Spokane Industries (SI) has been providing cost-effective casting and industrial fabrication solutions to clients around the world since 1952. Today, Spokane Industries is a modern, diversified company with a 240,000 square foot manufacturing facility housing three divisions: engineering and designing metals, investment casting for commercial and industrial use, and high-production steel foundry technology. SI has been an eMaint user since 2008, which is also when Kelly Herrin, Maintenance Administrative Specialist for Spokane Industries, came aboard to assist in the implementation of eMaint’s CMMS.

Before implementing eMaint, SI had no system for keeping records or running reports of any kind. There was little organization and it was difficult to prioritize work, employees or assets. Most of the day was spent putting out fires. There were constant pages for maintenance over the intercom system and no one knew what others were working on. In addition, because it was impossible to know what replacement parts would be needed when, many more were ordered than were needed resulting in unnecessarily high inventory costs.

Currently, there are 18 employees on SI’s maintenance team. Production supervisors can enter and access information in eMaint and submit all non-emergency requests. Work orders are automatically generated for preventive maintenance, and they are manually generated by the “maintenance scheduler” for work requested by production operators. These work orders are emailed to supervisors, who then assign them to the appropriate staff. Work is prioritized using automated RIME rankings, based on the urgency of the request and the criticality of the asset. Emergency repair or safety work orders come directly to the scheduler’s attention.

Inventory of repair parts is managed through eMaint as well. When a specific part is needed to perform a work order, a “maintenance planner” creates a PO within eMaint and emails it directly to the vendor. Once a part is delivered, the receiver can match the PO number to the corresponding work order and flag the WO to notify the scheduler that the part has arrived. Critical replacement parts are always kept in stock to ensure uninterrupted service, by utilizing an automatic reordering system, comprised of parts whose quantities have fallen to the preset “reorder point” and need to be restocked.

From that list, a PO is created and emailed to the appropriate vendor with just a few clicks of the mouse. Other parts are ordered as needed, in order to help reduce inventory carrying costs. PM inspections enable maintenance to notice when a part begins to wear, order the part, and schedule replacement for a time the machine is not running, therefore eliminating the need to stock the parts in their own inventory. A customized dashboard tracks performance against budget and other KPIs. Monthly reports on spending, downtime, productivity and labor are generated and used for trending and continuous improvement. Future plans include possible integration of barcoding equipment in the storeroom and using eMaint to track tools that are charged out when work is performed.

• 99.8% uptime rate due to improved planning and inter-departmental communications
• Work prioritized based on criticality via RIME ranking codes
• KPIs and performance against budget tracked on real-time dashboards
• Improved labor productivity – higher PM completion with 50% reduction in staff
• Integrated purchasing and inventory management resulted in dramatic inventory reduction
• Planning to utilize barcoding and develop a tool charge-out system

Kelly H., Maintenance Administrative Specialist, Spokane Industries