Digitization of the maintenance system at Gascogne Paper
THE COMPANY
GASCOGNE PAPIER
Since 1925, Gascogne Paper has been a long-standing specialist in brown kraft paper and has been developing this distinctive feature of 100% natural and innovative paper all over the world. Specializing in packaging for industry, the company now has around 330 employees and generates revenue of around €147 million in 2021.
client’s issues
A non-mobile CMMS + lost or unreliable information = uncontrolled management costs
The Gascogne Papier site located in Mimizan has a fleet of several thousand critical pieces of equipment (motors, presses, etc.) until now managed via a very human process (1 centralizing person, excel/word files, paper filing cabinets). The equipment is difficult to locate despite its great mobility across several workshops. Maintenance technicians lack a mobile extension of their CMMS, which is installed on a fixed PC.
Note that the paper process does not allow the automation of simultaneous tasks or the direct synchronization of information across services: this problem slows down and makes information less reliable.
The problems this causes are: a lack of information, which is not properly shared and therefore unreliable, additional costs for the fleet and its uncontrolled management, traceability of equipment which is not optimal and a not very mobile CMMS tool that does not facilitate interventions.
Identified needs
Traceability, mobility, efficiency
The major need that we managed to identify for Gascogne Paper was to create a unified database shared with its third-party stakeholders (suppliers, subcontractors, etc.). Other underlying needs have been taken into account to meet their specifications, in particular the following needs:
- Maintain equipment correctly and efficiently to reduce production downtime
- Trace the movement and condition of their equipment
- Improve operational efficiency for tasks to be performed in the field
- Mobile and direct access to machines in the workshop in a connected way with the existing CMMS
- Consult and update the technical characteristics of the equipment at machine level
- Log and improve the traceability of actions performed on machines
The solution we deployed
Centralization of data equipment at your fingertips
The team first worked on the technical way of marking to withstand the extreme conditions of the factory: high temperatures, dirt, cleaning with detergents.
This made it possible to define a bleam marking mode by engraving. The customer was then able to tag all the machines present on the site with our Bleams, which made it possible to initialize a new unified and up-to-date database in Fusion thanks to the connected Ubleam mobile application… Once the inventory carried out, maintenance technicians, controllers and third parties can access the complete digital logbook by scanning the bleam on a smartphone. This digitization of processes makes it possible to unify the collection of data, to trace actions as well as to manage its fleet efficiently.
Testimony of Jérôme Tinant, responsible for the digitalization of the Gascogne group on this subject:
“The idea for us is to have directly integrated all the research elements that allow us to find replacement parts. Overall before that, people used excel and didn’t know how to filter, because you have to have software skills, whereas there, anyone scans the bleam, looks for what he can put in the place and the application offers a list of interchangeable parts.”
In order to facilitate maintenance and better share information, we have set up a movement form system with a process for updating the attributes in the database of each piece of equipment: its status, its location, the date of movement… Thus, when equipment is removed, the field technician declares the movement operation on mobile in a logic of permanent monitoring and reinforced traceability. The site manager, who has access to our Fusion platform, can initiate a more detailed and complementary movement form with CMMS data. This allows him to record additional information such as the subcontractor order number or the planned availability date of the equipment. As Jérôme Tinant explains to us, these functions are widely used “We use forms a lot for movements (of parts, of machines): we know who issued what, when and what the diagnosis was. It brings us a lot more data than we had before and above all we know where to find it.”
We have also centralized and simplified access to the specific documentation linked to each machine (plans, inspection reports) which makes it possible to access the list of spare parts directly on the application as well as the list of interchangeable equipment. (ex: search for a motor with the same shaft diameter, same power, same motor speed and same type of mounting).
In collaboration with Gascogne Paper, our team has been able to develop a new tool which is added to the fusion platform. This “supervision” tool simply allows you to create your own dashboard in order to follow the relevant indicators on forms, equipment or even scans. This proved to meet a real need of our customers: we have therefore implemented it permanently in our solution so that all users can benefit from it.
Benefits and results
1h transformed in 1 sec!
Since the implementation of the Ubleam system, there are no longer any losses due to machine stoppages. For example, when an engine failed, technicians had to look for an engine with the same characteristics. The cost of one hour of downtime can amount to tens of thousands euros. Thanks to bleam and the option to access linked objects, in one scan, the technician can see the list of interchangeable motors in 1 second compared to 1 hour previously, a significant time saving.
Tracking (geolocation, maintenance history, monitoring of tasks in progress) is introduced in a simple, efficient and intuitive way. Equipment movements are recorded throughout their life cycle to optimize maintenance management and monitoring to better rationalize the Gascogne paper machine fleet.
Conclusion
4500 assets bleamed
The integration of the Ubleam solution has been a real success at Gascogne Paper, as Jérôme Tinant testifies to us “There, everyone has the information, it’s live and it’s centralized almost automatically, it’s a huge payoff”.
With more than 4,500 critical equipment badged with bleam within the brand, the customer performs around ten daily scans to ensure the proper functioning of production machines, we are proud to have contributed to a new successful digital transformation of a international manufacturer, towards the industry of the future.
Discover our other customer cases on
the digitial logbook preventive maintenance tracking
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