Miller Magazine Issue 137 May 2021

71 COVER STORY MILLER / may 2021 As a benchmark, around two to five percent of the value of the installed assets is dedicated to it. THE EVOLUTION IN MAINTENANCE Maintenance has evolved for many businesses over the past few years. New technology – IT in particular – has en- abled operators to optimize maintenance tasks and take the entire process to the next level. At the same time, ex- pectations have also changed, those of both customers and official food safety auditors. Today, comprehensive pa- per trails are required that cover all aspects of the process- es determining food quality and safety. Food safety audits have become tougher and tougher all over the world. And quite rightly so. Safety is of critical im- portance to our business,” says Maheshwari. “If a machine is maintained, we want to know every detail about the pro- cedure: who was in charge, what was done, which parts were examined and replaced. All calibrations undertaken in a mill for optimal performance require similar diligent pro- cedures.” PULLING TOGETHER ALL THE PARTS With scores of machines made by different manufactur- ers, each with thousands of parts, it is a mammoth task to keep on top of the maintenance process. That is why, in 2015, the company investigated purchasing specialized software to assist in this operation. After researching the market, Siemer Milling Company opted for Bühler’s Pro- Plant. The advantage it offered was its ability to cover the entire business – each department and each different type and make of machinery. The ProPlant Service Management System is a soft- ware that enables operators to organize the maintenance schedule of a plant. It can be deployed for plants operating Bühler and non-Bühler equipment. It merges complex data from various sources and delivers the information that op- erators need to manage maintenance and repairs. Before software like ProPlant was available, maintenance tasks were noted and tracked with pen and paper resulting in a very inefficient, time-consuming and error-prone process. With ProPlant, it is simple to generate a job card for each task, listing all the work that has to be done. The software also provides a record of every check or change made to each piece of machinery. The software consists of four modules: Installation Asset Data Management, Preventive and Corrective Maintenance, Inventory Management, and Document Management. The multiple plant installation se- curely connects operations in different locations via the In- ternet to a management computer at any location. Data is safely backed up on a backup server. Beyond the standard set-up, changes can be made to adapt the system to each customer’s requirements. The Siemer Milling Company, West Harrison, USA.