Orange County Containers Group (OCCG) manufactures paperboard and paper-based packaging at multiple sites in the United States and northern Mexico. OCCG had been using Datastream for nearly a decade, but decided to look for a new CMMS provider to handle their preventive maintenance program at seven production plants. Improved customer service (including Spanish language support) and multi- location inventory tracking were critical selection criteria.

With Datastream, OCCG had poor mobile connection and, consequently, maintenance workers were often unable to enter information into the system as work was being done. Maintenance managers had limited visibility of inventory quantities at each site and as a result, OCCG was unable to share inventory between sites, resulting in increased downtime while waiting on inventory from a distant supplier. In one instance, an OCCG maintenance manager estimated that a site had $1.2 million in inventory, when in fact it was closer to $2.7 million (An inventory discrepancy that surfaced after implementing eMaint CMMS).

OCCG implemented eMaint CMMS in 2009, to replace Datastream, and immediately began to see improvements. There were no unforeseen challenges in setting up eMaint at each of the seven sites, thanks in large part to the support staff. Customer support was a key criteria in OCCG’s CMMS software selection process and they were more than pleased with eMaint’s service. eMaint’s bilingual support staff facilitated setup at both the U.S. and Mexican plants. eMaint’s intuitive interface and training tools helped managers and mechanics quickly learn the eMaint system and many of the on-site mechanics take part in the eMaint Web-Workshops and Best Practices webinars to further increase operational efficiency in all of their plants.

eMaint helped OCCG gain complete control of their multi-site inventory, and improve the efficiency of its maintenance operations. Maintenance managers at multiple sites know exactly what their inventory is and are able to easily share parts across multiple locations. Downtime has been decreased by 1%. Maintenance workers can continually track labor and inventory with hand-held devices throughout the day, reducing time-consuming manual paperwork at the end of the day. As a result, the mechanics’ overtime has been reduced by 1/2 hour per day, per person along with a reduction in the natural human error that results from manual paperwork. In spite of their initial hesitation to learn a new system, the mechanics quickly embraced the ease of use with eMaint.

• Automated inventory replenishment based on Min/Max
• Reduced mechanics’ overtime by 1/2 hour per day for 32 technicians – Annual Savings of $200,000
• Multi-Site Configuration Support allows corporate standardization for ISO compliance
• Improved inventory management and sharing across multiple locations
• Bilingual customer support staff
• 1% Downtime reduction (standardizing procedures) yields an annual savings of $560,000
• Reduced % waste (spoilage) from 13% to 9% for an annual savings of over $2,000,000

Bill C., Group Maintenance Manager, Orange County Containers