MidWest Materials

Introduction
The Challenge
The Solution
The Result

Introduction

MidWest Materials is an ISO 9001:2015 certified steel service center in Perry, Ohio. In business for over 70 years, the operation has grown considerably in recent decades, currently occupying a 240,000 square foot manufacturing facility and distribution center. Now, MidWest Materials is the leading producer and distributor of carbon flat rolled steel in all of North America.

The Challenge

Midwest Materials had been managing the maintenance of their extensive operation manually, on paper. Without a centralized system that could provide automation and efficiency, Roarke Baldwin, MidWest Materials’ Process Improvement Engineer, could see that downtime, errors, paperwork, and overtime was an avoidable issue.

He conducted an analysis which found that their manual, paper-based, reactive maintenance strategy was costing them millions of dollars every year.

Managing maintenance on paper was onerous, error-prone, and time-consuming.
A manual purchase order process averaged a turnaround time of 45 days.
Downtime and unplanned maintenance cost them $1M a year in lost production and $250k a year in overtime costs.

MidWest Materials had outgrown its manual process of managing maintenance activities and needed a better way.

“We appreciate the value Limble adds to our business — we have no intention of going back.”

Roarke BaldwinProcess Improvement Engineer

The Solution

To take on this unsustainable situation, they began a search for a CMMS that could bring their maintenance operation into the digital age.

They needed a system that not only offered full functionality and top-notch customer service, but — to minimize continued losses — also did it fast, with minimal training and setup time. After months of research they chose Limble and launched it ahead of schedule due to the ease of implementation.

The Result

Adding Limble to their toolkit paid off quickly.

Limble’s easy-to-use, automated system allowed the team to transition quickly. They can instantly view work orders, parts inventory, operator manuals, and drawings and take action on requests right from their phones or tablets. Now, everyone involved has all the information they need at their fingertips, in real-time.

Limble automated their PM schedule based on sophisticated machine-data, preventing breakdowns. It also streamlined the lengthy purchase order process and inventory management function, ensuring critical parts are always on hand for quick and effective repairs.

Purchase order turnaround dropped from 45 days to 9.7 days on average.
Parts inventory was managed in real-time with QR codes, so they no longer ran out of critical spare parts.
Their preventive maintenance schedule — powered by sophisticated machine data — prevents breakdowns and the costly downtime associated with them.
Overtime fell by 80%, reducing labor costs and improving team morale and productivity.

With Limble, MidWest Materials was able to build the efficient and streamlined maintenance operation they needed to support their growth and industry leader status.