Ellwood Achieves 80% PM Completion, Cuts Downtime, and Aces FAA and ISO Audits with eMaint 

Since implementing eMaint, two Ellwood facilities have achieved 80% PM completion rates. Additionally, both now pass FAA, ISO, and customer audits with ease. The facilities have also reduced downtime, tracked KPIs, and improved inventory management.

Ellwood plants were experiencing high downtime levels, averaging about 10%. Constant equipment failures were impacting production and threatening to interfere with Ellwood’s on-time delivery rates.

Preventive maintenance was slipping through the cracks. Audits were a headache, since maintenance teams relied on paper and spreadsheets to track compliance.

Ellwood sought a software solution to improve its PM completion rates, reduce downtime, and simplify the audit process.

Ellwood first implemented eMaint in 2015 to improve its work order management process. After that succeeded, managers at two Ellwood plants (in Houston, TX and Navasota, TX) decided to expand the implementation, using eMaint to track PM completion, KPIs, and downtime.

Achieving 80% PM Completion

Bishwajit Ranjan is the Director of Plant Services at Ellwood Texas Forge in Houston. He uses eMaint to create customized dashboards that track PMs, create efficient schedules, and identify areas that need improvement.

eMaint stores all PM data in the same location, so it’s a one-stop-shop for scheduling and tracking. It also gives Ranjan visibility into all workflows, so he can promptly spot and correct problems.

“Now we can look at every department to see how the PMs are getting accomplished,” explains Ranjan. “We found some operation areas were near 40%. We communicated with them and they continued calibrating. Overall, we were able to improve our PM accomplishment by more than 80%.”

Demonstrating Regulatory Compliance

Audits are common in the aerospace industry. Ellwood facilities often need to demonstrate compliance with FAA and ISO standards, and with customer expectations. eMaint helps by:

• Boosting PM completion rates to 80%, the standard for regulatory compliance
• Tracking and storing audit documentation on customizable dashboards
• Improving work order management and scheduling

eMaint is making a big difference at both Ellwood Texas facilities. The plants are easily passing audits, and customers are impressed. Ranjan says during a recent customer audit, a customer told him, “You are one of the best maintenance organizations we have encountered” Ranjan says.

eMaint also transformed the audit process at the Navasota, TX facility. Until roughly two years ago, audits relied on a traditional paper-and-spreadsheet system. Shifting to eMaint has removed the hassle from the regulatory process.

The plant manager, Jason Bryant, says, “Two years ago, everybody was turning in paper documents and a maintenance supervisor had to manually check them. Now, you just go to eMaint, pull up your PM dashboard, and you’re good to go.”

Slashing Downtime

Downtime was a major problem at both Texas plants.

Previously, the Houston site averaged 10% downtime. However, the team leveraged eMaint to cut that to 3.8%. eMaint makes it easy to track metrics (like downtime) and identify times and locations, so managers can make targeted changes to improve performance. “eMaint was the driving factor behind tracking our performance and calibrating wherever required,” Rajan explains.

At the Navasota facility, equipment breakdowns used to be common. In fact, before eMaint, assets failed so often that on-time delivery became a concern.

eMaint changed that. Today, the team uses the software to employ preventive maintenance practices, which keep critical assets running, productivity high, and deliveries on time.

eMaint has reduced downtime, boosted PM completion, and improved the compliance process at both Texas plants. Today, Ellwood is exploring new ways to use eMaint to increase operational efficiency.

The Navasota facility uses eMaint to track critical spare parts for forging. The maintenance team appreciates its simplicity and ease of use, and they plan to broaden eMaint inventory management usage further.

Jason Bryant says his favorite thing about eMaint is the level of detail it delivers. Bryant and the team use it to color-code work orders and provide a visual for morning meetings. “It’s helped us focus on where we need to go each morning,” he explains.