Rockwell Automation transforms maintenance at Barrett Steel

Rockwell Automation has announced that Barrett Steel, the UK’s largest independent steel stockholder, has chosen the Fiix computerised maintenance management system (CMMS) to manage its ongoing maintenance programs and reduce downtime.

The deployment of the CMMS from Fiix is part of a digital transformation of Barrett Steel’s maintenance activities, with the aim of streamlining, simplifying and mobilizing the entire program.

The steel stockholder had already deployed an OEE system developed and installed by CHG, a trusted supplier of Barrett Steel and a Rockwell Automation recognised system integrator. CHG recognised that the Fiix CMMS would be ideal to develop and scale the system further and partnered with Rockwell Automation to create a tailored solution, based around a five-year ROI project.

Fiix’s cloud-native CMMS creates workflows for the scheduling, organising, and tracking of equipment maintenance, connecting seamlessly to business systems to drive data-driven decisions. As one of the world’s most widely used CMMS solutions, Fiix has more than two million assets under management and creates more than 6 million work orders per year.

Another essential element of the maintenance-operations transformation is the ThingWorx SaaS-based SCP (smart connected products) package from PTC, which connects all the business systems together, displaying the correct information to the correct people. ThingWorx provides the functionality, flexibility, and scalability that businesses need to drive industrial innovation, including the ability to source, contextualise and synthesise data, while orchestrating processes and delivering powerful web, mobile and AR experiences.

Malte Dieckelmann, EMEA regional vice president for software sales at Rockwell Automation, said: “We put forward a digital transformation plan that focused around ThingWorx coupled to a powerful but easy-to-use CMMS solution that would allow them to simply raise work-order tickets, identify outstanding health and safety jobs, and digitise paper-based processes. The resulting package reduces risk to both day-to-day operations and personnel.”

Peter Clarke, director at CHG explains: “We set up a trial of Fiix and incorporated some value-added demonstration data, based on an installed-base evaluation. Using this information, we then created some preventative maintenance schedules that Barrett Steel was able to simulate and test using mobile phones and tablets – a major part of the initial brief.”

Paul Burke, operations director at Barrett Steel, said: “We have been at the forefront of the UK steel industry for more than 150 years and place our customers at the core of everything we do. Downtime at any of our 26 UK sites could lead to delivery delays, which are simply unacceptable. Therefore, we always look to deploy the best possible contemporary solutions to help ensure maximum uptime. Due to the mobile nature of our operations, remote access was essential as was the ease of use, and the Fiix/ThingWorx package is perfect for our needs.”

The installation of a CMMS solution is one of the first steps in the company’s ambitious digital transformation plans, which will eventually encompass a wider spread of applications and technologies, all of which can be developed, tailored, deployed and supported by CHG Electrical and Rockwell Automation.