Maintenance at St. Marys Paper Means World Class Performance

Pulp & Paper, Aug 2005 by Gay, Bryan K

Efficient work processes and an improving safety record have also resulted by adopting a well-received CMMS

ST. MARYS PAPER LTD., located along the banks of the St. Mary's River in Sault Ste Marie, Ont., at the hub of the Great Lakes, produces more than 200,000 tpy of supercalendered paper. The product, a high grade, uncoated paper, is most commonly used in advertising inserts, catalogues and magazines.

Construction of the original mill, driven by an American entrepreneur, Francis H. Clergue, was completed in 1896. The facility began as the Sault Ste. Marie Pulp and Sulphite Company, the first mill in North America to produce dried pulp. Today, it is privately owned, partially by the employees. Every employee has a personal stake in the success of the company and workers pride themselves in their commitment to quality and service. Their efforts have paid off with receipt of several supplier awards from major corporations.

Maintaining the Assets

As competitive pressures increased and technology continued to advance, St. Marys found itself behind the technology curve. The company had no automated methods to maintain its critical production assets, which totaled more than $500 million.

Up until 1989, the approach to maintenance at St. Marys was completely manual. High value equipment assets such as grinders, slashers, debarkers, paper machines, screens, refiners, and supercalenders required the highest level efficiency output and uptime. St. Marys recognized that a computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) was necessary for planned maintenance and reduction of downtime.

With the goal of finding a CMMS to help reduce costs and improve efficiencies, St. Marys began its search. Initially, the search for a system required interfacing with the company's fmancials system, which at that time was VAX-based. Of the vendors evaluated, CHAMPS was determined to be the best fit. After a successful implementation, St. Marys had a system in place to help reduce downtime and standardize maintenance processes.

Technology-Driven Maintenance

In this age of continuous change, however, St. Marys was faced with further maintenance requirements. Maintenance technology advanced as well, with the advent of client/server (CS) applications with graphical interfaces and greater flexibility than previously possible. Having updated its financial system to C/S, it was time for St. Marys to do the same for the maintenance department.

In 1998, St. Marys decided to investigate potential vendors for the maintenance system upgrade initiative. After a review of several vendors, the mill once again turned to CHAMPS. "We felt they brought a lot to the table including a solid reputation, extensive experience and an attractive data migration plan that fit our needs," states Brian Delvecchio, information systems superintendent for St. Marys Paper. "The ability to access the system remotely was another factor in our decision process. And, we already knew the company and support staff on a first name basis so familiarity certainly influenced our decision."

Another factor influencing the decision was the maintenance system's ability to interface with St. Marys' fmancials application, EmpowerFinancials. To address this situation, a cost-effective interface was mapped out between the maintenance and the financial systems to the mill's satisfaction.

Prior to implementing the upgraded version of the maintenance system, St. Marys dedicated a core group to develop mill-specific user manuals and procedures based on job functions. The core group delivered the training to all users just prior to implementation. This same approach has been used to address training needs of new hires and for those personnel requiring refresher courses.

The remote access capability of the maintenance system has been a tremendous benefit for planners and supervisors. These users are able to connect from anywhere over the Internet and run the application from their virtual desktop provided by a Citrix Metaframe server. Having this connectivity enables them to prepare for the upcoming day by planning and scheduling their work orders from home on the previous evening if they choose. This remote connectivity also enables St. Marys to efficiently address support issues. Rather than attempting to describe a particular issue, St. Marys is able to access the maintenance system support desk, which is immediately able to shadow the administrator to quickly resolve issues. This enables both St. Marys and the maintenance system vendor to view the same user session and know exactly what needs to be done.

Systematic Work Process Approach

From a maintenance perspective, CHAMPS has helped St. Marys become more systematic in the way its approaches work. Rather than "shooting from the hip", the system helps personnel to think through a solution. As a result, workers have come to understand the importance and the reasoning for improved spare parts control, maintenance cost control and work order planning.

For users, the maintenance system has become a daily tool for improving work processes. It is the primary application used by the purchasing, stores and accounts payable departments. All workers at the mill use it as their spare parts inventory catalogue. Managers and superintendents use it to view up-to-the-minute committed maintenance costs, approve (or deny) purchase requisitions and review work orders (particularly safety-related work orders). Production supervisors enter and review work orders during the course of their shift. Safety stewards use it to enter work orders related to issues they may discover during their safety audits.