AWE improves risk control and boosts productivity with Infor EAM

Ken Chapman, for AWE, explains that needed to improve on its previous CMMS (computerised maintenance management system) to get improve visibility of asset-related information. This would enable the defence manufacturer to better support complex assets and resource structures, and hence to extend the lifecycle of equipment and improve productivity. "We had a longstanding relationship with Infor, having used its Datastream asset management product for a number of years. We therefore had the confidence that upgrading to the latest version – Infor EAM – would enable us to achieve our ambitions whilst ensuring a fast, easy deployment," states Chapman. "Upgrading to Infor EAM meant that AWE would benefit from a comprehensive, industry-specific solution, grounded in the defence industry, with both breadth and depth of capabilities," he continues. "For example, through providing links to CAD drawings of assets via Infor EAM's OpenCAD capabilities, 360 degree, highly detailed information on assets could be viewed, supporting risk and compliance." Chapman explains that an ability to schedule complex resources was also key. Utilising the third party application ClickSoftware, Infor EAM, he says, demonstrated its ability to help AWE apply enhanced scheduling capabilities to optimise route planning in logistics operations, as well as improving the scheduling of 600 engineers. "Infor EAM's flexibility and ability to scale were compelling, and the application contained everything we needed to support preventative maintenance, detection and notification of breakdowns, the scheduling and prioritisation of engineers, and management of spare parts inventories," states Chapman. "Infor has helped us to achieve greater programme risk control over our assets as we can now project, execute and monitor maintenance regimes for different pieces of equipment dependent on their risk to program deliverables, safety, environmental and security," he says. "We now have a continual, in-depth insight into the precise status of each piece of equipment so that we can plot each one appropriately," he adds. Chapman says that Infor has now enabled AWE to improve its performance, through tighter processes, intelligence and improved data quality. "We now have a clear, cohesive picture of all assets and intuitive, alert-based early warning systems in place to ensure that we are always one step ahead of maintenance issues," he explains. "The system enables us to distil far better management information, giving us greater confidence in the management of our plant operations and most importantly to ensure that safety and compliance conforms to the highest standards." Chapman also explains that AWE harnessed the Infor ION lightweigh middleware and Infor Workspace. "Over the next 12 months, [we] intend to use these applications to extend the benefits we have already derived. Through using ION, we will be able to achieve a comprehensive picture of all our assets, processes and people, as the application will rapidly integrate multiple databases and applications across our production, procurement, fleet management, calibration and security systems." Meanwhile, he expects Workspace to deliver contextual business intelligence from all AWE's asset based applications and databases in a single portal, to support decision-making, and optimising procurement in particular to better manage lead time for parts.