Local fruit juice manufacturer and export giant Ceres Fruit Juices (CFJ) has decreased breakdowns by 37 hours a month and enhanced its overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) using asset maintenance management planning tools developed and implemented by asset performance management specialist PRAGMA Africa.
Since April 2000 CFJ has been using PRAGMA Africa`s BURO Service, an asset maintenance management planning service designed to provide a cost-effective outsourcing alternative to traditional in-house plant maintenance management administration.
The BURO service, which ensures process stability through the implementation of best operating practices through information systems and knowledge transfer, manages the maintenance administration function at the Western Cape juice plant, generating tailored preventative maintenance schedules, capturing job cards, assisting with analysis and enabling the compiling of monthly reports.
An analysis of performance over the 14-month period from implementation to January 2003 shows the total number of breakdowns per month amounting to less than 22% of total maintenance hours, with a total of 517 hours less spent on downtime than for the same time period previously.
Lofty Eksteen, maintenance manager at CFJ, says reduced breakdowns has had a direct benefit on the bottom line. "This dramatic reduction in breakdowns means that machine operators are no longer working overtime on weekends. The machine lines cease production at the end of day on Fridays, all services are switched off and work begins again on Mondays. We save on labour, electricity costs and machine wear and tear," says Eksteen.
Maintenance costs at CFJ are measured in rand per thousand packs. "Even with price increases and the fluctuations of the rand over the past year, we`ve been achieving a steady decrease in costs of around 5%. With maintenance costs on a plant our size, such savings are considerable," says Eksteen.
The BURO service has been particularly useful on the 1 000ml, 200ml and 250ml Tetrapak lines. Over the 14-month period, breakdowns on the 1 000ml Tetrapak line alone was reduced by 26 hours a month. All machines in the factory are meter-based and the scheduling of checks is planned for every 250 running hours. Schedules are generated weekly and monthly specifically for the importing of maintenance tasks.
As part of the BURO Service, PRAGMA Africa receives job cards on a weekly basis, captures the information and produces a monthly report based on the data gathered. Operator utilisation is analysed according to production line to monitor asset performance. For example, the utilisation target requires 100 hours of operator utilisation per month on the one-litre line. At the end of every month utilisation is reviewed and targets confirmed or redetermined.
Targets are also set for the achievement of preventative maintenance schedules, with a minimal goal of 80% for schedule attainment.
"Our implementation of the BURO service has been the driving force behind the dramatic improvement in our preventative maintenance techniques. With PRAGMA`s system we are able to adjust our maintenance scheduling and servicing of machines according to our specific requirements, and set new weekly and monthly targets accordingly," says Eksteen.
PRAGMA uses the Tetrapak maintenance schedules as a starting point for compiling their preventative maintenance schedules. The data is loaded into the enterprise asset management (EAM) system (PRAGMA ON KEY) and customised to CFJ`s requirements and targets. The new schedules are then issued to the teams for the following month.
Monthly reports enable the mapping of trends relating to machine performance, so that the lifecycle of the plant assets can be efficiently monitored, managed and maximised.
"Trend mapping highlights repetitive problems across all machines in the plant," says Peter Dicks, BURO manager for PRAGMA Africa Cape Town. "The two most common breakdowns per machine are highlighted and the team`s goal each month is to reduce the incidence of these breakdowns by the following month. In this way preventative maintenance schedules are adjusted to prevent recurrence of the problems, performance standards are set and continuous improvement is achieved across the production lines."
Eksteen explains how the improved efficiencies at CFJ have drawn the attention of competing manufacturers using the Tetrapak lines. "We`ve received calls from other fruit juice manufacturers enquiring after our improved processes and we`ve shown them some of the schedules we`ve developed using the BURO service to assist them with improvements."
Other business benefits of using the BURO service include a lack of costly infrastructure such as hardware and software, guaranteed statutory compliance and the absence of administration overheads and personnel issues.
"Another advantage of outsourcing maintenance administration is the degree of objectivity achieved in production reporting. Reports are generated by the BURO service rather than by line managers, which ensures accuracy and emphasises the credibility of the data," says Dicks.
CFJ has also implemented the performance measurement module of PRAGMA`s ON KEY EAM system on one of its four one-litre production lines as a pilot.
The OEE tool provides real-time monitoring to measure the performance, availability and quality rate of machines to improve overall plant performance. This monitors how the production line is running so that performance can be monitored and overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) measured for each shift.
Eksteen confirms the success of the 12-month pilot on the one-litre line is likely to lead to the full implementation of the OEE module across the three Tetrapak 1 000ml lines.
"We used to say we conducted regular plant maintenance. But through the use of the BURO service and the performance measurement system our perspective has broadened to the practice of plant asset care. Our maintenance perspective is no longer restricted to merely repairing our machines and thinking in the short term. Now it`s more long-term - it`s about maximising the lifecycle of our plant assets, monitoring performance measurement and getting everyone involved in identifying methods of continuous improvement. We`re only just touching the surface of what we`ve realised we`re able to achieve on the asset performance front," concludes Eksteen.
CFJ exports its product to more than 60 countries across Africa, Europe, the Middle East, the Far East, Asia and the US. The plant has an ISO 9001 quality assurance listing and the internationally recognised Hazardous Control Checkpoints (HACCP) certification.
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