The world in which industrial companies operate has undergone many profound changes in recent decades. With the generalization of information technology in the first instance, and then the Internet in the second, production, supply and sales processes have been considerably transformed. It is in this context that the concept of collaborative maintenance made its appearance with the next-gen CMMS.
This is intrinsically linked to the development of Industry 4.0 and real-time information sharing tools. These have notably enabled the development of CMMS software such as Mobility Work, which makes it possible for industrial maintenance to truly become collaborative.
The new challenges of industrial maintenance
The profound technological, societal and economic transformations of the last few decades have had major consequences on the modalities of industrial production and modified the stakes for industrial maintenance.
Flexibility, competition and B2B2C
The opening of world markets initially subjected all industries to increased competition. This has constantly increased the productivity requirements of industrial companies. The production and maintenance functions have thus come under increasing pressure to speed up production rates, reduce costs and downtime, manage inventories in an optimal manner, etc. The opening up of global markets initially put all industries under increased competition.
In addition, changes in consumer purchasing behavior and the growing demand for customized products have forced companies to adapt and make their products and production more flexible. The most successful companies today are those with the most efficient production processes, rather than those with the largest production capacities. Investment in the modernization of production and maintenance infrastructures to meet market expectations has therefore seen its importance grow considerably.
These trends are pushing more and more companies to reorganize and adopt a new approach to their production. To improve their responsiveness, they are increasingly collecting and taking into account feedback from their customers to better align themselves with current trends. Exchanges between producers and consumers, but also between suppliers and customers, are therefore increasingly frequent and valued. This is why B2B2C (Business to Business to Customer) has taken a growing place in the strategy of industrial companies. Applying a B2C-inspired approach to B2B, it promotes a user-centered approach to development, production and maintenance activities.
From preventive maintenance to collaborative maintenance
Preventive maintenance is used today by many companies. By allowing the implementation of a real maintenance strategy and by anticipating the interventions to be carried out, it extends the life of the machines and guarantees optimal productivity by avoiding unexpected breakdowns. The factories that use it thus ensure regular and reliable performance.
However, the degree of efficiency of preventive maintenance largely depends on the quality of communication and collaboration between the teams involved in the maintenance work, but also on all the suppliers and service providers involved in it and in the production process.
This is why collaborative maintenance is set to become increasingly important in many industrial companies. A genuine medium- to long-term maintenance strategy, designed to streamline processes by improving exchanges between all stakeholders, aims to involve not only the entire plant (and not just maintenance teams), but also and above all to go beyond the company’s borders by bringing together external service providers.
Mobility Work, a CMMS tool at the service of collaborative maintenance
Adopting a collaborative maintenance strategy means having the right tools at your disposal, which will enable optimal and effective communication between all maintenance stakeholders.
Mobility Work CMMS is based on a community of users who exchange and follow their plant’s activity thanks to the newsfeed
A community-based CMMS
The Mobility Work application has been designed both as a maintenance management platform and as an industrial maintenance social network. In practice, this means that its users participate in its operation and the richness of its potential, and in return benefit from the considerable database and information it represents.
This operation applies first of all within the factory. Thus, when they log on, the technicians access a newsfeed compiling all the plant’s activities: last interventions, last breakdowns noted, last repairs… They also receive notifications in the application or by email to inform them of the tasks assigned to them. Communication is thus totally fluid and facilitated by the intuitive ergonomics of the application.
But this community operation extends beyond the factory or company. By adjusting privacy settings at their convenience and participating in information-sharing groups, technicians and maintenance managers can exchange – with other plants in the same group or with other companies – expertise, best practices and even spare parts.
Mobility Work Hub, a direct link between suppliers and factories
Mobility Work has even designed a tool specifically dedicated to bringing together industrial suppliers and maintenance professionals: Mobility Work Hub. This platform is primarily aimed at manufacturers and service providers who are looking for innovative development tools to be as close as possible to their customers. On the other hand, maintenance professionals are able to communicate effectively with their suppliers to inform them of their changing needs, for example in terms of spare parts.
Go through your suppliers’ catalog and get in direct contact with them
Thanks to this tool, any factory can set up a common reflection and strategy with its key suppliers. Japanese companies, often the most innovative in terms of maintenance, have already adopted this type of approach, like Toyota, who shares its strategic vision with its suppliers to identify with them possible areas for improvement and to determine common objectives.
Such an approach has several advantages. On the one hand, it breathes new life into the relationship with suppliers. On the other hand, it allows for greater fluidity and time savings throughout the cooperation between the supply chain and spare parts inventory management stakeholders.
Finally, combined with the other functionalities of the Mobility Work application (sensors integrated into machines, mobile use, etc.) and the development of the IoT (Internet of Things), it enables a company to enter into Maintenance 4.0 on the same level, making it much easier to adapt the production process to economic requirements.
Collaborative maintenance is therefore both a logical evolution of preventive maintenance and a new approach to industrial maintenance. By leveraging the development of comprehensive partnerships throughout the supply chain, the plants that adopt it improve the quality of the finished product, their production and maintenance processes, and the management of their orders, stocks and inventories.
Collaborative maintenance thus relies on the most recent CMMS tools, such as Mobility Work, to give companies the means to adapt to today’s challenges and remain competitive in line with changes in the market and production conditions.
