Recently, the distillery and bottling plant of Halewood
International in Liverpool embarked on a ‘lean journey’.An
Idhammar MMS is facilitating a number of TPM and
continuous improvement initiatives including, 5s and loss
prevention workshops

Halewood is an independent drinks
manufacturing and distributing
company with a turnover in excess
of £250 million. Producing millions of cases
each year of ‘big brand’ beverages, such as
Lambrini, Red Square Vodka,
Lamb’s Navy Rum, and Crabbie’s
Original Alcoholic Ginger Beer is
heavy work that requires reliable
plant.

In 2008 when Halewood was
looking to replace its previous
system, operations director
Graeme Macfarlane (now
continuous improvement
director) recommended
implementing a CMMS
having seen the operational
benefits delivered by systems
in the past. As a result, the
company put to tender for a
planned maintenance
system, considering ERP
solution offerings as well as
standalone CMMS before
choosing to implement the
Idhammar Maintenance
Management System.

Understanding the
importance of gaining
management and user buy-in,
setting realistic targets,
prioritising the functionality
required, and the
requirement for effective
training programmes,
Graeme Macfarlane ensured the CMMS
implementation proved a success: “We didn’t
rush into implementing the system. We took
a step back, made sure we had buy-in from
the engineering steering team, planned how
the system could be used to assist our
processes, and provided user training
sessions – as a result the team is immediately
recognising the benefits. It’s working exactly
as we planned it would.”

Gaining visibility
From the start of the project, gaining
visibility of maintenance activity was a key
objective. One of the engineering team’s KPIs
is the number of outstanding job cards for
plant maintenance. This is measured by the
number of worksheets issued, compared to
the number completed correctly and
returned on time.Macfarlane explains:
“When we started measuring work flow we
were inundated with outstanding job cards
and some of the jobs were
being missed. Since
implementing the
Idhammar MMS we’ve
gained control, and having
more than halved the
number of outstanding
jobs at any one time, we’re
well on our way to
reaching our target of
only 10. My role
then as continuous
improvement
director is to make
sure that the target
doesn’t become
too soft – and reset
it to zero.”
There are
already plans afoot
to extend the use
of the system
outside the
Steering Team by
installing PCs on
the shopfloor.

This will negate
the need for the
paper based Work Order/
Worksheet System and reduce the Job review
and analysis lead time. In time, the plan is to
make this process even quicker using PDAs
and barcode readers.

Taking Stock
In the meantime, the steering team is in the
process of loading current stores into the
Idhammar MMS to gain sight of, quantify,
and potentially redeploy the cash tied up in
any redundant stock. Preliminary activity in
this area suggests an initial estimate of 20%
reduction in current
inventory overheads. This
process will also reduce time
required at the stores counter
and ensure there are no
stock-outs at the site. As
planned, the system is
generating an accurate
picture of the
maintenance and
engineering work
undertaken at the
Liverpool site as well
as highlighting
opportunities for
improvement.

Audit and
Compliance
Demonstrating
regulatory
compliance is often a
key driver for
purchasing a CMMS,
particularly in the
heavily regulated
industries like food and beverage
manufacturing. Halewood International is a
BRC accredited company and has found the
‘central library’ function of the system a
useful knowledge-management tool that
supports audit and compliance as well as
best working practices and procedures. The
Idhammar MMS provides a central data
repository and document library – ensuring
permits to work, training and health & safety
certificates etc, are assigned to each asset
along with a historical log of all plant
maintenance. This collective information
bank also promotes knowledge sharing.

The maintenance team at Halewood
International holds the key to maximising
asset performance, minimising downtime
and controlling production costs, while the
Idhammar MMS is providing the foundation
to deliver this efficient, effective
maintenance.Macfarlane concludes: “We
chose a dedicated CMMS because it is
specifically designed to support the
maintenance team and provides the
functionality and analysis capability we need
to improve plant maintenance.”