New Zealand’s Mataura Valley Milk (MVM) is in the business of feeding the future.
Here, processors convert raw milk into formula, providing crucial nutrients to babies across the world. The state-of-the-art drying plant is smack in the middle of the rolling green hills of Southland New Zealand. This is one of the most favorable dairy-producing regions in the world.
That’s why it’s so important for MVM reliability engineers like Mike Arnold and Simon McGowan to keep the plant running. The cost of downtime can be downright scary. It reduces throughput and profit, causing spoilage that forces the dumping of perfectly good dairy. Or at the very worst, spoiled product hits the market and kills infants.
It’s a big responsibility. And they tackled it with LLumin CMMS+.
From homogenizers to hundreds of motors to thousands of valves, they’ve connected nearly 10,000 assets to LLumin since its 2018 install. The one-click interface helped them improve audits, delegate tasks and avoid downtime caused by catastrophic machine failure.
In short? LLumin made these reliability engineers better at their jobs.
Before LLumin came along …
“Every day was a stressful day. I would basically be shoulder tapping and putting fires out. Just all very reactive. I’ve worked at places like that, and you never get on top of stuff.” — Mike Arnold, reliability engineer at MVM
“Well, you don’t look like an idiot.”
In this field, audits can happen twice a month — and auditors expect to see details on every critical asset related to food safety. It’s a simple request, but organizing reports under pressure can be tough.
So, how did LLumin become a game-changer for Mike?
“Well, you don’t look like an idiot. With LLumin, things are easy to manage, and so you know what you’re doing and have good systems and processes in place. Otherwise, it’s a bloody nightmare. And with LLumin, if an auditor asks, ‘Can you show me your critical assets related to food quality or health and safety?’ I just click that asset to run the report and get a full Excel spreadsheet with all the details.”
Mike’s isn’t the only life made easier thanks to LLumin’s reporting capabilities. Auditors’ jobs get simpler, too — and that’s good news for everyone at MVM.
“Do that and they don’t dive too much more. They’re quite happy. LLumin’s been invaluable on that side.”
Slashing unplanned downtime by 67%
MVM relies on four mechanical vapor recompression fans to recycle steam during the milk evaporation process. When one suffered catastrophic failure due to overheated bearings, the surprise fault froze line operations for 18 hours. It was the kind of unplanned chaos Mike never wanted to experience again.
The solution? LLumin.
“We started tracking high bearing temperatures to preempt when we thought it was going to fail. With operators putting that information into LLumin, we could track it, then plan and schedule the corrective bearing replacement on those fans. That was planned maintenance, and it only took six hours.”
No wasted milk, no lost profits and a crisis averted.
But it’s all about day-to-day efficiency
Most CMMS systems come with default nomenclature that requires new users to learn the software’s language. Not LLumin. With one click, Mike could change every asset name in the system to match the vocabulary of his maintenance team. This only makes it easier for skeptical staff members to adopt.
Every user also gets their own personalized dashboard, which outlines daily priorities and critical machinery updates. For open work orders started by other team members, dialogue boxes communicate the project’s status. And if a part is needed? It’s already on its way, thanks to LLumin’s automated inventory capabilities.
If LLumin detects abnormal temperatures or vibrations, it automatically notifies technicians and operators. Mike created a process instructing the team to first review the asset’s historical data and then complete diagnostics. This ensured smoother escalations without wasting labor hours and resources.
“If you don’t set the expectations clear, when they have issues with a valve or pump, a lot of the time they’re straight on the phone, ringing maintenance. This makes everything a lot more efficient.”
Built for maintenance teams
“LLumin is a lot easier for trade staff to use, and it’s tailored pretty well to our needs. Its simplicity makes it really user-friendly for operators. When we have new people starting, it’s a lot easier than SAP, that’s for sure.” — Simon McGowan, engineering manager at MVM
Reactive maintenance? Those days are over
Sure, LLumin helped MVM cut unplanned downtime. It made audits easy. It streamlined daily operations.
But most importantly,
it freed the maintenance team from the reactionary mindset that made work miserable. It gave them control over the present — and the future.
To engineer the same outcomes at your own plant, schedule a free LLumin demo today.
Schedule a demo to start a conversation
Here’s what to expect:
- One of our reps will reach out within 24 hours. Their mission? To show you how you can take complete control over maintenance outcomes.
- Ask industry-specific questions during your personal, one-on-one LLumin demo.
- Consult our panel of experts to determine whether our CMMS+ is right for your company.