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What is Mobile Enterprise Asset Management Software?

Posted on by Matt Sickler

Have you ever questioned what is a Mobile EAM app and why do you need it? Mobile EAM spelled out is Mobile Enterprise Asset Management — not to be confused with SAP Enterprise Asset Management Software. Confused? You are not alone. In this article, we will clarify terms and how going mobile significantly improves key processes within maintenance operations with SAP.

See How Mobile Enterprise Asset Management Software for SAP Improves Productivity

What is the difference between EAM and Mobile Enterprise Asset Management software?

Traditional Maintenance Processes Without a Mobile EAM Solution

What Mobile EAM Apps Can Do For You

The Benefit Impact for Your Organization

What You Should Consider When Selecting a Mobile EAM App

Sigga Mobile EAM solutions

What is the difference between EAM and Mobile Enterprise Asset Management Software?

To start, let’s cover some definitions to frame the operational processes impacted by Mobile Enterprise Asset Management software.

  • Mobile Enterprise Asset Management. According to Wikipedia, “Mobile enterprise asset management (or mobile EAM) refers to the mobile extension of work processes for maintenance, operations, and repair of corporate or public-entity physical assets, equipment, buildings, and grounds. It involves management of work orders (planned, break/fix or service requests) via communication between a mobilized workforce and computer systems to maintain an organization’s facilities, structures, and other assets.”To put this in further context, a Mobile EAM app is an add-on to an organization’s Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) software (such as SAP) in order to manage work digitally by connecting the front-end worker to SAP through a mobile app.
  • Enterprise Asset Management. As described by SAP, here is the full breadth of what an EAM is designed to cover: “Enterprise asset management (EAM) incorporates the management and maintenance of physical assets owned by a company throughout the entire lifecycle of an asset, from capital planning, procurement, installation, performance, maintenance, compliance, risk management, through to asset disposal. EAM software helps organizations to plan, optimize, execute, and track the necessary activities, priorities, skills, materials, tools, and information associated with an asset. Failure to manage and maintain enterprise assets can lead to unplanned downtime, suboptimal asset performance, and supply shortages. Some organizations also rely on EAM systems to demonstrate compliance with regulatory bodies to preclude liability if a failure occurs.”

Adding a mobile interface to specific functions, greatly improves the efficiency of working with and maintaining the data within SAP overall. To understand the impact, consider the process steps of traditional maintenance management without a mobile solution.

Processes without mobile Enterprise Asset Management software

Traditional Processes Without a Mobile EAM Solution

Traditional processes start with work order assignments that are planned and scheduled using spreadsheets with data pulled from the EAM system. After checking parts inventories and production schedules (i.e. the best timing to conduct maintenance tasks), schedulers assign tasks to specific technicians and create a daily or weekly schedule.

With technicians assigned, work orders are printed, collated with printed work instructions, and physically distributed to technicians. Technicians proceed to the work locations, complete their tasks, and manually capture notes on the paperwork orders. At the end of the work shift, they return the paperwork orders to be individually entered back into the EAM system through manual data entry, work order by work order.

If a technician discovers an issue while conducting an inspection, they find someone to create a notification in the EAM if urgent or make a note on the current work order to enter the information into the EAM system later. If they don’t have the parts they need, it’s an extra trip to the warehouse. The result?

  • Extra steps and delays in problem-solving
  • Tedious duplicate data entry
  • Poor data quality in the EAM system
  • Unnecessary use of paper & printing costs

Now, let’s take a look at how these workflows are improved with a mobile device and EAM app:

Processes WITH mobile Enterprise Asset Management software

  • Order management. Work orders are dispatched to technicians digitally wherever they are at completely replacing the paper-based work order process (cut printing costs). The interface is simple and intuitive to the technician allowing him/her to complete their tasks and provide work order status updates real-time to SAP PM (cut duplicate data entry). Orders can be approved, closed, appended, redistributed, all from within the app based on user roles and authority for the process steps (increase responsiveness to inevitable changes).
  • Notification management. Like work orders, notifications can be approved, updated, turned into work orders, and assigned to a technician. When a new issue is discovered, the technician can immediately create a notification on the go, allowing the organization to immediately act on the problem if urgent (increase responsiveness to inevitable changes).
  • Capture measurement readings. A cornerstone to advanced maintenance process such as predictive or condition-based maintenance is the capture of quality data for analysis. A Mobile EAM app makes it easy for the technician to capture sensor and equipment status details while conducting rounds. Data is structured to support analysis and decision making for asset management (improve data quality). Read more about the importance of data integrity for maintenance operations.
  • Worker communication. Management and maintenance technicians can stay in constant communication to coordinate schedule changes (increase responsiveness to inevitable changes).
  • Access to historical data and asset information for scheduled maintenance tasks. With immediate access to instructions, manuals, parts availability, and illustrations, maintenance technicians have the information they need at their fingertips to complete a planned or unplanned task(cutting extra steps to retrieve information) and no excuses for following instructions (improving safety).
  • Maintain equipment records. While in the field or in the plant, Technicians can update the master data records for assets and equipment due to moves, new installation, or asset removal (improve data quality).
  • Time tracking and workforce management. Track the time it takes to complete maintenance tasks – manually (or with some solutions automatically based on proximity to the job site). Validate work hours, measure wrench time for KPIs, and use the information to improve job planning and scheduling in the future (improve data quality).

The Benefit Impact for Your Organization

Going paperless and keeping technicians in the field or plant with immediate access to information results in optimized asset performance and utilization while minimizing operations and maintenance costs. Read more about the breadth of benefits of going paperless.

Some examples of real-world results:

Ambev, a part of AB InBev, the largest brewery in the world, reduced their MTTR (Mean Time to Repair) by 79% – from 24 to 5 days – by replacing their paper-based maintenance processes with Sigga’s Mobile EAM solution. Ambev also saved over 7.2 million sheets of paper per year ($360,000), reduced downtime, increased production, and increased the productivity of their technicians and workers by 15%.

Furnas is an electricity generation and transmission organization producing 40% of the energy consumed in Brazil. Furnas improved the utilization of their staff, saving 90,000 hours per year from cutting out administrative activities every month, reallocated 46 staff members to other functions, and reduced their costs by $630,700 annually.

Bunge, a soybean and wheat processing company producing vegetable oil and ethanol, saved 10,000 sheets of paper per month on a volume of 1,370 maintenance orders per day.

Cenibra is a producer of bleached pulp from Eucalyptus fiber. Cenibra improved the process management of contractors and reduced administrative work on a volume of 60,000 maintenance orders and 190,000 inspection rounds conducted by staff and contractors per year.

What You Should Consider When Selecting a Mobile EAM App

  • User experience features. Not all mobile apps are the same, it is important to dig into the mobile features that support a good user experience for adoption and active use of the app. Considerations include ease-of-use of the interface and app performance as maintenance tasks can require a high volume of data transfer with SAP. In addition, consider the online and offline use especially in operations with locations without connectivity. Does the technician have the information they need while offline and how disruptive is the sync experience when back online? For more aspects to explore, read our article, Top 5 Mobile App Features for Maintenance.

  • Compatibility considerations. Besides the app compatibility with mobile devices: Android, Apple etc., consider how the app is to be maintained. Updates to mobile operating systems, integration and updates to SAP for that matter, require timely actions to maintain Mobile EAM app security. Read more about this topic in our article, Today’s Build vs Buy Software Decision Factors.
  • Adjacent solutions. Consider how the Mobile EAM app compliments other connected processes within Enterprise Asset Management, such as planning & scheduling and parts inventory management. These are just some of the processes that can be improved with automation and mobility. For further details, read: Opportunities to optimize SAP PM with added automation.
  • Adaptability. The flexibility of the Mobile EAM app to be modified to the organizations’ unique processes and updated as needed due to changes in regulations or the environment. What is the process? Costs? How fast can changes be made? Are developer resources required? Explore these factors in our article, New Tech Brings New Flexibility in Mobile Maintenance Apps.

It is an opportunity to streamline important maintenance processes with SAP EAM!

Take the proven step to deploy Mobile EAM Software with SAP. In doing so, you will modernize your industrial maintenance operations and be in a better position to take advantage of the endless stream of technology improvements in maintenance management.

Why Consider Sigga for Mobile Enterprise Asset Management Software?

Here at Sigga, we have a singular focus on the digital transformation of data-intensive maintenance work with asset-intensive industries.It takes dedication and ongoing development to sustain world-class mobile experiences. As a result, our EAM Empower solution is the leading Mobile EAM app for SAP environments. We design our apps to deliver exceptional user experiences to drive adoption and full use of the app. We have also designed our own proprietary, SAP integration technology to deliver Enterprise scale performance for high volumes of data and users.

In addition, we offer a Mobile Warehouse and Inventory solution to extend the mobile use cases and an integrated Planning & Scheduling desktop software solution to further streamline processes and drive efficiencies with SAP.

At Sigga, it is our mission to empower companies to achieve their mobile digital transformation goals by providing best-in-class software technology.

Sigga Solutions

Read more about Sigga EAM Empower mobile app for SAP Enterprise Asset Management.

The Industry Trends Impacting your 2023 Maintenance Plans

Posted on by Matt Sickler

From growing regulations to the cliché “time is money”, asset maintenance and reliability managers know that downtime and delays in manufacturing processes cause waste, upset customers and lead to lost revenue. CEO’s and executives learned from their COVID
experiences that nimbleness and the ability to act quickly were critical to sustain operations. Paperand pencil processes, or information locked in individuals’ minds were inhibitors to adapt to the rapid changes.

In today’s hyper-mobile and data-centric world, the difference between leading or following is defined by whether you are flexible and resilient. The 90’s and 2000’s were the internet years. This decade, with the rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), and no-code app
development, is the intersection of mobility and predictive actions. No one can foresee every crisis, but most can materially mitigate the risks.

Continue reading “The Industry Trends Impacting your 2023 Maintenance Plans”

New Tech Brings New Flexibility in Mobile Maintenance Apps

Posted on by Matt Sickler

Are you stuck in a queue with IT delaying the start of your digitization projects?

Do you ever wish you could tweak your apps yourself to fit your needs?

Do you want to avoid customization time and costs?

Are you afraid to commit to a software app that might be obsolete in three years?

If you said YES to any of these, continue reading to learn why technology advancements in software platforms should be part of your considerations when evaluating a mobile maintenance app for SAP PM. Continue reading “New Tech Brings New Flexibility in Mobile Maintenance Apps”

New Digitization Approaches for Strategic Maintenance Management

Posted on by Matt Sickler

The efficiency driven by end-to-end digital workflows is imperative for success in today’s tight labor market. The technology is mature and the methods to implement have evolved to overcome the historical challenges to embark on the change, such as

  • Limited budget and staffing – both in operations and IT
  • Poor quality master data
  • Disparate, critical, legacy systems (ie SAP EAM)
  • Employee resistance to change

The business opportunity is clearly significant, as McKinsey research found, “technology has helped some companies to boost maintenance-labor productivity by 15 to 30 percent.”

This article will discuss new process opportunities in software execution to digitize your paper-based workflows. It is easier today to overcome these implementation challenges, in order to improve productivity faster, reduce costs plus become “future-proof” with the flexibility to address future needs.

Continue reading “New Digitization Approaches for Strategic Maintenance Management”

Device Considerations for Mobile EAM with SAP PM

Posted on by Matt Sickler

Replacing your paper-based working processes and going fully digital with SAP PM requires consideration into the right software and mobile devices.First you need to identify the right mobile EAM app that will fully meet your needs. Your Second decision is to identify the mobile devices that will work for your various teams.As a leading supplier of mobile EAMapp for SAP, we have pulled together a list of mobile device features and options you may want to include in your research into mobile devices.

Feature Considerations When Selecting Mobile Devices

Rugged Mobile devices have become increasingly critical as technology, regulations,and working practicesevolve.In maintenance environments, conditions can be unpredictable, dangerous,or volatile. On top of this, there are usability, connectivity, liability, and employee safety considerations that all play a role in the types of mobile devices that are used on-site or in the field.Here’s some common features to consider:

Safety

Using electronic devices of any kind in hazardous maintenance environments creates a safety issue and violates codes and regulations, such as those set by OSHA.Hazardous areas include environments with combustible or ignitable substances, such as gasses or vapors. The hazardous designation is based on both the kind of hazard and the likelihood of the hazard being present.

Although according to Gayle Nicoll PhD, REP, ASP, CSP AECOM’s Americas Process Safety Lead, there’s been no incidents involving hazardous locations that have been directly attributed to PED(Personal Electronic Device)use”.So why the strict global regulations?Even A small risk is a risk and therefore understanding the regulations and implications for choice of mobile devices is critically important. In addition,employees must be aware, trained and adhere to the safety procedures for working in hazardous locations including use of electronic devices.

Look for devices specifically identified as“non-incendive”and are rated for the potential hazards in your work environments.Workers in the oil and gas industry, for example, are frequently exposed to risks that may include potential fires or explosions, and often complete their daily tasks in closely confined areas. Non-incendive devices are uniquely developed for these types of high risk environments to improve efficiency and safety.

 

Device Durability

Maintenance workers may be conducting inspections,taking measurements, servicing,or repairing equipment wherever the asset resides. This means that their devices could come into contact with liquids, grease, dust and debris, or extreme temperatures.

 

Often,smartphones and tablets must be durable for unusual circumstances, such as grease-coated fingers that may drop the device onto unforgiving surfaces.Devices Should be built to resist damage from drops of over a meter, submersion in water,operate within a range of temperatures,withstand vibrations and shocks,plus resistoil, dirt,or dust.Good news here is that the industry has set standards, tests, and rating scales for buyers to understand the degree of durability.For example, a smartphone rated at IP68 is “dust resistant” and can be “immersed in 1.5 meters of freshwater for up to 30 minutes.”

 

Battery Life

 A reliable, long-lasting battery is crucial to completing a job by the end of a regular workday or supporting employees through an extended workday. In circumstances where normal battery life still isn’t sufficient, then alternative solutions should be in place to support work continuity. For example, the battery life can be supplemented with external batteries,or hot-swappable batteries.You can also provide convenient charging stations in strategic locations.

For industries that may encounter emergency repair situations without power,further backup battery plans should be considered beyond the normal day-to-day requirements.

 

Touchscreen Sensitivity

A versatile display is an enormous asset in any maintenance environment, which is why screen technology should be a key factor. For example, being able to clearly read the screen in poor or very bright light, such as direct sunlight, is important for field work, as is being able to navigate the screen and scroll while wearing gloves or in wet, snowy,or humid conditions.Many of today’s rugged smartphone and tablet models include integrated Corning Gorilla Glass For added durability or special screen coatings that can help resist oil and fingerprints.

 

Touchscreen sensitivity should be designed to readily discern human touch,even if the screen is slick from humidity, coated in dust, or the user has gloves on. This ensures that weather conditions and personal protective equipment (PPE) aren’t deterrents to job performance and productivity.Screen resolution also factor to consider depending on the content being viewed as part of your team’s work.

 

Device Consolidation

Maintenance workers often use multiple devices on the job for equipment inspections and testing. Switching between numerous devices can be time-consuming and inefficient. For instance, a field worker in the energy and utilities industry may have to tradeoff between two or more tools to test gauges while in a high-risk setting.

Instead of lugging around a few different devices, workers can use a single smartphone or tablet that consolidates a number of “tools”to reduce the time typically devoted towards routine tasks.Consider a rugged mobile device with a radiofrequency identification (RFID) or a barcode scanner that can simplify routines and directly integrate data into a work management app to update work orders or warehouse records. One less devices can mean at least one less step in the process.

 

Camera

Smartphoneand tabletcameras have been continually improving through the years. Camera resolution may not be a critical consideration, but there are many other options to consider, including the ability to capture images in low-light situations or sense and capture infrared images.

 

Processor, Memory and Storage

Choosing the right CPU performance, memory, and storage options will be critical for staff productivity.Working memory (RAM) must accommodate the data managed in today’s applications plus the potential for machine learning, artificial intelligence, augmented reality, and analytic capabilities of apps in the near future.Consider 4GB RAM memory as a minimum.

 

Storage memory is critical for worker productivity in locations without connectivity.Many mobile apps will store data on the mobile device to support continuous use of the app when the user is offline.Consider 128GB as the minimum storage memory.

 

Operating System

Your operating system choices are likely already established within your company policies and mobile device management security software. To decide on the right operating system for your industrial maintenance or warehouse operations, consider the availability of devices with the features you need.In addition, look at the operating systems supported by your choice of mobile EAMapplications.Generally, most device vendors and application providers support bothApple and Android operating systems.

 

Network Connectivity

 Maintenance technicians and workers need to have full access to the information and use of their mobile devices anywhere they work. Many locations, such as certain spaces within a warehouse or on an offshore oil rig, have spotty network connections or no signal at all. Workers need the capabilities to access and collect data in areas with poor or zero network connectivity regardless of the industrial environment.

Smartphones and tablets with a minimum of 4G LTE and WIFI 5GHz key for optimal connectivity. The mobile device should be equipped to support Bluetooth 5.0, which has a substantially longer range and at least twice the data transfer speeds for secure, short-distance connections.Most smartphones and tabletsinclude2.4GHz and 5GHzWiFiconnectivityto your router infrastructure. WiFi extenders can also be strategically located to support certain working environments.

 

Also, consider native mobile apps for free offline access.Natively designedmobileEAMappsprovide the data that workers need in areas without connectivity so they can continuously collect information, review work orders,reference equipment manuals, or verify task completion.

 

Understanding Feature Options

There are many options in each of the features we have outlined above.The Mobile Device manufacturers help by grouping commonly requested features into a single rugged smartphone or tablet for typical industrial use cases. Identify your critical and nice-to-have features to make the right feature/price/model decisions to support each of your different work teams.

 

Download our feature guide to industrial mobile device features to specify your particular requirements.

  

How Sigga Can Help

 Sigga has 20 years of experience in digitally transforming workflows across a range of asset-intensive industries who use SAP.We offer native mobile apps for maintenance and warehouse operations that deliver the full range of benefits enabled by a native mobile app, including faster performance, better security, and more streamlined use of features of the phone, such as the camera and GPS, from within the app.Or Apps Are designed specifically for full offline access to app features and data resources to support teams in any situation with a reliable user experience.

  • Sigga’s Mobile EAM app keeps technicians in the field or plant with immediate access to information which results in greater productivity, real-time data visibility, and reduces maintenance costs.
  • Sigga’s Warehouse and Inventory app improves efficiency of warehouse resources, increases data accuracy, and reduces inventory carrying costs.
  • Sigga’s Planning and Scheduling solution improves maintenance effectiveness by automating many maintenance management activities from planning annual maintenance budgets to creating schedules that result in improved technician routing and increased asset uptime. 

The Keys to Effective Change Management in Industrial Maintenance

Posted on by Matt Sickler

The pandemic has been a catalyst for accelerating digital transformation initiatives. Numerous organizations responded to the pandemic by trying to advance operational digitization as quickly as possible, but effective change management is going to be key for those that succeed.

“Companies are pouring millions into ‘digital transformation’ initiatives — but a high percentage of those fail to pay off.”

Harvard Business Review

For industrial maintenance operations, the issue is exacerbated by the fact that many organizations early on the digitization curve and still using paper-based processes.According to Jennifer Waldo, for Tech Target IoT Agenda, “The idea of technological speed and agility are evolving concepts in the industrial world. The industrial sector is just beginning to embrace more digital elements in order to compete successfully in the current era. Shifting the culture of an industrial company to more quickly adapt and embrace digitization will be one of the biggest factors in a successful transformation.”

The results are worth it when you effectively manage the process to not only change technologies but fully address the work processes and people impacts. “When companies get all of the requirements right, the results can be impressive. Leading players in a variety of heavy industries have used digital tools to dramatically reduce unplanned outages while boosting maintenance-labor productivity. Higher availability and a more-efficient workforce have increased profitability by 4 to 10 percent in some organizations,” according to McKinsey& Co.research.

To be on the winning end of maintenance digitization initiative, consider the advice we’ve accumulated through our 20-years of transforming EAM workflows with asset-intensive industries. Including Supporting insights from key analysts, read our whitepaper to find the keys to achieving EAM digital transformation success.

Download Sigga Whitepaper

16 pages, English

Effective Maintenance Management Strategies for 2022

Posted on by Matt Sickler

As 2021 draws to a close, we look back to the trends that have had a significant impact on maintenance operations. From the worsening labor shortage to lingering supply chain issues, we can see that many of the challenges from 2022 will continue to be a force to contend with in 2022.In this article, we’ll explore the trends and related resolutions to consider in maintenance operations planning and investments for the coming year.

EAM Challenges and Forecast for 2022

What trends and challenges do we expect to be a force in 2022?McKinsey asked majorJournalists, media executives, columnists, commentators, and media critics — from the US and around the world: What major themes will we see in global media in 2022? What should we see more of?

“The high interest we see now in global supply-chain stories will continue to grow.
 This includes big-picture stories about systems under duress and global worker shortages.

– Meredith Artley, Editor in Chief and SVP, CNN Digital Worldwide

  

“It’s about labor. COVID-19 has exposed the long-standing divide between labor and corporations in terms of wages and working conditions… and it’s going to become more intense come 2022. 

– Marsha Cooke, SVP global news and special projects, VICE MEDIA LLC

 

“Battles over climate change policy and implementation of agreements will dominate national and international news agendas in 2022. This, of course, encompasses so much. After so many years of discussion, we may see a revolutionary breakthrough in corporate social responsibility and the consideration of environmental, social, and governance criteria to rate companies’ performance, conduct, and future strategy.”

– Valérie Arnould, Deputy Director, digital revenue network, World Association of News Publishers

 

 “The rolling changes to our world brought about by exponential technology developments and the disconnect with slower, linear approaches of our government and institutions will surely remain a dominant story in 2022. There are deep ramifications for these technology developments, including the continued impact of crypto on finance, the tech platforms on information and democracy,AI and automation technologies on jobs, renewable energy sources and better batteries on the environment, and synthetic biology on our health and medicine. But the flashpoints will only get messier and have greater business and financial implications.”

– Kevin Delaney, Co-founder and Editor in Chief, Charter

 

Certainly, these challenges are not new topics, but as the journalists noted, they are becoming more urgent or lingering requirements for 2022 planning.Is it time to revisit your current path and consider prioritizing actions to better manage and improve maintenance operations? Take a look at our articles this year that pull together proven strategies and tactics to address these challenges and more as you plan for 2022.

 

2022 Resolutions

1) Better Planning to Manage Through Continued Supply Chain Issues

Maintenance teams need to improve their ability to manage the inventory of parts and materials to maximize production uptime. It is challenging enough for production teams to deal with the supply chain issues for raw materials. Add the uncertainty of obtaining spare parts to quickly repair downed equipment, the situation becomes unacceptable.

Maintenance operations need to do their part to reduce unexpected downtime and preventive maintenance is the tried and true path to mitigating downtime. But committing to the execution of planned maintenance tasks can be especially challenging when corrective and emergency repairs take precedence. Given the shortage of skilled labor, the situation is only getting worse.

There are proven maintenance strategies, like reliability-centered maintenance, that can help you plan your maintenance approach to minimize expenses and optimize the use of your limited workforce. 

If you don’t already utilize sensors to facilitate inspection rounds and reduce preventive maintenance frequency, consider getting started on the path towards predictive maintenance.If you are already on this path, consider the steps to further your progress to take full advantage of these technologies for predictive maintenance.Sensor technology can give you the advanced warning of a failure to enable the time needed to procure parts and materials.

Minimizing surprises and turning around a reactive maintenance department, will not only reduce downtime, but it will also improve the advanced planning of replacement parts and materials due to the visibility of requirements from creating the PM plans.

 

2) Improve Job Attractiveness, Hiring, and Retention of your Skilled Maintenance Workforce

Besides deploying technologies to drive efficiencies, technology can help you improve job quality to attract and retain industrial maintenance talent.In fact, modern day technologies to support work tasks such as mobile devices and equipment sensors are fully expected by the younger generations in maintenance jobs.

With what they are called the “great resignation”(employees just leaving their jobs over the latter half of2021),it is critical to deploy strategies NOW to overcome the shortage of skilled maintenance labor. Successful organizations will focus on how to “do more with less” as opposed to hoping that the situation will quickly turnaround.

 

And, as you look at your plans for 2022, consider how to make your maintenance department organization structure more effective in order to work with the staff you have or worse yet, with fewer skilled technicians.

3) Increase EAM Planning in Support of Environmental, Social, and Governance Evaluations

Environmental, social and governance (ESG) is gaining greater interest with investors who are evaluating how companies mitigate these risks to ensure their long-term sustainability as a business.Maintenance operations teams are no stranger to developing risk mitigation plans. ESG forces the effort beyond the usual EAM plans. If you aren’t looking at your plans with an eye towards ESG, now is a good time to start. 

Part of ESG planning is the evaluation of how companies can adapt and be agile in the face of volatility, uncertainty, change and ambiguity (VUCA) in today’s business environment.To address these challenges, the International Standards Organization (ISO) developed theISO 55000 series (55000, 55001, and 55002) of international standards covering the management of assets of any kind. The ISO 55000 series describes what a company should do to maximize the value of its assets on a sustainable basis.

Social strategies to protect the workforce is an on-going and expanding consideration for advancing maintenance operations management.It is also a driver of growing compliance regulations especially for food-quality plant maintenance for food & beverage manufacturers.

 

4) Invest in AI and Automation Technologies to Optimize EAM

Analysts have been consistent in promoting the acceleration of adoption of digital technologies is necessary in today’s environment. Not only to manage the challenges of managing people through a pandemic, but also to provide the agility to respond to sudden changes in their operations. The side benefit is greater productivity to deal with the labor shortage situation.

As McKinsey& Co. found in their research, “When companies get all of the requirements right, the results can be impressive. Leading players in a variety of heavy industries have used digital tools in dramatically reducing unplanned outages while boosting maintenance-labor productivity. Higher availability and a more-efficient workforce have increased profitability by 4 to 10 percent in some organizations.”

Getting the “requirements right”, requires effective change management for industrial maintenance teams. 

Industry 4.0 technologies are key to growing cost-effective predictive maintenance strategies.Advancing your use of these smart planet technologies will be important in 2022, as the Fifth Industrial Revolution (Industry 5.0) will take these capabilities a step further by improving the collaboration between humans and machines, allowing humans to work even more smarter and more efficiently.

 

Planning for a Successful 2022 

Annual Maintenance Planning 

As you finalize your annual maintenance plans for 2022, consider the investments in processes to improve your planning and budgeting process. Creating a bottom-up, data-driven, maintenance budget with SAP can be challenging. And if you did this recently, consider what it’s going to take to keep track of your actual spend to budget in 2022. There is a better way, with an automation solution to support the process of maintenance planning and budget management. The solution can maintain views of the department budget and spending by financial cost categories as well as by maintenance operational views.

Planning and scheduling automation tools canals help you reduce budgets with more effective maintenance planning– including annual planning, down to the monthly/weekly and daily planning and scheduling of maintenance tasks.These tools are key to turning around a reactive maintenance operation and gaining control of limited resources.

Measuring Results 

Now is a good time to establish baseline measures to track the effectiveness of your maintenance operations in 2022. Here’s some common measures to consider tracking for next year:

  • Wrench time – when was the last time you conducted a wrench time study? Do you know what are the common time wastes for your valuable, limited technician staff? A wrench time study is a great way to uncover the low-hanging fruit of time wastes nonetheless benchmark your operations with other similar organizations.
  • Maintenance effectiveness – Look at your 2021 results to evaluate your percentage of planned, corrective and breakdown maintenance work. Again, compare to benchmarks and set goals for 2022 to shift towards more planned maintenance for lowering your costs and optimizing your use of resources in the long run.
  • Schedule compliance – and similar planning measures help you identify the root causes of low compliance issues to improve planning accuracy and staff efficiency
  • Downtime – MTTR, MTBF, OEE are all measures that can help drive collaborative conversations with production to optimize operations overall.

Justifying the investment in automation and mobile solutions 

Building the business case to invest in solutions for the maintenance department doesn’t have to be difficult. Often a quick, back-of-the-envelope calculation can demonstrate the potential for real cost savings and productivity improvements. You can add more rigor with these cost savings analysis tools:

  • Mobile EAM Savings. Justify the investment in replacing paper with mobile devices for technicians to work directly with SAP PM, the most obvious impact is reducing resources due to the wrench time improvements. And if you need to justify a maintenance solution investment without cutting headcount, consider making the case from the hidden cost savings.
  • Planning and Scheduling Savings. Justify the investment in adding automation to the process of maintenance planning and scheduling from SAP PM data. In this whitepaper, Unleash the Power of SAP and Save, we outline the savings in terms of improving wrench time, operational effectiveness and time savings for the planners and schedulers.

20-Years of EAM Innovations 

For two decades, we’ve been staying on top of the evolution of challenges for maintenance operations in asset-intensive industries.In 2021, we celebrated several milestones in our evolution as a company:

  • Gemspring Capital partnership –at the beginning of the year, we went into partnership with Gemspring to support our rapid global expansion to serve and expand our enterprise clients with operations around the world.
  • SAP Silver Partner – for over 15-years, we’ve been focusing on innovations in EAM for SAP including developing our own proprietary SAP integration technology and sustaining SAP certifications for our EAM software and mobile solutions. Few, if any companies, can say they have been focused on SAP EAM and mobility for more than a decade.
  • Successful Customers – we are proud of the results our customers have achieved and continue to experience as we evolve our partnerships to achieve new levels of productivity. Our current global enterprise customers are also key to our innovation roadmap, including our latest launch:
  • Budget Management automation – we recently launched a new innovation to further improve how companies utilize SAP PM for annual budgeting and budget tracking. This solution is another example of augmenting and optimizing SAP with today’s automation technologies.
  • Sigga 20-year Anniversary – Our long history of dedication to SAP and EAM is your guarantee of results.

As 2021 draws to a close, here at Sigga, we look forward to partnering with our enterprise customers to overcome current and future challenges in EAM.Our talented team are tirelessly working on new innovations to help companies get more done with fewer people, optimize maintenance metrics, and provide the agility needed to succeed in 2022 and into the future. 

Choose an experienced partner to simplify your SAP EAM workflows.

Learn more about Sigga.

 

Advancing Failure Analysis for SAP Plant Maintenance

Posted on by Matt Sickler

SAP Plant Maintenance(PM) plans are key to reducing and minimizing the impact of unplanned events on safety, the environment, and business profitability. But creating and staying committed to the execution of PM plans is often a challenge with limited resources and data quality issues.

In this article, we will discuss how organizations can improve data collection and analysis to make informed decisions and improve preventive maintenance plans.

 

Making a Commitment to Increase Preventive Maintenance

When Equipment is not working properly,it is not producing capacity. A lack of production translates to lost revenue. Worse still, complete failure can result in significant costs to repair or replace equipment,idle production staff,and even loss of raw materials such as spoilage in food & beverage manufacturing. Preventive Maintenance goes a long way towards maximizing productivity and avoiding costly unplanned downtime.

 

Many organizations do not effectively deploy proactive maintenance strategies such as preventive, predictive,and reliability-centered maintenance. As the Marshall Institute notes, there is a heavy tendency to use the approach of “run to failure” rather than practicing preventative maintenance. And even in maintenance departments that indicate that they are committed to preventive maintenance,many do not practice it fully or effectively.

 

One of the reasons that these initiatives often fail is that the preventive maintenance (PM) plans are not based on the right data. Maintenance planners rely on a broad range of data sources when putting together PMtasks. For example, equipment manufacturers’ manuals, work order history,and advice from reliability experts. Since many maintenance organizations continue to rely on paper-based processes and manually input data into SAP,PM tasks are often based on incomplete and inaccurate data. Thus,data integrity plays a crucial role in creating and implementingPM plans.

 

Data Integrity in SAP Plant Maintenance

Maintenance leaders are often surprised to learn that even though they have powerful system to manage maintenance data in SAP PM, they may not be getting the most out of it. Such was the case in a South African-based petrochemical plant. Management began to notice that PM jobs and repairs were not being completed on their first attempt. This contributed to an increase in the work backlog, rising costs, and inefficient use of maintenance technician’s time.

As management delved further into the issue, they identified something that was both troubling and astonishing.Since Work order results were manually entered into SAP, the details on what happened and the cause of the failures were based on hand written notes. In SAP PM, these are open text fields to capture the data.As they looked into the data, they found over 300 different reason code for failure that pointed to one issue: the parts were not available to complete the work order the first time.

The open-ended responses created a database that could not be easily analyzed by stakeholders to look at failures,root causes,nor trends. A lack of standard data entry fields negatively impacted the data integrity. And poor data integrity leads to incomplete and/or ineffective maintenance planning.

 

Developing an Effective SAP Preventive Maintenance Plan

 Failure analysis is a crucial component of a proactive maintenance culture. It involves collecting and analyzing failure data to identify the root cause of a breakdown. Failure analysis typically conducted after a failure has already occurred.Reliability engineer and maintenance managers can use what they learn to improve the planning of PM tasks as well as modify machine design or how equipment is used.

But failure analysis is only useful in the maintenance planning process if stakeholders have access to complete and accurate data. This means streamlining and standardizing the collection of maintenance data within SAPPM through the use of automation technologies. For example, through the use of mobile EAM solution technicians can identify the reasons for failure using drop-down menus of predefined reason codes. This information is automatically synced with SAP to give maintenance planners the reliable and complete data they need tocreatePM plans.

While the process of improving SAP PM plan may seem overwhelming, you can get started by following the steps outlined here:

 

  1. Audit Data Resource

 The first step is to compile your data resources to ensure that you will have the data that you need to engage in meaningful analysis.Then determine which assets you want to include in your preventive maintenance plans. For organizations that do not have established preventive maintenance processes, you may only want to start with a handful of your most important assets and scale up from there.

 Relevant data resources will include things like manufacturer repair manuals,pastwork orders, and failure reports.If your maintenance department relies on paper-based work order management and SAP PM,this will be a time-consuming task until you better structure the data inputs into the system.Focus on pulling together the data from past work orders for each assetto determine:

  • What failed
  • When it failed
  • Why it failed
  • What Type of repair was done
  • Did it fail again
  1. Conduct RCA and/or FMEA

Effective Maintenance planning encompasses two perspectives: what did happen and what could happen. RootCauseAnalysis (RCA), also called failure analysis, looks back at what has already happened. When you experience a corrective or breakdown event, an RCA involves looking at why the problem occurred and working your way down until you identify the underlying causes. For each cause, you can identify a solution. These solutionscanbecometasks in your PMplan.

 

Unlike RCA,Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA)seeks to identify what could happen by identifying potential failure modes (FM).There are several types of FMEA analysis: Design, Process and Functional. We are going to focus onFunctional examples.The process starts with a bottoms-up approach. Each component of an asset is examined to identify all potentialFMsthat can happen and what would be the consequences of each failure. Since technicians are the most familiar with assets, they are typically the best resource for identifying these details.

 

Failure Modes and Effects Analysis – Pump System Example

Equipment function Functional failure Component Potential failure modes Potential effects of failure Potential causes of failure Current controls Frequency Of controls
Provide process flow Loss of process flow Motor Seized bearings Total loss of capacity Lack of lubrication Lube motor bearings 6M
Provide process flow Degraded process flow Impeller Reduced discharge pressure Partial loss of capacity Normal wear Overhaul pump 2Y

Making FMEA the heart of an equipment maintenance plan

 

  1. Prioritizing Risks

Using this information, maintenance department scan then set criteria for evaluating the level of risk of each identified failure and assignita Risk Priority Number (RPN). The RPN is a metric that used to prioritize maintenance tasks based the likelihood of an occurrence,ability to detect the problem, and the severity of the impact.For example– rating the severity(SEV)of the failure:

 

Rating Effect Severity of the effect
10 Hazardous without warning Very high severity, potential effects safe system operation without warning
9 Hazardous with warning Very high severity, potential FM effects safe system operation with warning
8 Very high System inoperable with destructive failure without compromising safety
7 High System inoperable with equipment damage
6 Moderate System inoperable with minor damage
5 Low System inoperable without damage
4 Very low System operable with significant degradation of performance
3 Minor System operable with some degradation of performance
2 Very minor System operable with minimal interference
1 None No effect

Source: Failure Mode and Effects Analysis Under Uncertainty: A Literature Review and Tutorial

 

Follow the same approach to identify a scale for likelihood to occur(OCC) and likelihood of detection (DET) and multiply the three risk factors to determine a RPN number.Then, working with the engineers and technicians identify recommended actions, frequency required, and forecast the end result using the sameRPN scale.

 

Failure Modes and Effects Analysis – Pump System ExampleContinued

Risk assessment (as is) Recommended improvements/actions Recommended improvement process frequency Responsibility/ date Risk assessment (to be)
SEV OCC DET RPN       SEV OCC DET RPN
6 5 3 90 Include on vibration and IR route 3M PdMTech/ 1Q22 6 3 2 36
4 6 5 120 Monitor flow and discharge pressure 1W Operation/ 1W22 4 6 3 72

Making FMEA the heart of an equipment maintenance plan

 

This type of analysis can start at a high-level,looking at the major components of a critical asset, then overtime go deeper into sub-components and materials.

 

The result allows maintenance engineers and managers to prioritize PM tasks and make informed decisions to improve the organization’s commitment to executingPM plans.Redo The analysis annually to evaluate the impact and further refine your plans for further optimization of your resources.

 

In Conclusion

Preventive Maintenance help organizations avoid unplanned downtime and improve resource allocation.While many organizations indicate that they are committed to preventive maintenance plans, initiatives are often hampered by the lack of quality data and the ability to analyze it.

 

Start with structuring the capture of data for analysis and then you can look at industry-proven methods like RCA and/or FMEA to prioritize and focus yourPM plans.Understanding the RPNpriorityof a planned task improves the organization’s commitment to see that it is performed on time. Plus,based on data, you can optimize the frequency of a task– possibly reducing the number of PMs required per year,more efficiently utilize your resources, and increase your schedule compliance.

 

By making the commitment to better capture and structure data,analyze failures,and build better SAP Plant Maintenance plans, you can achieve long-term results with higher asset OEE and minimize the impact of unplanned events on safety, the environment,and business profitability.

 

How Sigga Can Help

 Sigga is a certified SAP partner with over two decades of experience providing industry-leading industrial maintenance solutions. Our mobile EAMsolution streamlines the collection of data. Work orders are dispatched to technicians on their mobile devices. Technicians automatically capture and structure the data needed for analysis through their day-to-day use of the app to complete their work orders.Data is automatically synced with SAP Plant Maintenance. This solution solves data gaps and helps enable maintenance teams to be able to create, implement, and monitor preventive maintenance plans.

 

In addition, our planning and scheduling solution automates routines to improve the deployment of preventive maintenance programs with full visibility to the prioritization of tasks.With these two solutions, our clients have seen productivity results from 15% to over 50%.

 

Sigga Solutions

Read more about Sigga Solutions and how we can help you improve your preventive maintenance program.

 

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