Solmet Group Completes Work Orders 5 Times Faster With Better Asset Management

Lisa Bosworth is in charge of quality and continuous improvement at Canton, Ohio-headquartered Solmet Group, a manufacturer that specializes in open die forging and machining services. Her role involves maintaining quality certifications as well as finding ways the company can do better to improve its processes and, therefore, its product for the customer.

That means an in-depth understanding and overview of the company’s largest assets are critical for her and the company’s success.

No Individualized Machine Maintenance With Paper Documentation

Before starting with Coast about a year ago, Solmet Group tracked its assets through paper documentation, and its equipment was all grouped by category. While they did have a basic preventive maintenance (PM) schedule, they didn’t have individual machine maintenance. Instead, they would give all equipment the same standard treatment — i.e., all air compressors received the same oil filter at the same time.

This meant that Bosworth and other members of the management team didn’t have a full understanding of everything that was happening to the equipment. If one air compressor was older than another, for example, it wasn’t being maintained more frequently like it should have been. Using paper also meant that asset records were very hard to read and were only truly accessible by going straight to the maintenance team.

Implementation’s a Breeze Using Coast’s Free Trial 

The company took advantage of Coast’s free trial offering to see if the computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) software would help ease these pain points. During that period, they set up assets through an implementation process that Bosworth describes as “exceptional.”

“We already had our assets with serial numbers and a basic PM schedule in an Excel spreadsheet, so we gave it to Coast’s customer success team, and they just set it up for us,” Bosworth says. “They did it all, and we had open communication. They were very efficient and timely and would respond immediately.”

Along with the ease of setting up assets, Bosworth says the management team appreciated Coast’s ability to create work orders and track maintenance in real time. Meanwhile, maintenance personnel really liked being able to have all the information on their phone instead of in a book in the office.  

Completing Work Orders 5 Times Faster

Needless to say, the Solmet Group team decided to continue using Coast after the trial period was over. The company now has 15 full-time Coast users and has completed hundreds of work orders on its about 188 assets. In its first year with the software, the company has already seen several improvements.

“Coast increased communication efficiency and the ability to review records,” Bosworth says. “Now, we actually have a review process that’s more detailed, and we can put our own manuals and photos in the asset records. Transparency increased.”

While the company’s initial need of getting its asset management and reporting capabilities under control was met, it’s also completing work orders about five times faster now. Before Coast, Bosworth says work orders would just “float around,” getting completed about every 10 days. Now, that’s been reduced to a turnaround of one to two days. 

“It’s within the day or the next day that we’re getting our work orders complete,” she explains. “If we have to order parts or call another service, that takes longer, but generally, it’s a one- to two-day turnaround.” 

Coast also helps with accountability in that there’s a schedule and there are reminders that maintenance tasks need to be completed and checked off in order to move onto the next task.

“We’ve been able to optimize our maintenance scheduling and decrease downtime with this more comprehensive preventive maintenance strategy,” Bosworth says. “Because the PMs are more in-depth now, we’re catching things before they’re happening.”

A Game Changer for Preventive Maintenance

Bosworth notes one person, in particular, whose job has improved dramatically since the Coast implementation: Steve Snodgrass. He’s in charge of the company’s preventive maintenance, which means he completes PM tasks on the company’s assets all day every day.

Using Coast, he no longer needs to carry around books to track asset maintenance. He can pull up all the information he needs on his mobile device to complete a work order, communicate about an asset’s progress and mark it for follow up if need be. He uses Coast as a tool to help him not only organize a preventive maintenance strategy but to get a better overall understanding of the business’ asset inventory.

“He uses it. It’s a tool for him,” Bosworth says. “He’s actually adding to it — new things that need to be done. So, he’s improving more as he goes along and learning more about the equipment as PMs are getting built out.”

Coast Develops Product to Meet Customer Needs

In addition to asset management and preventive maintenance scheduling, several other aspects of Coast standout for Bosworth. She points to the fact that it’s very user friendly, and the ability to access it from a phone is also a big asset. Even employees who aren’t technically users of Coast have created external work orders when there’s been an issue with a piece of equipment. “And the QR codes have been huge for us,” she says. “Now that all of our assets have QR codes, it’s a game changer in that it’s so convenient and fast to access [asset information].”

Plus, Coast, as a company, is very responsive to development and improvement of its product.

“When we requested a specific functionality, Coast was able to create fields or search options, continuously developing its software to meet our needs,” Bosworth says.

Thanks to Coast, Solmet Group has much more control over its asset management and is actually growing and improving its maintenance approach. That means Bosworth and her team can focus their efforts more on what matters most: continuing to improve their product and increase customer satisfaction.