A China story, supporting the industry with Smart O&M
Dear Reader,
I am writing this editorial from the Three Gorges Dam, visiting as a simple tourist, 20 years after having implemented the maintenance management system there! I feel greatly privileged to have come to China at the right time to build the teams that delivered so many first-ever (and other superlatives) CMMS/EAM projects! Even before Three Gorges, we worked on Qinshan Nuclear Power Plant (phase 1 followed by the others), Shanghai Metro (line 2 had just opened!) and many more.
Later in 2004, we set up Siveco and decided to target smaller infrastructures, in particular waste and water, a market at that time considered very unsophisticated and indifferent to maintenance, but today among the hottest for Smart O&M solutions, in part due to regulatory changes. From the very beginning, we also focused on Belt & Road projects, long before that term was even coined. None of this could have happened elsewhere than China and our team has learnt so much in the process!
Over the decades I have seen so many players come and go, those who said “CMMS is easy”, “it’s just a module of the ERP”, “we have IT people we can develop it”, “Chinese people don’t understand maintenance”, “the Chinese market will become like the US” (even Chinese people said that), “let’s develop a cheap app”, “we will do a free audit” (again the idea that maintenance is worth nothing) and other nonsense. Not sure what happened to these people, but I am still at it 20 years later, running Smart O&M projects big and small in China and the Belt & Road, and still having fun!
While in past 16 years, Siveco has established a strong track record with infrastructure projects and State-Owned Enterprises in general, the company has also maintained a very large clients base in the manufacturing sector, both with multinationals and local companies, with large multisite groups but also with single plant companies, including SMEs. In fact, the experience accumulated with SOEs has been very beneficial to our manufacturing clients, and reciprocally.
Many manufacturers see Maintenance as a support function to the Production process. They also face increasing regulatory pressure. When implementing World Class Manufacturing, Lean or TPM initiatives, they often meet obstacles related to maintenance. This is the focus of this month’s newsletter:
- In this month’s Reliability article, we share ideas on How to avoid pitfalls when implementing WCM/TPM in China.
- In the Tips & Tricks article, we delve into a functionality of our CMMS Coswin 8i, to configure the user interface to address the “5 Whys + 1 How” methodology for diagnosing technical problems.
- In Customer story, we republish the video case study of Shanghai Baosteel Packaging, one of the leading producers of metal packaging for fast-moving consumer goods, detailing their implementation of Coswin 8i and bluebee® in their plants.
- Finally, our Siveco people news sharing recent events in the Environmental industry and our Latest news.
According to our last customer satisfaction survey 93% of our clients are willing to recommend us to other companies: please do! We would be most thankful if you talk to your group companies, suppliers, friends and neighbors about what we can do for them! Forward our newsletter if you want. They should not hesitate to talk to us for your own O&M, Asset Management, Maintenance & Risk Prevention needs!
After my visit to the Three Gorges, I feel rejuvenated by the fresh air of the Yangtze river and reinvigorated by the indominable spirit of those who built the dam. As I recall the old days, together with my VP Paul Wang who is still working with me 20 after years, thinking about the time spent in Yichang with the team, designing and implementing the hydropower plant’s maintenance system, we don’t feel nostalgic. Sure, we remember the roads taken, the lessons learnt, the friends and foes we met in the Jianghu. But, above all, we see and seek the great new adventures ahead! We think of new ways our accumulated know-how could better serve the needs of the Chinese infrastructure market, transformed by decades of speedy growth, how it can help manufacturers that perhaps used to be ahead in terms of technical management but today face new struggles, how we can continue to strengthen the asset management discipline in China and on the Belt & Road. With this goals in mind, we have tasked our Partnership team to reinforce our existing academic cooperation programs to help educate young maintenance engineers, to continue to develop our links with industrial associations, and to create new industrial partnerships with large IT and consulting firms.
I would like to thank all my customers and team members, old and new, for sharing this journey with us!
Bruno Lhopiteau
Managing Director
Siveco China
Managing Director
Siveco China
