Steel Supplier Taps Rockwell Automation to Digitize Maintenance

Steel stockholder Barrett Steel has selected Rockwell Automation’s computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) Fiix to manage its maintenance programs.

The move is part of a five-year program to digitize the company’s maintenance operations including asset tracking and connected business systems to cut downtime and improve productivity.

Fiix works to schedule and monitor maintenance tasks, tracking the progress of the processes and gathering data-led insights into the day-to-day operations of a site. This data is stored on and organized using the SaaS industrial IoT platform ThingWorx.

“We put forward a digital transformation plan that focused around ThingWorx coupled to a powerful but easy-to-use CMMS solution,” said Malte Dieckelmann, regional vice president at Rockwell Automation. “The resulting package reduces risk to both day-to-day operations and personnel.”

The move follows a growing trend of companies harnessing digital tools to streamline maintenance at operations and cut back on delays, in a climate where demand is growing and production is seeing a squeeze.

“Downtime at any of our 26 U.K. sites could lead to delivery delays, which are simply unacceptable,” said Paul Burke, operations director at Barrett Steel. “We always look to deploy the best possible contemporary solutions to help ensure maximum uptime. Due to the mobile nature of our operations, remote access was essential as was the ease of use, and the Fiix/ThingWorx package is perfect for our needs.”