Clinton Aluminum

From paper to a fully functioning manufacturing work order software system

Fiix is their first CMMS software. Prior to its installation they used a paper-based system. The task of making Fiix part of the company was given to a new Maintenance Coordinator and MRO purchaser in January of 2013. Dena Earich transferred into this role from another part of the company to complete the task. We interviewed Dena in July of 2013, six months after starting in her new role.

Her first task was to setup the asset database in Fiix. “It was not difficult”, she said. Fiix has an intuitive setup procedure and video tutorials at every interface screen to provide assistance whenever it is needed.

For what I do, I am not sure I could do without it.

In 6 months she added nearly all of the assets and supplies in the facility to the manufacturing work order software CMMS and has made it a fully functional part of the company. “The whole dynamics of the site are very user friendly”, said Dena.

One of the main uses for Fiix in the company is to make a request for something to get fixed. “The guys on the floor like that they can put something in the system and they know it is going somewhere.” That somewhere is Dena, who receives the maintenance requests, creates the work order and makes sure the tasks are allocated to the most appropriate person.

Clinton Aluminum uses Fiix extensively to keep track of the parts and supplies needed for maintenance. “I like the fact that you can find things [in the system] easily”, said Dena. This is a key feature of Fiix, parts can be easily tracked, and when their supplies get low the responsible person is automatically notified.

“The staff like that they can view just what they want, and are not bogged down by a bunch of information [that they don’t need]”, said Dena. The amount of information that each user sees can be customized easily in Fiix. If they want, managers can see everything, and technicians might see only the equipment they are responsible for.