Digitization of maintenance
Papier- u. Kartonfabrik Varel GmbH
About the customer
Papier- und Kartonfabrik Varel (PKV) is a medium-sized family business with around 600 employees. It produces board and corrugated board papers for the German and international packaging industry on the basis of recovered paper using state-of-the-art environmentally friendly technologies – the heart of the packaging solutions of many well-known products.
With an annual capacity of over 925,000 tons on four modern production lines, PKV is one of the largest sites in the European paper industry.
Challenge
The Varel paper and board mill did not have an IT-supported maintenance system in place until 2007. The company intended to introduce a holistic, integrated EAM solution, with order management, maintenance/inspection, purchasing module and materials management. In addition, it should be possible to integrate the ERP and document management system without any problems.
"Maximo impresses with its sophisticated functionality, outstanding configurability as well as integration strength, making it a very valuable tool for the digitization of the maintenance organization."
Solution
PKV opted for the IBM Maximo EAM system in 2007 and implemented the order management system the following year. In the following years, the company paused further implementations due to investments in production. In 2010, PKV introduced risk assessment in IBM Maximo.
In the following years, materials management was digitalized throughout and the processes of material issue, stock transfers and inventory were mapped in IBM Maximo. In addition, purchasing processes for both warehouse reordering and direct materials and services were initiated in IBM Maximo. Ordering and materials management were fully integrated with the ERP system in 2017.
In 2018, a central planning group was created for work preparation and IBM Maximo Scheduler was introduced as a central tool for maintenance and service planning. The Saperion document management system was connected to Maximo in 2019. As with many other companies, the efficient use of third-party service providers is also very important for PKV. IBM Maximo has a suitable solution for this as well.
In all project phases, Papier- und Kartonfabrik Varel was supported by RODIAS in requirements assessment, business conception and technical specification. The related implementations were carried out by RODIAS in close coordination with the customer. The provision of second level support for IBM Maximo by RODIAS rounds off the customer-supplier relationship.
In the future, the company would like to introduce a mobile solution in sub-areas of order management and materials management. Here, too, PKV relies on solutions from RODIAS and has selected Insight Mobile to develop pilots for initial sub-areas.
Benefit
The solution provides a central platform for managing maintenance and materials management processes. With the help of end-to-end mapping and tracking of maintenance processes, the degree of planning is increased. The integration of external companies in the system improves collaboration and documentation.
The digitization of materials management combined with continuous optimization of minimum inventory levels reduces inventory costs and supports cross-departmental work between materials management, purchasing and controlling. Maximo creates transparency in maintenance and thus provides important starting points for optimizing maintenance and reducing costs.