In 2008, an Atlanta-based company with a network of North American paper mills began searching for an enterprise-wide computerized maintenance management system (CMMS). The company brought in its trusted maintenance management consultant, Performance Consulting Associates (PCA), to assist with the evaluation and configuration of the CMMS. 

Immediately, PCA and the company’s CMMS design team got to work on building playbooks for maintenance work management, storeroom management, and reliability optimization. By laying a foundation of standardized processes and procedures, PCA helped the organization configure the new CMMS to best support its long-term business goals of reducing downtime and increasing operational efficiency.  

The business still relies on these playbooks today. PCA was able to ensure such a successful adoption by: 

Creating Customized Workflows 

After the company selected a CMMS, Performance Consulting Associates customized the storeroom and work management playbooks to leverage the new platform’s strengths. The company adopted the acronym EPAM (enterprise purchasing and asset management) to identify the playbooks and business processes.  

Company leadership chose JD Edwards Enterprise 1 as their CMMS platform, for consistency with the existing JDE financial management system. While there were benefits for the finance team, there were trade-offs the CMMS team faced. The out-of-the-box version of JDE lacked some of the more robust maintenance functionalities found in other CMMS software. Fortunately, PCA, the client’s leadership team, and the information technology (IT) staff were committed to tackling this challenge head-on.  

As a collaborative consultant, PCA created a standard workflow model that helped embed the client’s maintenance goals and priorities in the JDE CMMS during configuration and setup. The team worked closely with the company’s IT team and executive leadership to seamlessly implement these workflows and achieve user buy-in.  

Mobilizing the C-Suite 

From day one, executive leadership, particularly the chief financial officer, acknowledged the need for customization of the JDE solution. They immediately supported the concept of managed customization, as such an investment would be necessary to adapt JDE’s CMMS to the company’s maintenance needs. 

PCA took on the role of customer support, listening to the concerns of each mill, as well as those of line-level staff. This hands-on approach helped identify potential barriers to adoption and gather ideas for customization, which PCA presented to the IT team.  

Getting IT On Board from Day One  

Traditionally, the information technology department decides what CMMS package it will deploy unilaterally. In other words, this means that users have little to no input in the process.  

In contrast, the company’s IT personnel were far more collaborative. They worked hand in hand with PCA and the implementation team to customize and configure JDE for maximum return on investment.  

Throughout the implementation process, PCA worked closely with the IT personnel to identify relevant concerns and lobby on behalf of each mill. The end result was a well configured and optimally customized solution that supported the different functional areas of the organization.  

Ready to Learn More? 

If you’d like to learn more about Performance Consulting Associates and our collaborative approach to change management, let’s connect. We look forward to helping your business modernize its approach to maintenance, workflow management, and efficiency optimization.