Global automotive supplier standardizes maintenance processes for its systems with OPRA in 45 plants worldwide
Production and maintenance belong together - according to the person responsible for production-related systems with a focus on maintenance in the central IT department of a global automotive supplier. With this in mind, and because the central department is responsible for production IT processes in all plants worldwide, a project to optimize maintenance processes was launched at the beginning of 2017. It culminated in April 2018 with the go-live of OPRA , which also marked the start of the global introduction of DATAGROUP's SAP-based maintenance solution. With the introduction of OPRA, the company was able to achieve several goals at once: Maintenance processes were modernized and standardized worldwide, and comparability between production sites was also established. Above all, the solution brings production and maintenance closer together and the processes can be ideally coordinated.
Initial situation: reporting faults by walkie-talkie
In almost three quarters of the 50 production plants worldwide, the systems are managed and maintained using SAP EAM (formerly PM). This is a functionally comprehensive application, but it is difficult for maintenance staff to use on site at the machine without SAP knowledge. In many plants, there were therefore telephone rescue pillars that could be used to report defects to the central SAP EAM team; in some places, walkie-talkies were even used for this purpose. Identifying the specific system in the plant was sometimes a challenge in itself, resulting in valuable time and important information being lost. The company's key KPIs therefore showed clear potential for optimization: the "time-to-react" (time between receipt of notification and start of maintenance work) was too high, as was the "mean-time-to-repair", i.e. the time until the plant was put back into operation. In contrast, the "mean-time-between-failure", i.e. the time until a system next needs to be repaired, was clearly too short.
Successful combination of production and maintenance
If production can now use OPRA to transmit malfunctions and maintenance orders directly to SAP EAM via mobile devices, if the system logs how long it takes for the maintenance technician to start work and, if necessary, even instructs them remotely via smart glasses - then the connection between production and maintenance that the company was aiming for has been achieved. This is exactly what DATAGROUP's solution allows by bringing customizable SAP Fiori applications to iPhones, iPads, Windows tablets, notebooks or even desktop PCs. Maintenance staff can use these to create feedback or fault reports with just a few clicks, enrich them with images or documents and also use cameras or barcode scanners to read RFIDs, EAN or QR codes. This is how maintenance becomes mobile. Working with Fiori applications on mobile devices and retaining SAP EAM - these were the requirements for the future maintenance solution. From the automotive supplier's point of view, the OPRA system with its intuitive, process-oriented user interfaces and the ability to provide context-related information at the touch of a button met these requirements best. The focus was on mobile usability. In addition, OPRA also offers planners and key users who are familiar with SAP transactions and need to map complex processes numerous options via cockpit applications to further refine maintenance in SAP EAM.
OPRA framework as an ideal basis for individual extensions
Before the project began, those responsible at the customer company already had very clear ideas about how they wanted to implement mobile maintenance. The DATAGROUP experts were presented with a finished blue print. Based on this, the requirements were then broken down into individual user stories and developed in the fall of 2017 by a mixed team of developers from both companies using the Scrum method. Individual functions were added to the software so that it meets the specific requirements. Since going live in two plants in Germany and one plant in Canada, around 50 maintenance staff have been working with the solution. In the long term, all 700 worldwide will be using it, and the rollout is already in full swing. In the first few months alone, 10,000 maintenance notifications were recorded; in total, the company receives around 150,000 orders for SAP EAM per year. The long-term goal is to largely move away from the conventional SAP GUI in maintenance and to implement as many processes and interfaces as possible in a simpler and leaner way using SAP Fiori tools. The KPIs can now be reliably determined and the desired transparency of maintenance in relation to production has been achieved. There is a defined and documented acceptance process between the arrival of a notification and the start of the maintenance task. The key figures generated in the process can be recorded with OPRA. On this basis, the automotive supplier was now able to create a clear reporting system on the duration and success of its maintenance measures.
