Leading cable maker implements continuous improvement process with COSWIN
Acome Xintai Electric Cables Co., Ltd.
Acome (www.acome.cn) is a highly innovative Cooperative Production Company (employees hold the majority of the company’s share capital) and a European leader in the cable, wire and synthetic tubing industry.
Founded in France in 1932, the company currently employs more than 1,400 people worldwide. Acome operates sites in Europe, South America and China, with 8 production units including two in China (in Xintai, Shandong province and Wuhan, Hubei province).
Acome’s fully-owned subsidiary Acome Xintai Cables Co., Ltd was established in Xintai, Shandong, in year 2000. Operating a 10,000 sqm production facility, it is now one of the major suppliers of RF cables to mobile operators and telecommunication equipment manufacturers in the Asia-Pacific region. The semi-continuous manufacturing process requires a strong involvement of the maintenance team.
The maintenance project
In 2009, the company’s management team decided to implement a CMMS to structure its maintenance department and to launch a continuous improvement process. Siveco with its user-friendly CMMS “COSWIN”, was selected for its focus on maintenance improvement rather than pure IT.
The project started in December 2009, focused on training the maintenance team on key concepts (fault reporting, work orders, preventive maintenance, regular meetings and improvement process) using the CMMS as a support. The system’s analysis capability would then be used to define longer-term measurable improvement targets, in terms of reliability and cost reduction. The COSWIN CMMS was put into operation in April 2010.
Continuous improvement
As part of its service contract, Siveco provided follow-up audits one month and three months after start-up, with a focus on coaching the maintenance team during analysis and improvement sessions. The June 2010 audit (two months after start-up) showed an increasing utilization of the system, with an estimated 85% of actual work reported in the CMMS and preparation for planned shutdowns in COSWIN.
Based on findings from last maintenance audit, saving opportunities were identified in the form of an additional production capacity of nearly 3 million RMB (in turnover), the direct consequence of a 10% reduction of the breakdown rate on critical machines.
According to Paul Liu, General Manager of Acome Xintai Cables Co.: “We are pleased with the results obtained so far, more particularly with the stronger involvement of our technical team in the continuous improvement process, in line with our goal to constantly enhance the performance of equipment and maintenance.“
In November 2010, Acome Xintai decided to extend the usage of COSWIN to cover stock management: by maintaining the links between parts and their actual usage i.e. equipment and work orders, the system will allow Acome to forecast its material needs and ensure the availability of the critical parts. The purchasing department will also benefit from the more accurate technical specifications and data will be coordinated between COSWIN and the SAP financial system.
