Water Lilies saves thousands with UpKeep

Challenge

The maintenance staff at Water Lilies was using an internet-based computer maintenance and management system (CMMS) that essentially operated like a word processing document, keeping things stagnant when they needed to be moving forward. 

“The old system was essentially a list of references with no user access,” said Travis Okula, purchaser and maintenance coordinator at Water Lilies. “It was one person's responsibility to communicate with everyone. For the most part, it was slowing us down as a company. There was nowhere to properly coordinate anything we were doing, and information was very mixed up. It made getting things done a lot more difficult than it should have been.”

Solution

After seriously evaluating about 10 potential solutions, the team selected UpKeep’s asset operations management (AOM) system. 

“The simplicity of UpKeep made everyone an expert,” Travis explained. “It was so easy to create a work order, especially on the mobile version. Operators could supply so much detail to each work order. When we got UpKeep, it was like a weight was lifted off our shoulders. We have fallen in love with it.” 

Results

Water Lilies has not only cut its downtime by more than half, but they've also saved thousands of dollars by identifying the root causes of asset failure. With this information, the team has found inexpensive solutions for previously expensive repairs. Besides helping Water Lilies quickly identify and resolve asset issues, UpKeep has given every employee a voice to effectively communicate problems to the maintenance team. This, in turn, has brought the entire company together to work more cohesively as a team.

Going In Blind

Previous to implementing UpKeep, Water Lilies was using a less-than-ideal CMMS tool. Since it functioned essentially as a protected to-do list, team members could not see who was working on which project or what the priority of work should be.

“Technicians were going in blind to a lot of jobs,” Travis said. “It caused a lot of issues and halted jobs due to confusion about what needed to be done and a lack of description in the actual work order. Since operators couldn’t submit work orders, I didn’t know what was going on unless I physically walked out to the floor and saw the issues. There were a lot of unaccounted issues, and it caused a lot of inevitable downtime.”

Seeking a New Solution

Water Lilies knew it needed a better solution as small issues continued to build up over time. Daily downtime issues and difficulty tracking parts made the work day exhausting and the most simple tasks very difficult.

After closely evaluating 10 potential solutions, Water Lilies selected UpKeep due to its ease of use, mobile interface, and ability to track details for every work order.

Travis explained why these features were particularly important. “For example, if something needs to be welded, it’s difficult to find the machine and then the exact spot on the machine that needs to be fixed,” he explained. “UpKeep changed the game when it came to pinpointing the exact location of the problem. It really made things so much easier with a picture and description.”

Wasting No Time

For many companies, the implementation period of any new solution can be long and arduous. Travis’ personal commitment to making a big change in his organization resulted in a very short implementation for Water Lilies.

“I didn't want to waste any time,” he said. “I wanted us to utilize the full potential of the system as quickly as possible. The entire company was sort of holding its breath, waiting to see what the system could do. I integrated more than 300 assets, all our technicians, and all equipment PMs in only two to three months.”

While it’s understandable that skepticism accompanies any change in an organization, Travis shared that UpKeep’s use spread faster than expected. Management emphasized that it didn’t matter how quickly employees learned; they could go at their own pace. Team members helped one another. “Everyone got there eventually, and now there's a comfort level,” he said. “Every problem is being brought to light, and it's really brought everyone together because they see that their voice matters.”

Tracking Repetitive Problems Leads to Real Solutions

UpKeep has made a big difference for Water Lilies by simply providing accurate, timely asset information. Being able to access this information regularly means that team members can identify priority problems and seek effective solutions.

For example, Water Lilies uses a dough sheeter in potsticker production that flattens the dough and gets it ready to be cut. The bearings in the rollers would constantly break. With UpKeep, the maintenance team can track which rollers were breaking and how often as well as when preventive maintenance was last performed.

“We noticed that new bearings were breaking in just a few days,” Travis said. “We realized it had to be something external to the equipment itself. In this case, flour was getting into the bearings and gunking them up. When we placed caps on them, it made a significant difference in bearing breakage.” As a result of installing $12 caps, the company saved thousands of dollars in downtime. 

In another situation, the team realized through data collected in UpKeep that HMI display screens needed to be replaced too frequently. “We were going through $6,000 screens every two weeks, and it was causing a lot of issues,” Travis said. “After we tracked this issue and looked at work order histories, we realized there were way too many issues for it to be the screen themselves. It helped us step back and really focus to come up with proper solutions. We realized that water damage was causing the issues so we purchased $60 screen covers. None have broken since.”

Previous to UpKeep, every shift might have between two to four hours of downtime due to many small issues such as these. Now, downtime has been reduced by more than half with some shifts having as little as only eight minutes of downtime. “And it's manageable downtime; it's not day-ruining downtime,” Travis said. “It’s like slight bumps in the road, but it doesn't keep you from continuing on the path.

“UpKeep has given us a system that has helped us grow into a real company,” he concluded. “We went from just a mom-and-pop place to a successful corporate machine.”