VandemoorteleVDM^XL Audit and reliability engineering support at Vandemoortele Izegem

The Task
The site in Izegem is the largest and most complex site. Given the rich history of the plant, the machinery consists of a mix of old and recent installations. To support further professionalization, Vandemoortele Izegem was looking for support to further optimize the maintenance process.

The approach
Mainnovation has carried out a VDM^XL audit at Vandemoortele. In the first instance it was important to get a good view of the current situation.
We have collected a number of maintenance indicators for this:
• had conversations with the people from the maintenance service & their internal customers & partners
• analyzed the daily course of events by means of observation sessions
In addition, we have paid extra attention to the design and use of SAP EAM.
With this input we have organized a workshop to discuss our analysis of the current situation. In this interactive workshop we benchmarked the maintenance indicators with similar companies in the Vandemoortele sector. The 12 indicators that are each time representative of a certain process are compared in this way. Besides the quantitative comparison, we also discussed the maturity of the processes. This qualitative analysis is based on the conversations and observations.
After the current state workshop, we also organized a future state workshop. At Vandemoortele, increasing the technical availability is the dominant value driver. Based on this, we have looked at what “best practices” can be implemented to make a direct positive contribution to this theme. The base for this is strengthening the “aorta” of the maintenance organization: Reliability Engineering – Work Preparation & Planning – Job Execution.
The conclusions of the future state workshop were then translated into an action plan. This “Step-To-MileStone plan” is a step-by-step plan for the coming 18 months. It contains all activities per month and per theme that are required to achieve the set targets.
A maintenance service works on short-term and long-term actions. It is important that everyone has the time and skills to perform their role. A clear division of roles is important here. At Vandemoortele Izegem we have therefore worked out a number of proposals to redesign the organizational structure in such a way to provide maximum support for the processes. For the reliability engineering role, Vandemoortele has hired an interim from Mainnovation to perform a number of basic processes in the short term. In this role, work was done on a Long-Term Asset Plan and a simple KPI dashboard to monitor the maintenance processes. Based on the SAP EAM recommendations, several issues were adjusted and agreed to improve the efficiency of the tool and reduce the administrative workload.

Added value of Mainnovation
Mainnovation was able to analyze the current situation in the short term with the standardized approach of a VDM^XL audit. Based on the benchmark database with relevant references within the industry, we were able to compare and test the results.
In addition, a VDM^XL audit always revolves around “Focus + Change”. The focus has to do with the right analysis, benchmarking, determining priorities and working out a step-by-step plan. All these subjects cannot be viewed separately from the Change aspect. We must also take acceptance into account for every aspect. We are working on this through a change readiness analysis, the workshops with an active input from the participants, a communication plan, one-on-one conversations with a number of key figures, etc. With the deployment of an interim reliability engineer from Mainnovation, tangible things were realized quickly in the field. This is crucial in the acceptance and the entire “change process”.