Tech Group had previously managed its maintenance regime using printed-off paper work orders, the details of which were later added to spreadsheets by administrative staff. Although carefully managed, the process had important limitations. Because every part of the maintenance workflow – requesting, scheduling, acceptance, completion – was being created manually, it was difficult to obtain an accurate snapshot of performance at any given time and thereby exercise full control over it.

When the time came to evaluate competing CMMS solutions, the field was narrowed down very quickly because key functions were absent in many of the offerings. Mainsaver won out because it was considered by far the easiest to use and – uniquely – had a dedicated 21 CFR Part 11 module as part of the package.

The 21 CFR Part 11 regulations are issued by the US Food & Drug Administration and relate to storage, transmission and validation of electronic records. Any company supplying manufactured goods in those categories to the US is subject to compliance with those requirements.

Implementation of Mainsaver commenced with systematic collection of site plant data to create a brand new, properly-structured asset register. The engineers were then trained on how to use Mainsaver and immediately afterwards, the new asset database was set up in an as-live test environment that Spidex refers to as the “Conference-Room Pilot”. In this day-long practice run-through, Tech Group staff were able to apply their new skills and system knowledge which helped to ensure a smooth transition on go-live day.