Euromaint Components and Materials: Motivate Change through Process Mapping

Euromaint Components and Materials, a subsidiary of Euromaint Rail, has a long experience in providing maintenance and repair services for rail vehicles. Much of the day-to-day work at Euromaint involves various types of lifting equipment required by law to be identifiable and traceable for inspection. Euromaint had issues with their existing methods to fulfill the requirements, and therefore started an improvement work with Maria Ranheden, QMS Manager, in the lead. But how would the cost of the improvement be justified?

August 15, 2024

Potential for Improvement in the Maintenance Process

A punched metal tag had previously been used to fulfill the legal requirements. The problem with this tag was that it often got in the way during the use of the lifting gear and thus came loose, leading to a loss of traceability. In addition, the tag caused damage to soft lifting equipment and thus posed a safety risk affecting the working environment. Maria, who was responsible for quality, environment, health and safety, road safety, and fire protection, acted as a sounding board for operational improvements.

A Maintenance Technician suggested tagging the lifting equipment with RFID technology, providing a readable digital label. The RFID tag could be embedded in the lifting equipment, including the soft models. By using the RFID technology, they could better manage traceability, and it was expected to be more efficient and less risky.

“The improvement work was initiated by an idea that the company worked on to determine whether it was a good idea and whether we should capitalize on it”, says Maria.

Mapping to Motivate Changes

To assess the benefits of the change, Maria and her colleagues needed to find out how much time they spent in the current process and how that would change after implementing RFID tagging. Maria and the maintenance technicians mapped the activities performed in 2c8 Apps. They started by mapping the current process based on historical data, where they had replaced around 100 lifting devices yearly. By calculating the time spent on each activity, they determined the cost of the process, which turned out to be 246,000 SEK per year.

Once the current process was mapped, it was time to investigate what it could look like if they used RFID tags instead. This was also mapped in 2c8 Apps.

Significant Savings

The results of the new mapping revealed a more straightforward process with fewer steps and less time. Based on this process, they were able to calculate the cost savings. In year 1, savings were estimated at 127,000 SEK, while in years 2-3, savings were expected to amount to 183,000 SEK per year.

“One advantage of using 2c8 Apps to create a basis for the improvement work was that it was possible to clearly show the flow of the process through images. It made it easier when we presented the results to my manager, who needed to decide on the implementation”, says Maria.

By clearly showing the difference between the existing and proposed processes, they created a common image that illustrated their intentions and served as a concrete basis for decision-making.

“Although 2c8 was not the reason for the cost savings, it played an important role in decision-making and made the whole process smoother”, says Maria.