INDEX
Project Requirement
- Equipment master register is to be handled by one person after a short introduction period of two months.
- Start working on preventive maintenance immediately after the introduction of the system.
- Server installation within the company is not required, so on-site users are focused solely on system utilization.
Company Overview
MannanLife, headquartered in Tomioka next to Shimonita, Gunma, specializes in the manufacturing of konjac corms (konnyaku-imo) products at its Sogi and Kanra factories. It is well known for its best-selling fruity "Konnyaku Batake" launched 30 years ago.
Guided by their corporate philosophy of "社会に 役立ち 喜ばれ 評価されたい" MannanLife believes that the fulfillment of their duties and mission is important for the happiness of every employee and their family members. They are committed to work hard and contribute to the health and nutritional needs of their customers.
"役立ち (Yakudachi)" is to contribute to society through their business by creating a fun and healthy food culture with konjac (konnyaku).
"喜ばれ (Yorokobare)" is to provide products that their customers want by listening to their reviews and providing products that meet their changing needs.
"評価されたい (Hyoukasaretai)" is to provide products that are well received and loved by their customers by producing products that are good and enjoyable to their customers.
Project Background
Since MannanLife not only suffered significant loss due to line shut down or disposal loss from unexpected operation problems, but were also often pressed with support work such as arranging personnel, materials, and equipment for repair or after-the-fact processing, how to prevent operation problems was one of the major challenges for management.
To solve these issues, MannanLife planned to implement preventive maintenance at its Kanra Factory by the second year of introduction to prevent machine failures and line shutdowns due to degradation. It is important to ensure that the periodic (weekly, monthly, yearly) inspections, repairs and replacements of parts are handled reliably, depending on the size and service life of the facility. The company decided to introduce a system to support facility management operations.
One of the selection criteria of the system is its ease-of-use. In the past, equipment and failure data was managed by maintenance engineers using spreadsheets and paper. The selected system has to be easy for the maintenance engineers to use to maintain their work efficiency. MannanLife compared a couple of systems from several companies and used them on a trial basis during their selection process. eServ from Yokogawa was finally selected because it not only offers a variety of functions that improves productivity of the facilities, it also offers extensive analytical functions and is easy to operate with high cybersecurity. As eServ is built on Salesforce.com cloud, there is no need to install servers in the company which reduces cost on new servers. Furthermore, users onsite are able to focus on their daily operation tasks.
Result
The introduction of eServ allowed MannanLife to centrally manage and share information such as equipment, failure information, work plans, and work results in real time. This greatly improved the efficiency of maintenance operations.
In addition, having availability of the machine failure history of the production facilities in the first year of implementation, the company is able to start preventive maintenance activity immediately after commissioning of eServ. This is a year ahead of the original plan.
The system implementation was completed in a short period of about two months. Since the equipment master registration could be handled by one person and the trial version could be tested in parallel to the actual operations, commissioning eServ for operation was a smooth process.
"The operation of eServ is very easy to understand and it can be operated comfortably in the field without looking at the manual from the trial period. By using Chatter (simple blog), it was possible to start up the operation while exchanging Q&As and attachments with Yokogawa Solutions." Furthermore, "In addition to normal facility maintenance, we have been able to conduct central management by registering consumables such as brushes and chemicals used in factories that had not been managed by the system until now, as well as the roofs of the entire building, external walls, and wiring for each room as equipment and parts. We also decided to manage items that require legal inspections, such as fire-fighting equipment, which had been left up to the contractor, with eServ so that we can remember to request inspections. We would like to continue to use the system for various company equipment and parts management," the project leader of the company, Mr. Kadokura, commented.
Future Development
In the future, based on the data accumulated in eServ MannanLife will use the reporting and dashboard functions to further strengthen their efforts for preventive maintenance by analyzing data such as failure conditions and work conditions in a variety of ways.
The company plans to manage outsourced facilities with eServ to identify failure causes and share spare parts, and to expand the scope of preventive maintenance, such as reducing repair costs and preventing productivity decline.
Industries
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Food & Beverage
At Yokogawa, we understand that today’s food and beverage companies face unprecedented challenges in climate change, consumer demand, and increased global competitiveness. Overcoming these challenges will require innovative solutions that focus on key areas of production, asset management, and food safety and quality.