Minimize manufacturing downtime with the Celonis Maintenance Control Center

To put the issue into context, one estimate put the annual cost of unplanned downtime at Fortune Global 500 industrial companies at $1.5 trillion – or 11% of their yearly revenues. By any measure that’s huge…and the impact doesn’t stop there. With supply chains already under severe strain, any manufacturing interruption is a potential broken link in global value chains (upstream and downstream) – with negative effects hitting customers and suppliers alike.

These types of line stoppages to plant floor machine operations are often caused and compounded by reactive maintenance and short-term break-fix solutions. The importance of addressing this multi-billion dollar issue is a key reason why one of the four purpose-built apps in the Celonis Platform Apps Program is a dedicated maintenance solution for maximizing manufacturing uptime.

The Maintenance Control Center App

Launched in partnership with intelligent automation service provider Ashling Partners, the Maintenance Control Center App is a system-agnostic solution built upon Celonis’ Process Intelligence Platform. Which, in short, means the app is designed to work happily with whichever combination of manufacturing execution system (MES) and enterprise resource planning (ERP) users already have in place.

The app integrates plant floor process data with other standard operational data in a single, centralized, and intuitive platform from which to analyze and optimize maintenance procedures. Technicians, operators, and managers have access to simple, real-time visualizations of plant floor operations data, helping track any emerging issues that could disrupt the normal production flow.

And while reducing the chances of damaging downtime is one of the app’s key deliverables, so too is maximizing the overall effectiveness of maintenance programs. After all, according to Ashling Partners, 40-70% of a manufacturer’s overall cost is associated with maintenance of industrial plants.

Reactive maintenance is not only inefficient, it can create significant repair backlogs, placing enormous pressure on maintenance personnel resources. Where staff shortages occur, manufacturers are often unable to implement planned maintenance effectively and can become dependent on (more expensive) outsourcing options. By replacing reactive maintenance schedules with proactive, predictive, and intelligent approaches, app users can restrict unnecessary costs, and revenue leakage while improving productivity and product quality.

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The Maintenance Control Center App is able to deliver these kinds of benefits by identifying and activating value opportunities hidden in manufacturing and maintenance process data. The solution continuously monitors plant operations, tracks maintenance and break-fix activities, and issues alerts in the event of any stoppages. To minimize line stoppages, the app analyzes the end-to-end maintenance activation processes and the technical issues requiring specialist intervention.

This real-time monitoring and process analytics ensures that any incidents are met with rapid, informed, and often automated responses. Users also receive an indication of the operational criticality of the stoppage and, due to being integrated with all other business process data, an indication of the likely financial impact—based upon specific business priorities.

Going a step further, the app’s predictive analytics uses historical data (such as the most recent preventative maintenance data and number of malfunctions between incidents) to forecast future maintenance needs and highlight risks. With this, proactive strategies can be put in place to optimize machine and operator management, leading to higher productivity rates per unit and lower costly downtime.

Overall, the Maintenance Control Center App provides critical, actionable insights across machines, operators, and break-fix activities.

Proven real-world benefits

The Maintenance Control Center App has a proven pedigree in delivering tangible business benefits, transforming manufacturing performance. For example, prior to deployment of the app, one US manufacturing customer had experienced excessive (and expensive) unplanned downtime. This was primarily due to a reactive approach to plant maintenance and short-term fix solutions.

Once the Celonis / Ashling Partners solution was put in place, the organization monitored its plant floor machinery and technicians to predict and plan machine maintenance. The Maintenance Control Center App has helped identify $5 million in savings from a single plant, as well as a 10% improvement in manufacturing performance and an 8% increase in machine availability.

With real-time insights, criticality indicators, and predictive analytic guardrails protecting against damaging downtime, the app can unlock the full potential of your manufacturing processes.