The objective of the contract is to provide a measurable improvement in the utilization of COSWIN, on a year-to-year basis. This improvement is guaranteed by Siveco and measured jointly with customer at the end of the year.

This article was originally published in the 5th edition of “CMMS News”, the CMMS magazine of Siveco Group, as part of a double-page on global CMMS deployments in China. The double-page, targeting global Siveco customers considering rolling out the system in China, aims at clearing some common misconceptions about maintenance projects in China. The page features an interview with Siveco China GM, practical “Do’s and Dont’s”, customers’ testimonials and some latest news.

While deploying SAP PM anywhere in the world involves challenges, most notably the high cost of implementation and ongoing support and the usability of the system for plant workers, these challenges become especially acute in China.

While maintenance and facility management expenditures tend to be considered low in China (cheap labor, locally-made spare parts, cut-throat competition between contractors), studies and experience show that companies’ top executives still focus on reducing them. Outsourcing decisions are, for example, usually motivated by an immediate reduction in maintenance spending.

Companies trying to implement TPM in China, usually as a part of a corporate roll-out, face specific challenges, which may differ from those observed in Japan or in the West, more developed economies where those initiatives, or the consultants involved, often originate from.

Ten years in the Chinese industrial maintenance market have led Bruno Lhopiteau to observe that most MNCs face the same maintenance issues – and most try to apply standard western solutions.