Cray Valley, a French-based multinational resins manufacturing giant and member of the Atofina group, will implement the Aurora plant maintenance solution from ApplyIT at its South African operation in Durban to complement the ERP system through which the company runs its business processes.
The company, which together with US-based Cook Composites & Polymers and Sartomer forms the second largest resin manufacturer in the world, with sales exceeding 1,7 billion Euros and more than 3 600 employees worldwide, develops high-technology resins and additives for the coatings industry and unsaturated polyester resins and gel coats for the composites industry.
ApplyIT’s plant maintenance module forms part of the Aurora suite of safety, health, environment and quality (SHEQ)-related manufacturing solutions. The application supports preventative and reactive maintenance strategies within plant operation, including automated scheduling of routine inspections and maintenance tasks. Rollout of the plant maintenance module at Cray Valley will be followed by implementation of the Aurora Electronic Clearances module.
The plant maintenance solution, which replaces a legacy maintenance management system, integrates with the company’s ERP system, Agilisys ERP, to provide for real-time and accurate management information on task escalation, fault diagnostics and cost tracking.
In addition, the Aurora suite provides a single point for capturing, reviewing and reporting all SHEQ-related information for the ongoing monitoring, managing and improvement of inspections, maintenance tasks and incident reporting.
“Plant maintenance and SHEQ are given the highest priority in the production process and are the over-riding objectives of every executive manager in the organisation,” says Jithan Bridgmohan, financial manager at Cray Valley. “The two are tightly integrated with the ERP system rather than run as separate business processes, providing the appropriate checks and balances to ensure consistent quality and safety.”
The Electronic Clearances module is a mechanism through which clearances or permits to work are prepared, authorised, issued and managed in conformance to established procedures. The system provides the crucial link between the company’s documented procedures and the safe execution of maintenance tasks.
Intelligent integration between the various components of the Aurora suite provides a structured way to store, manage and access all information required to manage plant processes so that defined procedures are adhered to and relevant levels of management kept informed.
Bridgmohan says the Aurora solution acts as a repository into which the plant knowledge of employees who have been with the company for many years can be transferred. This reduces management’s level of dependence on individuals. Should a relevant person be unavailable, all the information required to run the business, maintain the plant and ensure continued health and safety is accessible in the Aurora system.
The Aurora software was selected after careful analysis of several local and international maintenance management solutions. ApplyIT had proven the quality of its implementation methodologies through the successful implementation of the Agilisys ERP system in 2002, and as such had an intimate knowledge of the business processes and systems in place at Cray Valley.
“The core competencies of the ApplyIT team are very strong and its orthodox project management style is well suited to our needs,” says Bridgmohan.
The Aurora solution was developed and proven in the chemicals manufacturing industry and, being an integrated solution made up of various modules covering all aspects of Maintenance and SHEQ requirements, it presented a broader offering than other plant maintenance solutions.
“Sound asset management is essential for the uptime of production equipment in a capacity-constrained production environment,” says Gavin Halse, director of ApplyIT. “A reliable maintenance solution can be regarded as a base from which to work, a prerequisite on which a carefully planned and fully comprehensive SHEQ system is put in place.”