Consolidation
Thanks to consolidation, Barry Callebaut has grown rapidly
in recent years into an international company employing
some 9,000 people. In Europe alone, the company has no
less than 17 sites where chocolate and chocolate products are
manufactured. The chocolate, varying from fondant and milk
to white chocolate, is supplied to industrial customers in liquid
form or in 5-kilogramme blocks. “Callets” and blocks are
also supplied to bakers, patissiers, chocolatiers and chefs.
Until recently, every European production site had its own,
local maintenance team that constantly strove for far-reaching
production optimisation. The focus was usually on availability
and fewer maintenance costs. For Jo Thys, operation manager of Callebaut this was reason enough
to call in the assistance of PDM to set up and introduce a
single European maintenance strategy, introduce it, optimize
the maintenance processes at local level, and implement a
cost monitoring system at local and European level.
Approach
As a pilot, PDM started at the beginning of 2004 with carrying
out an analysis in Wieze, Belgium, the biggest site in the
group. We spent 1 or 2 weeks examining all four sites with
technicians and supervisors in order to map the work processes
and control systems. Then we thoroughly analysed the organization and the
results, held interviews and workshops and carried out data
analyses. As soon as the results of the analysis were known, a
three-phase programme was drawn up in consultation with
the regional management.
Among the items in phase 1 in Wieze, the large-scale
maintenance and the reliability engineering were centralized
and a maintenance management system was implemented so
that a close eye could be kept on the realization of the plan
and the job efficiency.
In this phase, an investigation was also carried out into the
possibilities for combining the technical stocks in the region
and a number of regional maintenance strategies were
benchmarked. These results too were then implemented on
the Belgian site. The KPIs were redefined at corporate level
and a European Maintenance Coordinator was appointed.
Since September 2005 (phase 2), PDM started with the
implementation of the management system at the cacao site
in France. We are also working with the Barry Callebaut
IM department to make an SAP blueprint to enable the
management system to be supported in the most efficient
way from SAP.
As soon as phase 2 is complete, we can start on phase 3:
rolling out the management system and the best practices to
the other sites in Europe. “We have set aside a period of 2
years for the entire programme,” says Thys.
Results
The management methods have
been professionalised and the organization structure at
both the Belgian and French sites has been modified at local
level. Thanks to the PDM approach, Callebaut succeeded in
saving approximately 10% of the costs of the total maintenance
budget on the Belgian site. This is a result that Callebaut also hopes to achieve on the other European production locations.
It is worth saying that introducing a single
European maintenance strategy has not resulted in all
maintenance activities being centrally managed but only
those activities that involve a lot of money. So the greater
part of the maintenance work will stay the responsibility of
the local site in the future.
