At Fraser Papers' Madawaska, Maine, mill, a new CMMS provides a tool to help reduce maintenance costs and improve paper machine efficiencies

Fraser Automates Maintenance Workflow With Information Management System

By Monica Shaw,Associate Editor

For Fraser Papers' Madawaska, Maine, specialty papers mill, the 1990s have brought a variety of changes designed to improve mill productivity, as well as to provide transition into specialty papers with high market demand. From $140 million of capital projects in the past five years affecting their eight paper machines to strategic programs such as reliability centered maintenance (RCM), Fraser's move toward improved competitiveness has been assisted by the installation of a computerized maintenance management system (CMMS).

After a reorganization of Fraser's Madawaska maintenance group in the early 1990s, it became evident that the mill's maintenance systems were not able to manage the required improvements targeted for the group. These in-house applications-which were partly manual, partly electronic, and not fully integrated-had not been upgraded recently as had other mill information systems. So, after an additional, independent study recommended the installation of a CMMS, Fraser embarked upon a supplier evaluation, and the new system was installed in 1994.

Since installing the CMMS, the Madawaska mill has seen a decrease in total maintenance costs, maintenance hours/saleable ton, lost maintenance time, and other important benchmarks. In addition, management of the considerable number of capital projects has been improved by timely access to accurate cost data.

Although it is impossible to trace all improvements solely to the CMMS because of other crucial changes at the mill such as the adoption of RCM (see the February 1997 issue of Pulp & Paper), Fraser recognizes that these improvements would have been more difficult without the information provided by this tool. As Fraser becomes more and more familiar with the system's capabilities, it plans to use the CMMS for overall asset management. According to Richard Arnold, manager of engineering and maintenance at the Madawaska mill, Fraser is "tying maintenance to the business plan in terms of uptime, waste, and productivity, and the CMMS is one of the tools we are using to do that."

IN-HOUSE SYSTEMS FALL SHORT. Prior to Fraser's 1994 installation of a new CMMS, the Madawaska mill was using a collection of small, in-house systems for most of its maintenance-associated tasks. These programs ran on the mill's IBM AS/400 minicomputer, but accessed several different databases.

After closely scrutinizing these systems as a result of reorganizing its maintenance group in 1990, the mill recognized that they could not fully support its maintenance goals. In 1991/1992, a maintenance consultant's study determined the following shortcomings in the maintenance-related systems:

Systems were partly computerized/ partly manual. The work order system for maintenance was paper, and cost accounting, purchasing, and capital project reporting were electronic with extensive manual input. In addition, modules for mill stores inventory, equipment records, and scheduling also required manual input.

• Data resided in separate databases. Data for the conglomeration of systems was stored in different databases, leading to errors and a lack of integration. This lack of integration necessitated much of the manual input into the programs.
• Information was not easily accessible. Users often had to go to many sources to gather report data, answer questions from upper management, track efficiency of operations, and track requested work and its progress.
• Little or no use of past records and projects was made. This led to redundant work and a lack of information about equipment, spending, and other important data.
• Locating parts in mill stores was difficult. Because the old mill stores system was not user-friendly, locating parts for emergencies and routine tasks was often delayed. Also, the system had no provision for reserving parts.
• Duplicate work orders were often generated. Since the work order system was paper, a great deal of duplication occurred, leading to difficulty in identifying the maintenance costs for specific equipment. This further led to problems in making repair vs. replace decisions.
• Systems had not kept pace with changing technology. The maintenance-related programs were developed in-house and had not been updated to reflect technological advances and user needs. Maintenance, stores, inventory, and purchasing had been neglected while financial and accounting applications were brought up to date.

Fraser dismissed the idea of in-house development early on because of manpower and time requirements, higher cost, and higher risk. In 1991, the mill began evaluating commercial CMMS software.

EVALUATING A COMMERCIAL CMMS. A cross-functional team with members from both the Madawaska and Edmundston mills was created in 1992 to evaluate CMMS systems from various vendors. The project committee was made up of representatives from purchasing, inventory management, information technology, maintenance, engineering, project accounting, accounting, and training.

In cooperation with their maintenance consultant, Fraser employees began a search to identify the best available packages, regardless of the operating platform. This meant that the team did not limit its choices to only those programs that ran on its existing IBM AS/400 minicomputer, but instead entertained a variety of choices, including those designed for personal computer (PC) client-server networks.

Fraser's CMMS implementation team included (l-r): Reg Levasseur, RCM superintendent; Eric Pelletier, RCM coordinator; Carl Cyr, process control superintendent at Edmundston; Dick Arnold, manager of engineering and maintenance, and Tim Corcoran, systems analyst.

Eventually, the choices narrowed to three, including Marcam's Avantis.xa system. After visiting user sites as well as the vendor home offices for each of the three, Fraser chose the Marcam system. An appropriation request was submitted to corporate in late 1992 by the Madawaska and Edmundston mills, and the software was purchased in June of 1993. According to Arnold, this justification was slightly complicated due to the fact that the mill was moving forward with a large capital spending plan.

"We justified the project based on the productivity improvements it could provide by reducing maintenance manpower, maintenance material, and inventory costs," explains Arnold. "Looking back, I think we should have justified it as a tool that helps improve paper machine uptime. Saying that you are going to reduce your maintenance manpower and your maintenance expense as you are investing $140 million in capital for equipment that must also be maintained is difficult."

The strongest reason for Fraser's choice was the functionality of the Avantis.xa program. Integrated modules for purchasing, material reorder (MRO) inventory management, maintenance management, accounts payable, project accounting, and approval routing were offered. An upper-tier executive information system module was also available for extracting and manipulating data from all the modules. In addition, the system was upgraded frequently, offered standard links to Fraser's general ledger/financial software-Infinium Software 2000, was user configurable, and ran in a Windows environment on an IBM AS/400.

IMPLEMENTATION AND STARTUP. In June of 1993, Fraser began an implementation phase for the CMMS. This phase was headed by a cross-functional steering committee, and it encompassed training, data conversion, and customization of the product for the mills' needs. Since Fraser had decided to simultaneously implement six of the eight CMMS modules-purchasing, MRO inventory management, maintenance management, accounts payable, project accounting, and approvals-this phase was especially crucial. However, converting the databases used by the previous maintenance systems into one centralized database was the most time-consuming implementation task.

Cross-functional teams. Starting in the early 1990s, Fraser began using cross-functional work teams for various projects, and the CMMS was no exception. The steering committee for the implementation phase, which included steering, project, and module committees, was made up of 47 members from the Madawaska and Edmundston mills and the Plaster Rock, N.B., saw mill. The members came from mill management, maintenance, engineering, inventory management, purchasing, information services, accounting, and training. This cross functionality of the CMMS teams was especially important, since the software would have wide-ranging impacts. According to Arnold, the project "was a major awakening for people on how to work with cross-functional groups."

Data conversion and customization. As soon as the implementation phase started, Fraser began the painstaking work of converting data files from the old maintenance applications into a centralized database for the new CMMS. Tim Corcoran, manager of information services, and Gerry Charron, of the information services department, wrote numerous programs to extract the data and map it into the appropriate area of the new CMMS database. Members of the implementation team were then called upon to judge the accuracy of the data.

"We basically worked for the 18 month implementation phase in just preparing conversion programs, testing them, and then remodifying them," explains Corcoran. "We had the different teams intermittently look at the data, because some fields in a file could mean one thing to us but have a different effect within the new CMMS. Other fields needed more massaging to get mapped over correctly. So, you had to get the actual users involved to determine where the data fields needed to be."

Over the course of this iterative data conversion process, Tim and Gerry, with help from team members, converted three years of data-2 years plus the one in which the implementation took place. Although most of this effort was automated, there were some areas that might have been more easily converted manually. For example, according to Corcoran, it might have been better to manually enter only the most important purchase orders because of problems mapping over large text fields.

In addition to verifying the data conversion, the implementation team was called upon to determine much of the functionality of the product. Although Fraser received the standard Marcam Avantis.xa package, the software is flexible, allowing users to determine how the product works at their specific site with the use of data tables and constants. Fraser's implementation team also had to develop an entity hierarchy detailing relationships between equipment components that allows accurate accounting of equipment costs.

Interfacing between the new CMMS and other related information systems at the mill was also an issue during implementation. Programmed mainly by Marcam with help from Fraser, these interfaces linked three in-house programs-a transportation application, a time and attendance application, and a material tracking system for machine clothing-along with the general ledger software, to the CMMS. Since standard links were provided for the financial software, the in-house application interfaces proved more difficult. And, although Fraser has since drastically reduced its in-house software development, management felt these remaining programs were unique and still valuable for business.

Hardware considerations. Included in the original CMMS budget were provisions for hardware upgrades to support the new system. This included an upgrade of the AS/400 to increase storage and process capabilities, as well as allocations for related terminals, PCs, printers, scanners, and cabling. However, because the AS/400 was the original Fraser platform, spending for such peripherals was limited.

To Corcoran, this familiarity with the platform was an important factor in the success of the CMMS startup.

"What helped a great deal in the project is that we used our existing infrastructure," explains Corcoran. "We weren't going to a totally different technology that required a different network, so, basically, most of our terminals and PCs were in place, and the basic computer itself could be reused."

Although the original AS/400 upgrade, which occurred in September of 1993 when the CMMS software was loaded for training purposes, eventually proved too slow for actual use, it did function adequately for startup purposes. The minicomputer, which functions like a mainframe with terminals and PCs connected to it, has proved extremely functional for Fraser's information system requirements.

"Although for a while it looked like systems such as the AS/400 had a limited life, I think that has changed because of recent enhancements," states Corcoran. "And, since installation of the CMMS, the AS/400 has become much more of a foundation within our company. During that time, Fraser purchased Cross Pointe Paper, and their West Carrollton, Ohio, and Park Falls, Wis., locations both use AS/400s."

Fraser uses both dumb terminals and personal computers to access the CMMS residing on its AS/400. When working on the AS/400 from a PC, it is virtually impossible for users to realize which platform they are on other than the fact that the CMMS package does not have a standard Windows appearance with a graphical user interface (GUI). Instead, a black screen appears with green letters, supplying data and control key functions.

Although Marcam now supplies both a GUI and control key interface, the GUI was not available when Fraser purchased the package. According to Corcoran, there is, at this time, a greater value to be obtained from exploiting the functionality of the "green screen" system that there would be from investing in a GUI.

Training. In July and August of 1993, Fraser held implementation training with Marcam. After the CMMS was loaded on the AS/400 in September, Fraser began familiarizing maintenance superintendents and key personnel with the system using a "train-the-trainer" approach over the next year.

For many users, using a computer and learning the necessary control keys was challenging since they had previously used manual, paper procedures for the tasks.

"I remember when we were pushing everyone hard in training," describes Arnold. "Simple things like going from a pencil to a keyboard were often frustrating at the start."

An ambitious startup. In November of 1994 and on track with the implementation schedule, Fraser chose to discontinue use of its old maintenance systems and perform the simultaneous startup of the six CMMS modules. Though successful from the outset due to intensive training on the mock system, the switchover was not without its set of frustrations.

In addition to the normal adjustment period expected as users became familiar with the specific control keys, the AS/400 was running slowly and adding to the frustration level. Although it had been upgraded, the computer was overburdened by the amount of activity generated by the CMMS. In addition, the AS/400 was supporting the Edmundston mill and the Plaster Rock saw mill at the time of startup, along with Madawaska.

"It's very fortunate that we assessed the hardware beforehand, because we would have been in hot water at startup," describes Corcoran. "The AS/400 was taxed to its limit, but it was still working and producing results, although slowly."

Fine tuning the system. Although the system startup was quick and successful overall, Fraser spent the remainder of 1994 and most of 1995 adjusting the system to the mill's needs, verifying the data it produced, and determining shortfalls. In 1995, a new AS/400 was purchased for Madawaska so that Edmundston and Plaster Rock each had a more responsive system. However, correcting issues with the CMMS itself was not as simple and required close interaction with the vendor.

Some of the problems with the CMMS after installation centered around the flexibility of the package for Fraser's specific needs, while some related to the fact that the mill had implemented all the major modules at once. At the time of Fraser's installation, 25% of the sites with Marcam's Avantis.xa CMMS were in the pulp and paper industry. However, with eight paper machines, two off-machine coaters, and many simultaneous activities, the Madawaska mill was a complex application of the system.

"We have 176 maintenance personnel and 17 supervisors that must have daily work schedules, and the CMMS was originally set up to handle only weekly schedules," describes Arnold. "So, our business did not fit some of their assumptions when they built the software, which led to some problems.

"Also, we implemented everything they offered all at once-except for the imaging and the executive information system modules-so we ran into some little quirks in the system that they hadn't realized were there because few customers had done that."

Most problems related to the cultural and functional changes instigated by the new system. From purchasing to tradespeople, there were requests for modifications to the new system. Many of these requests were as a result of the more disciplined procedures the system forced. However, a problem with scheduling was a valid issue that hampered the mill's ability to use other system functions to their fullest potential.

In the end, the solution for correcting the functionality issues centered on Fraser's involvement with the product and with Marcam. Taking a proactive approach, Fraser worked with its vendor to obtain the support for resolving these problems.

"We found things that they perhaps could have designed better into the system and have made suggestions concerning those," explains Arnold. "They have listened to us and have enhanced their product as a result. We had to take responsibility, take ownership of the product, too. There has been a good interchange of information both ways as a result of our having so many modules, and using it at four sites. We have become partners."

Fraser's interaction with its vendor has led to Corcoran's position on Marcam's user advisory council (UAC) for the Avantis.xa product. Either through contact with Marcam or the UAC, Fraser has been able to participate in the following enhancements to the CMMS:

• More useable scheduling function in the maintenance management module
• Usage of the imaging module within a Windows '95 environment
• A reliability centered maintenance module that focuses on cost avoidance through enhanced data acquisition
• An accounting modification that allows a "drill down" function to accounting transactions going from the CMMS into the general ledger software
• "Repairable spares" and "returns to vendor" functions scheduled for future product upgrades.

Maintenance management. The maintenance management module of the CMMS provides the following functionality: equipment, hierarchy, costs, and historical records; equipment spare parts; specification sheet data, work requests, work order planning and control, pick lists, preventive maintenance planning, and standard jobs control and processing; personnel management; and maintenance scheduling.

FIGURE 1: By providing access to maintenance-related data and automating an orderly flow of this information, the CMMS has streamlined maintenance activities at Fraser's Madawaska mill.

Because of the maintenance management module, Fraser has significantly expedited its work order management. Prior to the CMMS installation, planning was based on a hard copy work orders with attached drawings and other information. Approvals routing could take up to a week, after which a clerk entered work order estimates into the in-house system. A planner would then manually create a schedule.

With the new system, work requests are created electronically and routed to the appropriate users for approval. After approval, the planner can plan the work order, complete with materials requisitions, spare parts, labor estimates, documents, and specification sheets. Work orders can then be used to automatically create a schedule.

Fraser has also benefited from the maintenance cost data provided by this module. According to Arnold, this detailed information helps in decision making.

"Information from the maintenance module lets us look at what it costs to maintain each machine," describes Arnold. "For example, some of the more complex machines with online coaters are expensive to maintain, while some of the older machines cost less per ton. From that data, you can see where you really need to invest and where you don't."

MRO inventory management. MRO inventory management supplies the mill inventory master schedule and controls materials reserves and allocations, as well as issues, receiving, physical counts, adjustments, pick lists, and equipment spare parts.

Prior to installing the CMMS, Fraser based the reordering process on minimum and maximum values on hand. While flags in the old system indicated when it was time to reorder and provided a report on the items, purchase orders for them had to be issued and approved manually. Because of this process, orders were not always issued in a timely manner.

With the new, integrated CMMS, the reorder report allows for automatic creation of purchase orders, cutting the time to issuance from weeks to a few days. Also, since there are more users with access to the stores information, less trips to the stores area to check on part availability are required, which should result in a more efficient use of maintenance labor. And, because of more dependable part availability, fewer jobs are held up due to a lack of required parts.

FIGURE 2. Since 1994, the CMMS, RCM program, and other initiatives have positively affected the maintenance organization at Fraser by improving important benchmarks.

Purchasing. The purchasing module provides the following functions: reordering, requisitioning processing, request for quotations processing, purchase order processing, vendor maintenance, vendor performance statistics, expediting, contracts/agreements, and evaluated receipt settlement (ERS).

With the old purchasing system, handwritten requisitions were given to supervisors who had them approved at daily meetings. Once approved, the purchase orders were given to purchasing agents who provided codes. At that point, clerks typed the information into the old computerized system, printed the purchase orders, and mailed them to the suppliers. From start to finish, the process could take from three days to a month.

The CMMS's purchasing module allows users to enter requisitions directly from their PC or terminal. From there, the approvals module routes the requisition along a specified path and also provides the functionality to handle rejected orders by allowing attachment of explanatory text and routing to those who previously approved. Within just hours, the purchasing agent can issue the order and fax it directly to the supplier.

Project Accounting. The project accounting functions provided by the CMMS include: capital project costs-estimated vs. actual, work breakdown schedule (WBS), and budget approvals.

The CMMS project accounting module has allowed Fraser to keep a more accurate account of project costs-an extremely important feature for a mill that has seen many large capital projects. In addition, the integrated system has reduced labor requirements for accounting activities related to large projects, which could include as many as three people. However, its most important impact has affected project engineers, who are now able to accurately trace project cost.

FIGURE 3: A reduction in maintenance lost time has occurred at Fraser as a result of the CMMS, RCM, and other directives for improvement.

"Before the CMMS, we would have several accountants that added costs daily, though they usually did not balance until month's end," describes Corcoran. "With the integrated system, costs, purchase orders, stores issues, and labor are automatically calculated, so the engineer has a better tool that allows him to see daily or weekly what his job is costing."

Accounts payable. The accounts payable module provides the vendor master, vendor A/P statistics, bank and currency exchange information, invoicing, and check printing and reconciliation functions.

With the help of the accounting costs "drill down" feature in the CMMS package and the clean interface to the Software 2000 general ledger application, accounting users have been able to balance from the CMMS to the general ledger with virtually no errors.

Approvals. Work requests, requisitions, and historical information are handled by the approvals module. Automatic routing results in time savings and more efficient performance of jobs.

Imaging. The imaging module provides scanned images of engineering drawings, parts, sketches, manuals, and photographs by interacting with graphics packages. These drawings are attached to equipment, spare parts, work orders, and preventive maintenance jobs.

Executive information system. Although Fraser is not currently using this module, the EIS has the capability to provide everyone in the mill detailed information from the CMMS. Data retrieval is based on individual user needs, and the module provides a reporting function.

RESULTS AND FUTURE PLANS. In addition to streamlining business processes associated with maintenance at Madawaska, the new CMMS, combined with other initiatives at the mill, has impacted important maintenance and efficiency benchmarks. The CMMS has also assisted the effort toward reliability centered maintenance, and, in the future, it should assist Fraser toward total asset management.

"It will take us several more years, more training for mill personnel, and more enhancements from our vendor to reap the full benefits," states Richard Arnold, manager of engineering and maintenance. "It wasn't just a one step type of implementation for the CMMS. There were many, many steps and there will be many more."

Quantifiable results, RCM, and cultural changes. Figures 2 and 3 show the reduction in lost maintenance time and the reduction in manhours/
saleable ton since 1994. Fluctuations in the graphs reflect the large capital investment during this period and CMMS learning curve issues, as well as the positive impact of the RCM program on the maintenance organization at Fraser.

"We spent approximately $140 million at Madawaska and a comparable amount at the Edmundston pulp mill during the ramp up of the CMMS, so our assets increased dramatically, meaning more equipment to maintain," explains Arnold. "In addition, about $15 to $20 million of that was on automation-distributed control systems, on-line gauging, etc.-which requires a different approach to maintenance."

In addition to these benchmarks, maintenance dollars/saleable ton in 1998 are approximately $7.00 less than in 1994, and total maintenance costs in 1998 are approximately $2.5 million less than in 1994. Efficiencies have also increased by an average of 4% for the mill's eight paper machines. However, other initiatives at the mill, in addition to the CMMS, have impacted these improvements.

The relationship between Fraser's CMMS and its RCM program, as well as cultural changes at the mill, have made it difficult to attribute all these positive trends to the CMMS alone. However, Arnold sees the CMMS as having had a significant influence on the success of RCM.

"The CMMS came before the RCM program, but it was an important tool for allowing us to take a reliability-focused approach with maintenance," states Arnold. "Specifically, it helps us track cost by entity, and we can track it to the lowest entity level. This has tremendous value, because you can then track labor costs for specific classes of equipment or even a specific entity if you suspect that it's giving you problems."

In addition to the CMMS and RCM, there have been numerous changes leading to a greater sense of ownership by mill personnel and resulting in better labor relations. These changes have been as a result of initiatives by Bert Martin, mill manager at Madawaska and vice president of Fraser Papers.

"Under Martin's leadership, there has been an increasing willingness on the part of labor to accept the fact that the information that they are getting about mill operations is the same information that everybody uses," describes Arnold. "On the other hand, management has increasingly come to appreciate the inherit intelligence in labor and this is reflected in the labor agreements that we have signed at Madawaska.

"I think that is why labor activities based on CMMS data don't cause problems. The motive has been made clear-the Madawaska mill does not exist unless we are profitable, unless we fulfill the goals that are set by Noranda Forest, and unless we meet the pricing that is out in the market with a quality product that satisfies our customers."

A move toward asset management. Getting the maximum benefits from the CMMS, according to Arnold, is an ongoing process involving several factors.

"It will take us several more years, more training for mill personnel, and more enhancements from our vendor to reap the full benefits," states Arnold. "It wasn't just a one step type of implementation for the CMMS. There were many, many steps and there will be many more."

One potential area of growth for the CMMS at Fraser is in the area of total asset management-maximum asset availability at the lowest cost.

"We continually review inventory and there is continual pressure to get rid of non-moving items," describes Arnold. "The system helps you see trade-offs for both keeping and getting rid of a part from a cost and reliability standpoint.

"And, by letting you see how much you are spending for maintenance on a particular asset, you can decide whether to scrap it or whether certain preventive procedures could help."