When flooring manufacturer, Forbo, introduced a CMMS
(Computerised Maintenance Management System), plant
breakdowns reduced from 90 per month to less than 20,
increasing plant availability from 89 to 97%

Forbo Flooring Systems is a
manufacturer and supplier of world
class flooring, including Linoleum,
Project Vinyl, entrance matting systems,
Flotex and carpet tiles. The company is
committed to sustainable development and
responsible raw material procurement and
manufacturing processes. Its factory in
Derbyshire employs 200 people
and manufactures 3million
square metres of flooring a year.

Need
The need for a CMMS was
recognised by the new
engineering manager at the
Ripley site – Steve Green. He
says: “I came from an
aviation background. I was
used to having detailed
working records and asset
management systems, and
the paper-based system that
I found was outdated and
inadequate for our needs. The
system promoted poor
communications between departments, and
lacked tracking and therefore accountability.”
As part of a project to reduce the number
of plant breakdowns from 90 per month to
less than 20, Forbo needed a source of data
to track improvements in maintenance and
repair strategies. Knowing that there were
software systems available that could do the
job the Forbo team started to research the
market. After investigating various CMMS it
identified Agility, with its simple web-based
user interface, as an interesting option.

Forbo’s key objectives in implementing its
Agility CMMS were to improve reliability,
productivity, product quality and plant
availability. In addition it needed to improve
inter-departmental communications and the
quality of data available.

“We needed the system to enable the
maintenance and engineering department to
use hard data to identify and justify capital
projects and modification programmes,” said
Green. “I wanted to prioritise maintenance
work based on reliable data, removing the
emotion around resource allocation. Before
implementing Agility we had limited data to
back up decisions so we couldn’t be sure we
were making the right ones.”

Solution
After selecting Agility, system implementation
was a two-part process. It included general
implementation guidance and then further
specially tailored training.

The system is used on the plant floor by
operators and engineering staff, and data can
be easily extracted to create reports and
evaluations. The company has approximately
15 engineers inputting data and managing the
work and 120 operators (factory workers and
warehouse staff) who can all enter work
requests, each using a tailored introduction
screen which reflects the user’s area of interest.

The report function tracks activities over
varying timelines and provides consistent
report functions for detailed analysis. It also
allows engineering managers to assess
proactive and reactive repair activities and
provides correlation between the two,
making it valuable in assessing the
maintenance strategies in place and
identifying areas of weakness. The simple
operator interface is also easy and quick to
use at any computer terminal.

Benefits
Productivity is the most obvious benefit for
Forbo. Since implementing the system, the
same team with the same resources completes
over 200% more logged maintenance requests
and actions. Eighteen months before the
system was implemented plant availability
was 89%. It has now increased to 97%.

Green says: “Before implementation our
team would complete approximately 120
maintenance tasks a month. As soon as the
system went live there was an enormous
jump and the average over the last year is 383
maintenance tasks a month. Another KPI for
me is reactive vs proactive tasks and we have
swung from 70% reactive to more like 70%
proactive.”
Agility is a now a key source of data used
in tracking performance in maintenance and
repair strategies in Forbo. Green adds:
“Agility played a vital role in our project to
reduce the number of plant breakdowns
from 90 per month to less than 20.Without
Agility it would not have been possible.”