HEXPOL Compounding Americas Uses eMaint to Standardize Maintenance and Reduce Downtime

HEXPOL Compounding Americas (HCA) is a custom rubber manufacturer headquartered in Malmö, Sweden, with 16 locations throughout the U.S. and Mexico. HCA manufactures rubber compounds used for parts in the automotive industry, including seals, tires, and hoses, along with a wide range of other industries and applications from aerospace to consumer items. The company uses various methods and materials to customize compounds durable enough to withstand the harshest of conditions. HCA has over 50 manufacturing lines throughout its entire North America portfolio.

The 16 North American sites have been using eMaint since 2018. “We do very large bulk orders to very small orders, depending on the customer’s needs,” said Angelica Gonzalez, maintenance systems engineer at HEXPOL Compounding Americas.

HEXPOL has grown quickly, in part through acquisitions, making standardization a top priority. HCA sites are decentralized but still need to coordinate among themselves. “The best way for us to accomplish standardization was to implement a CMMS system,” said John Sedgwick, HCA director of engineering and maintenance. “The CMMS allows us to roll out standards and make changes quickly across our 16 sites. By using eMaint, we have been able to implement a large number of preventive and predictive maintenance standards which highly assists us when it comes to meeting the exact requirements of the automotive industry.”

The reports feature in eMaint helps HCA standardize their maintenance operations in several ways. The team uses it to automatically send weekly and monthly reports to the Managing Director of each of its sites. Audits have been implemented to ensure each site is following best practices for using eMaint. “Our maintenance excellence audits allow us to run specific reports to spot-check a site’s performance and its utilization of the system,” Sedgwick said. For example, HCA has built queries that can quickly determine the entirety of a site’s records. This audit process itself is standardized and systematized to ensure that each site is evaluated in the same way.

Implementing eMaint involved a considerable amount of planning and preparation, which has ultimately helped HCA gain more visibility and clarity across the organization. The implementation team quickly realized that a CMMS like eMaint doesn’t just highlight assets that need attention, it also helps measure the KPIs that will add the most value and ultimately identify processes that can be improved. For example, using the parent-child asset hierarchy within eMaint allows HCA to drill down and pinpoint the assets causing the root problem. The functionality then allows the HCA engineers to build additional preventive actions around those assets.

HCA standardization efforts with eMaint have had numerous benefits. In addition to providing greater visibility into the operations, HCA can now extract valuable insights into what is happening across its 16 sites, why it’s happening, and how it can be resolved.

For example, Sedgwick explains, “If a site is struggling with a specific piece of equipment, we can reference a different site that functions efficiently in the same area. This allows for best practices on preventive maintenance activities so the company does not have to reinvent the wheel every time.” By learning from failures when they occur and applying the relevant solutions when similar problems arise again, HCA has increased efficiency, saved time and costs, and reduced downtime.

Another helpful function of eMaint is its ability to streamline inventory management across multiple sites. “For instance, I can go in and see if we have a part in Ohio that may assist a site in California. This allows HCA to save time, money, and resources,” Sedgwick said.

Integrations are another key benefit. For example, HEXPOL integrates eMaint with SAP for their purchase order management. “eMaint is not just a cookie cutter system,” Sedgwick said. “It can be customized to fit your needs, so I think that’s one valuable aspect of it.” Connecting a CMMS to their other critical business functions helps HCA get the most out of every tool. In addition, syncing data between systems ensures that different business areas can work together effectively and have the current and, most up‑to‑date information.