AssetOptics helps Advanced Vacuum Company, Inc. (a.k.a. ADVACO) Streamline Customized Maintenance Tracking and Reporting
Business Challenges
With a broadly dispersed base of large customers, ADVACO faced real challenges monitoring and managing customer equipment maintenance, both corrective and preventive. One of its larger customers has 1,000+ pieces of equipment, and ADVACO provides a team of 25 on-site field service technicians who are specific to that customer’s maintenance operations.
ADVACO is a dedicated salesforce.com customer that wanted a way to integrate automated maintenance tracking and reporting with its CRM solution, but felt its requirements were so specialized that it might not be possible. When a previous solution could not provide customizations specific to the company’s needs, Mike West, ADVACO’s director of Subfab Engineering, identified AssetOptics EAM as a potential answer. “We had a really defined focus on what features we needed, and AssetOptics gave us what we wanted,” says West.
Solution
ADVACO was seeking a cloud-based solution that would be easily accessible by all technicians, could generate accurate, in-depth reports, and was capable of logging daily technician activity for both corrective and preventive maintenance (PM). West says his company needed results that were specific to the day-to-day operations of his group, but didn’t want anything too complicated or cumbersome.
AssetOptics set up a highly configured pilot tailored to ADVACO’s business requirements, and West took it to company executives for approval. “AssetOptics EAM had exactly what our guys were looking for, as far as setting up a PM item and notifying a technician,” West says. “One of the big things we needed in the program was a way to automatically reschedule our PM activities. With AssetOptics EAM, it is all automatic. The prior product was more manual and time consuming.”
Other requirements for ADVACO were support for platform customization and tight integration with Salesforce CRM. “AssetOptics EAM has the infrastructure that allows us to modify it to our uses easily,” says West. “It gave us the functionality to do custom work with Salesforce CRM as well.”
Results
With clients running their tools 24/7, ADVACO must keep downtime to a minimum to ensure customer satisfaction. AssetOptics EAM’s automation features enable ADVACO to optimize PM scheduling as well as automatically reschedule when a client’s needs change. “With thousands of pieces of equipment, it wasn’t feasible for technicians to enter every PM manually,” says ADVACO Director of Sales & Marketing Warren Sebring. “AssetOptics EAM frees our technicians up to do their work instead of sitting at their computers updating a hundred items every day,” continues Sebring. “It increases productivity significantly because the techs don’t have to recreate and reschedule these PMs every time one is completed. The PMs are automated and that process has flowed very smoothly.”
West says the reporting features have also been highly valuable to ADVACO. “With the information AssetOptics EAM gathers, I can easily calculate performance metrics on a customer’s equipment, including the number of man hours that we spend on that equipment as well as mean repair time, so the customers can see the reliability value. It is really important for our customers to know the number of hours or the percentage of total time that their equipment was available.”
West has also incorporated failure analysis using AssetOptics EAM’s metrics. “Through the failure analysis process, we can determine statistically when a piece of equipment might fail.” That lets ADVACO be proactive in servicing the equipment and save the customer potential downtime.
Overall, ADVACO is very pleased with its decision to implement AssetOptics EAM. “AssetOptics’ tech support is very helpful,” says West. “We’re taking care of the equipment better with our comprehensive reports. We’re much better with equipment and the customer is happier. AssetOptics EAM does what we need it to do.”
Company Background
Since 1972, ADVACO has been the benchmark in comprehensive vacuum equipment remanufacturing and subfab services. From standard preventive maintenance rebuilds to major overhauls, ADVACO offers the most comprehensive, reliable, and cost effective vacuum and abatement equipment service solutions available. The remanufacturing facility in Westminster, MD, is equipped with state-of-the-art technology and equipment, which enables ADVACO to provide service to customers on a global basis. To learn more, visit www.ADVACO.com or call 800-272-2525 x211 to discuss how ADVACO can increase your process uptime and reduce overall maintenance costs.
