Around three hundred technicians are daily keeping Stedin’s gas and electricity installations in good condition. Maintenance is one of the core processes of the grid operator, because nobody wants disruptions in the supply of gas and electricity. A whole chain of activities is linked to the maintenance of the various assets, from drawing up an annual plan and initiating maintenance orders to work preparation, planning and execution. “Quite a complex chain, in which we use various applications. IBM Maximo is one of them,” says Daniel Kolobaric of Stedin.

IBM Maximo plays a role at the beginning and at the end of the various maintenance chains. Daniel: “At the beginning of a chain, we initiate maintenance orders in IBM Maximo, based on our annual plan. They form the basis for the work of our technicians. At the end, we collect all maintenance data from the field back into Maximo.” The data tells us something about the condition of an asset and what has happened to it. “If nothing is found during maintenance, the asset goes back into the cycle. But if, for example, a major repair is needed, IBM Maximo ensures that an order is created for this,” says Daniel.

Stedin has been using IBM Maximo for many years. Daniel: “I have been working at Stedin for a year myself, so I don’t know exactly how long. But I’ve heard it’s more like fifteen than ten years. We have also been working with Gemba all that time. Gemba has helped us set up our asset management in IBM Maximo, and now they are helping us to optimize the use of the software.” For example, a number of functional and technical consultants from Gemba are a permanent part of the Maintenance Chain Team. “Nice colleagues who know a lot about IBM Maximo and bring experience from companies in other sectors, that is very valuable.”

Gemba is currently helping Stedin to make the transition to risk-based maintenance. “We now adhere to the maintenance periods that the supplier of an asset indicates upon delivery, which is very static. But an installation that is exposed to sea air, for example, needs maintenance sooner than an installation in a more protected environment. We want to make our maintenance more dynamic, based on the condition of an asset and the risk of failures. That is more effective and efficient,” explains Daniel.

One of the things that Stedin and Gemba are working on together within the Maintenance Chain Team is the development of dashboards in IBM Maximo. “In it, we visualize, for example, the condition of an asset, but also the progress of our annual plan, the completeness of the maintenance schedule and the percentage of deviations found,” says Daniel. “We also want to visualize the condition of our assets. That you see, for example, a gas installation, click through to components and know what its condition is based on color codes. Green is good, red is critical. Of course with detailed reports behind it.”

The collaboration with Gemba is of great importance to Stedin. “IBM Maximo is a proven product, with many possibilities. Now we only use a scratch of it. We want to get much more out of IBM Maximo to further improve the maintenance of our primary assets. Gemba’s specialized knowledge and broad experience is very important in this regard,” says Daniel. Stedin may include even more categories of assets in IBM Maximo in the future. Daniel: “We are still investigating this, but if it does happen, they will be major operations.”