Future Foam Reduces Reactive Maintenance by Over 30% Through Better Data and Visibility With MaintainX

Spotlight on the Customer

Family-owned since 1958, Future Foam is a leading manufacturer of custom-designed foam materials. Driven by a passion for innovation and a commitment to long-term customer success, the company develops solutions that address immediate customer needs and provide lasting value. With manufacturing facilities worldwide, Future Foam boasts a global reach and a relentless focus on quality.

Future Foam uses 100% pure foam to create unique products, including mattresses, furniture, and more. Ernie Plemmons, the equipment and supply manager, explained, "We’re essentially a chemical company, and my role is ensuring suppliers have what they need to stay up and running.” As a chemical company, the focus is on purity and precision to ensure the highest quality materials and innovative solutions for each client.

Challenges

“We had no historical data to help us when machines went down.” ^‍
_{Ernie Plemmons
Equipment and Supply Manager}

No visibility into parts inventory

With factories worldwide, tracking and maintaining accurate inventory data was crucial to avoiding costly and prolonged equipment downtime for Future Foam. Ernie had built an in-house inventory system that prioritized readily available access to "show stopper" parts and moved long-term supplies to nearby maintenance trailers.  However, with the heightened supply chain challenges plaguing manufacturers across the industry, Ernie quickly recognized the limitations of the existing system. "It wasn't getting us to where we needed to be," he admitted. 

Precise parts inventory management was paramount to Future Foam’s success as two of its most critical machines, the Looper and the Convoluter, relied on imported OEM parts from Germany. Ernie emphasized, "If one of these machines goes down, everything goes down." Both machines operate for two shifts every weekday and sometimes even on Saturdays. “If those machines go down,” Ernie said, “I have 27 employees who need to walk away and clock out for the rest of the day.”

Ernie needed to find a way to optimize parts inventory so critical parts could be readily available to prevent costly downtime while minimizing carrying costs. “Every shelf in the supply room costs money,” and Ernie was determined to find the perfect balance between parts availability and costs to maximize productivity. 

Missed work orders leading to downtime

Future Foam faced another critical issue: work orders were slipping through the cracks. Scheduled preventive maintenance work on equipment went uncompleted due to a lack of visibility into outstanding work orders, leading to costly unplanned downtime.  Ernie lamented,  "We had a machine overdue for maintenance, and two weeks later, it went down."

The problem wasn't a lack of commitment to maintenance, Ernie clarified. "We just didn't have the data on the work order." With no visibility into outstanding work orders, Ernie and his team struggled to keep track of the work that needed to be done and take preventive action to mitigate equipment failure. "If we had [completed the scheduled] preventive maintenance work, we would have known the machine was getting ready to fail. And the machine wouldn't have gone down for a week."

Lack of access to required documentation 

Ernie also faced significant challenges during inspections. The lack of access to historical work order data made it difficult to prove compliance with regulations. Unannounced inspections often led to frantic searches for crucial documentation, like proof of mandatory OSHA three-month filter changes. Although the team had performed these changes, Ernie struggled to find the paperwork to verify compliance. This scramble for documentation wasted valuable time and put the company at risk of non-compliance penalties.

The Solution: Data-driven maintenance management with MaintainX

Better data helped Future Foam source more durable, cost-effective part suppliers

Empowered by the data in Maintainx, Future Foam implemented a new, data-driven approach to parts procurement. "Take how we were purchasing blades at two different price points: $42 from one supplier and $60 from another," Ernie explained. "Data analysis showed us that focusing solely on price per blade was misleading. We discovered that the more expensive blades last 2-3 times longer than the cheaper ones, ultimately costing us less per hour of operations."

Based on the insight, Ernie advocated for a pricing model based on blade longevity rather than one purely focused on the absolute cost per unit. "Without MaintainX data, we wouldn't have been able to identify this valuable insight.”

Future Foam also utilized MaintainX to optimize its parts inventory management, significantly reducing over-ordering and emergency purchases. By automating planned maintenance work orders that listed the parts and tools needed to complete each work order, Ernie ensured that all necessary parts were readily available, enabling technicians to complete work orders efficiently and on time.

Furthermore, the inventory feature within MaintainX helped Ernie streamline the reordering process. By setting alerts for when parts reach certain thresholds, Ernie could initiate purchases before they run out. "This feature allows me to look ahead at future work orders and anticipate our needs weeks in advance," he explained. "Being proactive means we have the necessary parts on hand to avoid delays and disruptions."

By accurately predicting material needs and proactively managing its inventory, Future Foam no longer faces expensive rush orders. "We're saving hundreds of dollars on orders by avoiding those $200 expediting fees," Ernie happily shared.

While Ernie prioritized proactive inventory management, he also recognized the importance of preparedness for unforeseen circumstances. "[With MaintainX,] I can see things weeks out. And I can then order what we need to prepare for what’s coming up,” he said. “I can also make sure that in cases of emergency, we’ve got what we need on the shelf.”

Implemented preventive maintenance program

Future Foam is actively building a valuable data foundation with the help of MaintainX. With work orders, assets, and parts in MaintainX, the data empowers the company to operate more proactively and efficiently.

With ready access to historical and real-time data, Ernie has a clear view of the entire system. He can quickly identify machines prone to frequent breakdowns and analyze their historical data to determine the optimal frequency for preventive maintenance. He also can look at a machine that keeps going down and know that “We need to schedule a weekly or daily PM. It’s a problem we can fix.” This proactive approach helped Future Foam build a preventive maintenance program that addresses potential problems before they snowball into major issues, ultimately improving machine reliability and uptime.

Take the Looper machine, again, for example. Now, when it goes down, the company has detailed documentation on past downtime duration, required parts and supplies, and labor hours spent on the last fix. Ernie said, “We can say, ‘Here’s what this machine cost us,’ and compare scheduled maintenance and reactive issues. From MaintainX reporting, we can now see and control problem areas.” By comparing this information to scheduled maintenance data, the team can identify areas for improvement and switch from reactive repairs to proactive interventions.

Future Foam also used the insights to identify previously neglected tasks that contributed significantly to overall maintenance effectiveness. “There’s a lot of work we weren’t doing but should’ve been doing.” Additionally, the data helped them pinpoint the root causes of reactive maintenance needs, enabling the team to address them directly and minimize future occurrences by adding them to a preventive maintenance schedule.

Streamlined regulatory compliance with work order history and records

Since adopting MaintainX, showing regulatory compliance has become a breeze for Ernie and his team. "No more scrambling for paperwork," Ernie exclaimed. "Now, I just ask for the inspector’s email address and go click, click, click, and it’s done. It's completely off our radar."

Optimized workflow with mobile access

In addition to remotely accessing compliance records and real-time data, Ernie can manage maintenance directly from his phone, streamlining the workflow for maintenance staff and management. 

“At the end of the day, managing this from my phone is critical. I have a revolving door of maintenance guys coming in to gather parts. I can’t stress enough the value of reporting,” Ernie said. “The maintenance guys can do their thing, and the plant manager or the regional leader can sit at their desk and ask, ‘How is the maintenance department doing? How are we doing with our machinery?’ They can pull that up and look at accurate real-time data, and that’s extremely helpful.”

Best-in-class ongoing support and training from MaintainX

MaintainX procedures have revolutionized how Future Foam onboards new technicians and grabs tribal knowledge before employees leave. "Before MaintainX, our technicians couldn't access anything in real time," Ernie said. Now, they simply use their cell phones and tablets to show the new guys coming in. They can work off the procedures to show step-by-step processes."

Mobile access is particularly beneficial for complex procedures. "We have procedures with 20 steps to complete," Ernie noted. "For the experienced guys, that's pretty easy, but new guys need guidance to ensure they're doing it correctly.” For Ernie, MaintainX has reduced the need for extensive technician-to-technician training.

With MaintainX readily available on their mobile devices, technicians can walk up to a machine, pull up the relevant procedure, and begin working. It empowers them and minimizes reliance on constant supervision. And "If a new technician encounters a question," Ernie explained, "they usually call early on, and we can walk them through it and help them get to a better place."

Results: Revolutionized maintenance operations with MaintainX

“MaintainX was the direction we needed to go. We’ve never looked back.”

Starting in November 2021, Future Foam successfully integrated MaintainX into operations at four sites, including High Point where Ernie works, and has added over 7,600 work orders, nearly 5,000 parts, and 90+ vendors. And in June 2023, Future Foam extended MaintainX its vote of confidence by rolling out MaintainX to all of its 22 sites, adding 19k work orders, 53k parts, and counting. 

Leveraging MaintainX's comprehensive reporting features, Ernie can analyze the company’s preventive and reactive maintenance activities to track associated costs. This visibility has been instrumental in reducing downtime, with Ernie reporting a significant 30-35% decrease in reactive maintenance since implementation.

Beyond the quantitative benefits, MaintainX has helped shift Future Foam’s maintenance culture. Ernie said, "I have a couple of guys who are old school and hesitant about change. I wasn't sure how well they'd adapt to MaintainX. But, shortly after implementing the system, an engineer came up to me saying, 'It's a completely new environment. It's been a great help.'"

Conclusion: Future Foam + MaintainX = Better Data, Smarter Decisions, Streamlined Operations

MaintainX’s ease of use was the deciding factor for Ernie. Before selecting, he had evaluated at least 10 CMMS vendors. He recounted, "I deal with companies and sales reps all the time, and it's always the same. They come in with their 'Have I got a deal for you' attitude, but it's a whole different story once they're in the door."

MaintainX, however, stood out from the crowd. "You continue to amaze me," Ernie declared. "You’re thorough, consistent, and loyal.” Unlike the other vendors who just wanted to push their product, “The MaintainX rep came to the table and simply asked, 'How can I help?' Your commitment to customer satisfaction has been phenomenal for us."