people get on board, it saves us time and money. Now that everyone has been able to use it, everyone seems pleased with how easy it is to use. Obviously, nothing is perfect and we will continue to refine the deployment, but our employees absolutely love the solution and user adoption has been a success.
HOW HAS IT IMPROVED THE LIVES OF YOUR EMPLOYEES?
Kelly: It’s drastically expedited the data entry process. Prior to the deployment, most of our maintenance team would spend the last few hours of their day finishing their administrative work. This is not only inefficient, but it also decreases accuracy since the technicians have to recall what they did throughout the work day. Once the technicians saw how the Dynaway EAM solution would transform their data entry routine, they all wanted to get on board.
HOW DOES DYNAWAY EAM HELP STAYING COMPLIANT IN MULTIPLE MARKETS, SUCH AS EXPORT AND GOVERNMENT?
Kelly (Algood): Being able to easily report what work we’ve done on every piece of equipment is huge for compliance. In the event of a product recall, it’s crucial to find exactly when and where something might have been introduced into the product. Before, this effort was painfully manual and required digging through spreadsheets, SharePoint lists, and other entry forms for the name of an asset or the date the work was done. With Dynaway, everything is already recorded in one system as it occurs, which gives us a good handle on what’s truly happening and enables us to refer back to any particular moment in time quickly.
HOW DO YOU SEE DYNWAY EAM WORKING WITH THE FUTURE ADOPTION OF TECHNOLOGY, SUCH AS IOT AND PREDICTIVE MAINTENANCE?
Kelly: We have flow meters, scales, and a variety of other assets that we'd like to be able to connect to the Dynaway EAM system. This will make it possible to see, for example, how many times something has rotated. We can then leverage and analyze that data to automatically schedule maintenance around actual use, instead of making an educated guess and manually scheduling maintenance on an estimated timeline like every two months.
IS THERE ANYTHING WE MISSED THAT SHOULD BE MENTIONED?
Kelly: I think it’s important to have your maintenance team on board, because they are really the ones that are going to be using it. The Maintenance Managers at Algood were actively involved in the process from the beginning—talking through options, discussing selection criteria, and watching demos of the various contenders. When they saw the targeted functionality and ERP integration in the Dynaway EAM solution, they immediately said, “That’s going to be the one to beat right there.”
