Case study

Sugar Cane Growers Cooperative of Florida Reduces Spare Parts Inventory Value By More Than $1 Million with eMaint

Customer Since: 2019 | Industry: Food and Beverage Manufacturing

Food & Beverage

Customer since 2019 3 min read

Summary

Learn how SCGC uses eMaint to standardize maintenance operations and optimize spare parts inventory, accelerating the shift to a proactive maintenance strategy.

The Sugar Cane Growers Cooperative of Florida (SCGC), a major producer of raw sugar, faced significant challenges managing extensive maintenance operations and maintaining a large spare parts inventory. By implementing eMaint CMMS, SCGC not only streamlined its processes, but also reduced its spare parts inventory value by more than $1 million, enhancing both efficiency and profitability.

eMaint CMMS helps SCGC:

Increase work order and PM completion rates
Reduce spare parts inventory value by more than $1 million
Improve asset tracking and work order management
Increase operational efficiency

BACKGROUND

The Sugar Cane Growers Cooperative of Florida (SCGC) produces 400,000 tons of raw sugar annually. This raw sugar is grown on small and mid-sized member farms in the Everglades Agricultural Area in southern Florida. The sugar is then refined or used in other food manufacturing processes.

Sugar Cane Growers Cooperative of Florida started implementing eMaint throughout the operation two years ago. Since then, the Director of Supply Chain says he’s seen dramatic improvements in spare parts inventory management and work order completion rates. The use of the CMMS has also been instrumental in SCGC’s shift from a reactive maintenance approach to a more proactive strategy.

CHALLENGES

The SCGC is a cooperative organization, made up of small farms that are spread across 70,000 acres of land. Maintaining the many pieces of agricultural equipment and vehicles located across such a huge area is a constant struggle.

Until a few years ago, SCGC tracked its maintenance operations using a paper-based system. The process was time-consuming and labor-intensive, and paper documents easily got lost. Retrieving information was a major challenge, so the maintenance teams didn’t even use or analyze the data they collected.

SCGC also struggled with spare parts inventory. That’s why one of their main goals was to reduce the value of the spare parts inventory, which stood at $23 million before the team implemented eMaint.

IMPLEMENTATION

SCGC completely replaced their paper-based system and moved all of their data to eMaint’s cloud-based CMMS. Today, they use eMaint to track KPIs like work order and PM completion rates. They’re also using eMaint to track and manage hundreds of assets.

The team uses Fluke Mobile to access and update work orders in the field. The mobile tool lets technicians add notes and photos, access detailed directions, and mark jobs complete – even when they’re not connected to the internet.

RESULTS

eMaint CMMS has transformed the way SCGC’s maintenance team operates, helping them standardize workflows, optimize their inventory system, and customize their record keeping.

  Inventory Management: Improving the spare parts inventory system was a top priority for SCGC, so the company used eMaint’s dashboards and reporting capabilities to pinpoint which items were regularly being used. They also quickly determined the top 5 and bottom 5 performing items in their inventory. That made it easy to overhaul the inventory system and reduce their inventory value.

In just 15 months, SCGC reduced the spare parts inventory value by more than $1 million.

Increasing Operational Efficiency: Unlike with a paper-based maintenance system, when SCGC implemented eMaint CMMS, all their maintenance data was suddenly at their fingertips. They were able to easily track asset health and KPIs, like work order completion. They were also able to standardize workflows, which led to even greater work order and PM completion.

“When everything is documented and controlled by a computer, it’s harder for people to circumvent the system and processes, so there is more compliance,” the Director of Supply Chain says. “And you can see that in our KPIs that we can now actually track.”

Accessing Support: The sugar business has a lot of unique challenges, as being in the food industry comes with many regulatory obligations. Ownership of the raw materials also adds to it. In SCGC’s case, maintenance crews are also managing a huge fleet of assets spread across far-flung locations.

“The biggest change that we’ve seen since we started implementing eMaint is just adherence to policy and procedures,” says the Director of Supply Chain. Fortunately, eMaint provides a high level of customer support to all of its users.

The company opted to get the maximum level of support, so that they could count on a dedicated team being on call at any time. Along with comprehensive customer support, the Director of Supply Chain says the level of customization and flexibility that eMaint CMMS provides makes all the difference to the organization.

Moving forward, the SCGC team is greatly looking forward to implementing the latest version of the software, eMaint X5, and exploring integrations with more Fluke tools.

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Sugar Cane Growers Cooperative of Florida Reduces Spare Parts Inventory Value By More Than $1 Million with eMaint

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