Saint-Gobain Pipelines & Siveco, a long-term cooperation to improve maintenance
About Saint-Gobain Pipelines
Saint-Gobain PAM (www.saint-gobain.com.cn), the pipe network branch of the Saint-Gobain Group, is the world’s leading manufacturer of ductile iron pipeline systems. More than 115 countries, 1000 cities around the world, approximately 100 of which are capitals, are equipped with Saint-Gobain pipeline systems which include pipes, fittings, valves, fire hydrants etc. Established in 1997, Saint-Gobain PAM (China) owns plants located in Maanshan city, Anhui Province and Xuzhou City, Jiangsu Province, producing ductile iron pipes & fitting.
Saint-Gobain Pipelines China relationship with Siveco dates back to 2007, with the first CMMS project at the Maanshan iron making plant, which was later extended to other plants on the site.
New maintenance challenges never experienced before
In 2008, Saint-Gobain PAM launched a new project to build a large-diameter, highly automated piping plant in Xuzhou.
Saint-Gobain PAM Xuzhou pipes ready for shipping
The nature of the equipment in the new plant required high levels of maintenance, and the large numbers of drawings and technical documents added further complexity: how to manage this information and ensure its accessibility?
Preparing maintenance from the construction stage
The decision to work with Siveco and to use a CMMS was taken early in the project. The project team took concrete steps to prepare maintenance at the various stages of construction.
– Incorporating so far as possible the reliability and maintainability experience accumulated in similar plants in Europe in the design of the Xuzhou plant.
– Involving as much as possible the maintenance staff in equipment control and commissioning, the earlier maintenance engineers get to know their equipment, the better.
– Documenting the plant in the CMMS during construction. Data preparation included equipment data, spare parts lists and initial maintenance instructions, keeping the CMMS as visual and practical as possible, with access based on drawings.
– Conducting systematic root cause analysis on breakdowns which were documented in the CMMS.
– Organizing the maintenance team, as part of the reorganization, new positions were created such as planners (ensuring coordination between mechanical and electrical teams), CMMS administrator, and spares engineers.
Project team on site
According to Jean-Sebastien David, Xuzhou Site Director of Pipe Operations:
“Companies building new facilities should never underestimate the effort required in maintenance preparation, in fact, I believe that as much time should be spent on preparing maintenance as on the project itself. So far I have been satisfied with the service provided by Siveco for our project.”
“Far from the usual theories of consulting firms and software vendors, Siveco delivers very practical solutions, using technology to improve maintenance based on a real-life experience of China. Siveco has accompanied our development for several years and we continue to expand the scope of our cooperation.”
Siveco China is proud to work with Saint-Gobain PAM, a company with a very long history of excellence in maintenance. Already in its 5th year, the cooperation is constantly being expanded in both the Maanshan and Xuzhou site.
Project update (2014)
After running Coswin for many years, in 2013, Saint Gobain Pipelines decided to deploy the bluebee® mobile solution on industrial-grade Android smartphones. bluebee® is integrated with Coswin using the standard bluebee® sync platform. Go Live is planned at the beginning of Q2 2014, followed by an improvement phase.
