Discover the third episode of our webseries about the deployment of our industrial maintenance management solution within the Peugeot Japy Technologies plant (specialized in gearboxes manufacturing), which has been taken over in April 2018 by French material transformation specialist Farinia Group. In this episode, we interviewed David Roth, who works a night shift as a maintenance technician. How implementing a next-gen CMMS can help the different teams of a plant to better coordinate? How did Mobility Work enhance communication? David Roth provided us with answers and explained why the tool became so essential.
Discover the previous episodes
Episode 1: implementing a maintenance management software
Episode 2: the daily deployment
Mobility Work: “Can you please introduce yourself briefly?
My name is David Roth, I am a maintenance technician at Peugeot Japy Technologies and I work the night shift as an electrician. I have been working for this company for the last 11 years and I am in charge of repairing and performing preventive maintenance interventions on equipment.
Regarding the plant’s organization, it is divided into three profit centers, which correspond to our major clients: General Motors (the one I belong to), Peugeot and Bosch. During the night, each one of them is attributed to a two-person team: one electrician and one mechanic.
How long have you been using a CMMS?
I would say that I started using Mobility Work around June 2018, when the tool was implemented. At the very beginning, we had an hour long training, after which my colleagues and I adopted the tool immediately. We, of course, went through a period of adjustment as we had to completely integrate this new solution, and today we are still discovering new useful features available in Mobility Work and measuring all the benefits the application can bring us. I can see that we got accustomed to our new maintenance management software very quickly.
All news related to ongoing interventions are available from Mobility Work mobile application’s newsfeed, available on iOS and Android
Do you feel the tool was well integrated?
In fact I do. As I said earlier, we had to adapt to the tool and learn how to use it the very first time we were confronted to it. But today, we can definitely see considerable improvement and observe very concrete results.
Can you please tell us a bit more about your activity?
I would say that it is quite the same characteristics as any day job. When it comes to the structure, the plant is divided in different sections: industrial maintenance, shift supervisors, production, supervisory staff… More concretely, when an intervention is carried out on a piece of equipment, the supervisor calls a technician or creates a task in Mobility Work and assigns him. Once the technician has arrived, he can fill out the task page with more information if necessary and is ready to perform the task right away. In terms of process, the night shift is pretty similar to day work.
The main difference is that, each time we need to order a part that is not in stock, we cannot call the teams in charge to try to accelerate the process if something is missing and that we urgently need it. It is exactly the same when we encounter a major breakdown on a piece of equipment and that we need to contact the customer service: it isn’t available during the night so we have to get used to it and adapt. It’s just a question of habit!
Night shift is a special configuration: does it imply particular difficulties?
We encountered communication issues in the past as, with our former software, instructions were essentially given orally, though they sometimes were written down. It was hard to have a real follow-up and we actually barely had one… Everything changed when Mobility Work CMMS was deployed.
Here at Peugeot Japy Technologies, I work on the General Motors profit center and I have to coordinate my work with the day team’s one, which works at normal hours. The thing is, whether it’s at 9PM when my shift starts or when it finishes at 5AM, I never get to see my colleagues. That is exactly why Mobility Work is so important: the tool allows me to see all the work that has been done during the day, the due tasks, the instructions that have been given… On my side, it gives me a real overview.
The other major benefit is the application’s mobile interface, that you can access from anywhere. For example, if I don’t have time to complete a task before I leave at 5AM, I can, while at home, follow all the operations linked to the task. Wanting to remain informed is a matter of professional conscience to me: before arriving at work, I can therefore look at the newsfeed to get an overview of the breakdowns and ongoing activities. As a consequence, I am fully ready to work when my shift starts. You just need to have access to Internet to open the application, and it is a major advantage to me.
Did our CMMS help you enhance your working methods?
Since we implemented an asset management software, I noticed several improvements. Before the software was deployed, we had no follow-up and no overview of the plant’s and technicians’ activity, whereas today we are able to better communicate. I appreciate the structure of the application which allows me to quickly access my calendar. At a glance, I know what tasks I have been assigned to, etc. Working processes are also simplified as everyone is able to access all the information needed from a smartphone and to see the interventions that were carried out in the past and that are saved in the history.
If I encounter a dysfunction on a piece of equipment and recall that it happened a few months ago already, I just need the equipment ID to search through the history and find the data I need. Within a few seconds, I can see what measures were taken to solve the problem: I don’t have to go back to the office to find the procedures and instructions. We are also able to react quicker and we have our colleagues’ phone numbers directly on our smartphones. As a consequence, we can save a huge amount of time – as long as technicians enter information in the application as they should.
Humanly speaking, I can assure you that I noticed a significant improvement. Teams throw themselves into their work and are more motivated. My coworker and I adopted our new tool very quickly, and we soon couldn’t do without Mobility Work CMMS. Processes soon became real automatic reflexes. I wouldn’t say that I was skeptical at first, I just needed to see how the tool was going to help me, and I must say that the result is more than satisfying.
Which features do you use the most?
Mainly the calendar function, again because it allows me, within just a few seconds, to know what are the late, planned and ongoing tasks. When I want to start working on a piece of equipment I was asked to and that I notice than no task has been created, I just need to scan the machine’s QR code in order to do it myself. Then I just use the voice input function to give in all the necessary information to create a task: all that takes only 15 seconds. Before the implementation of Mobility Work, I had to go back to the office and lose at least 10 minutes creating a simple task on a desktop computer.
Mobility Work’s calendar feature allows you to schedule all your preventive and predictive maintenance tasks
What do you think about the customer care of Mobility Work CMMS?
I never had to use it. Here at Peugeot Japy Technologies, a technician is in charge of deploying the maintenance management software and has to make sure it is well-integrated in all teams. Consequently, I have the possibility to contact him to ask all our questions and ensure a proper deployment of the tool.”
Thanks a lot to Mr Roth for his honest testimony! Thanks to our webseries dedicated to the implementation of our 4.0 CMMS software within the Peugeot Japy Technologies plant, follow the deployment of a next gen digital solution in a plant.
