Streamlining Maintenance: Saint-Gobain’s Mobile EAM Success with Sigga

In today’s fast-paced industrial landscape, optimizing maintenance processes is crucial for maximizing efficiency and minimizing downtime.

During a recent webinar with its implementation partner, Sigga Technologies, Noureddine Benbellat, IT Project Leader for Saint-Gobain France, highlighted why the innovative materials maker embarked on a digital transformation journey to modernize its maintenance operations by leveraging Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) solutions, the implementation of a mobile EAM solution, its benefits and the lessons learned.

The Challenges of a Paper-Based System

Speaking with Val Hillebrand, Vice President of Sales, EMEA at Sigga Technologies, Benbellat noted that Saint-Gobain’s primary motivation for adopting a mobile EAM solution stemmed from the inefficiencies inherent in traditional paper-based maintenance processes.

“Our technicians spent considerable time managing physical checklists, leading to delays in reporting anomalies and implementing corrective actions,” he said. “This cumbersome approach also increased the risk of lost paperwork, potentially resulting in overlooked maintenance tasks and costly production breakdowns.”

Consequently, the company sought a digital tool that could streamline preventive and corrective maintenance, improve real-time reporting, and reduce maintenance-related downtime.

Critical Factors for a Mobile EAM Solution

However, a key requirement for Saint-Gobain was the seamless integration of the tool with its existing SAP ERP system. Additionally, the chosen mobile EAM solution needed to synchronize data in real-time, ensuring consistency and accuracy across the organization. Offline functionality was another critical factor, allowing technicians to continue working even in areas with limited connectivity. “The solution also needed to manage both preventive and corrective maintenance activities, including work order generation, spare parts management, and real-time stock checks,” Benbellat said.

Beyond these core functionalities, Saint-Gobain emphasized the importance of dynamic forms. This feature enabled the creation of customized digital checklists tailored to specific equipment, empowering production operators to participate in autonomous maintenance.

The Implementation

Saint-Gobain’s implementation strategy involved a phased rollout, starting with a pilot site in the UK. This approach allowed the company to validate the solution’s effectiveness and refine its implementation process before expanding to other locations. A dedicated project team, comprising representatives from Saint-Gobain and Sigga, collaborated closely to ensure a smooth transition.

Benbellat added that user training was a crucial component of the implementation, equipping technicians with the skills and knowledge to utilize the mobile EAM solution effectively.

Still, the implementation process wasn’t without its challenges. “As this was Saint-Gobain’s first experience with a company-wide mobile maintenance solution, the team faced the complexities of integrating new technology with existing processes,” Benbellat said. However, the close collaboration with Sigga and the project team’s commitment facilitated the successful navigation of these hurdles.

Looking Ahead

The benefits of the mobile EAM implementation have been substantial, according to Benbellat. They include:

• Significant time savings
• Improved efficiency in maintenance operations
• A reduction in production downtime
• Faster response to anomalies through real-time reporting
• A culture of proactive maintenance with dynamic forms feature
• Streamlined communication and collaboration across different sites

Now, Saint-Gobain plans to further enhance its maintenance processes by exploring advanced functionalities such as planning, scheduling, and predictive maintenance. The company aims to create a fully integrated digital maintenance ecosystem, leveraging data analytics to anticipate equipment failures and optimize maintenance schedules.

What This Means for SAP Insiders

Embrace mobile EAM for increased efficiency and reduced downtime. Sigga has demonstrated through various client implementations that mobile access can reduce maintenance execution time by up to 20% and improve wrench time by up to 15%. Given its features like work order management, preventive maintenance execution, and spare parts lookups accessible on mobile devices, mobile EAM empowers technicians to work more efficiently, leading to faster repairs and reduced downtime.

Leverage dynamic forms to enhance data capture and autonomous maintenance. Saint-Gobain’s successful implementation of dynamic forms showcases the value of this feature for SAP EAM users. Sigga’s solutions offer configurable dynamic forms, enabling businesses to capture critical data at the point of execution, freeing up maintenance technicians to focus on more complex tasks. For example, operators can use dynamic forms on mobile devices to perform routine equipment inspections and record readings, triggering work orders automatically if thresholds are exceeded.

Integrate mobile EAM with SAP for seamless data flow. A seamless integration with SAP is crucial for maximizing the benefits of mobile EAM. Sigga’s solutions ensure real-time data synchronization and eliminate data silos by seamlessly integrating with SAP systems. This provides a single source of truth for all maintenance-related information, enabling better decision-making and improved overall maintenance performance.