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Mainstem to pinpoint laggards and losses

11th June 1971, Page 33
11th June 1971
Page 33
Page 34
Page 33, 11th June 1971 — Mainstem to pinpoint laggards and losses
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New computerized maintenance management system launched

• For about £20 per vehicle per year a new fleet management system, revealed yesterday in London, is designed to provide operators with a meticulous and detailed picture of how their vehicles and their maintenance operation are measuring up to standards each month and to draw immediate attention to profit drains, bad vehicles and faulty workmanship or parts.

The system is Mainstem, introduced to Britain by a Cummins Engine Co group subsidiary, Mainstem Ltd, Farman House, 30-36 Fife Road, Kingston on Thames, Surrey (tel: 01 549 4421). It is said to be applicable to any size or distribution of fleet, and has been in use for five years in the USA where there are ndw over 65,000 vehicles and trailers on the system. Mainstem Ltd claims that the average cost of 0.5 per cent of total operating costs, which the system entails, can bring a reduction in maintenance costs of between 10 and 30 per cent.

The Mainstem system works likes this, First, a fleet engineer visits the customer and surveys his existing maintenance operation, on the basis of which survey the standards are established for the installation of Mainstem. Application of the scheme is then made under the supervision of this fleet engineer, who conducts training sessions in the use of the scheme with workshop and depot staff and then subsequently makes regular monthly. visits to the operator. On these visits he helps to interpret reports, analyse cost and repair trends, compare workshop performance, recommend improvements and monitor the results of previously implemented changes.

To provide the basic operating information, a participant has to supply Mainstem with four monthly report forms, on which much of the information is in "ticked box" form to obviate lengthy writing. This input information is fed to a computer which produces monthly reports covering up to 10 different aspects of the operation. These reach the operator within 10 to 15 days of the end of the period being surveyed.

The input reports which the operator must complete are: a) Repair order form. This form (of which a US version is published here) provides details of use of labour timi, parts, cost, nature of repair and how it originated.

b) A mileage, fuel and oil inventory. This is a dual-purpose document since it is in the form of a print-out of the previous month's inventory, which the operator must update.

c) An indirect labour summary. This sets out the month's labour time on activities not directly attributable to one vehicle—for example vehicle washing, or the fetching of spare parts from dealers. This area of labour use is one in which Mainstem expects to throw up some significant wastage figures.

d) An accounting report, showing certain items of expenditure against budget; much of it is optional but the important items are. the actual payroll remuneration figure and the hours worked by those on the payroll.

When processed, this data provides the material for the printed-out reports, of which an example is published here. These reports to the operator are as follows:— i) Vehicle exception report. This is designed to reveal vehicles or equipment whose performance is falling below agreed standard. The system can deal with up to nine different standards, such as: £100 or more maintenance costs; fuel consumption under 3 mpg or over 15 mpg; vehicles involved in an emergency breakdown call or a GV9; vehicles exceeding 24-hours downtime per month.

ii) Vehicle maintenance and operating costs report. This can provide a complete history of every vehicle in the .fleet over its operational life. Every six months, or for any particularly significant cause, Mainstem can produce an up-to-date one-page report on a specific vehicle.

iii) Vehicle maintenance and operating summary. This provides a oneline-per-vehicle review of operating and maintenance costs for all vehicles at a given garage or depot.

iv) Analysis of vehicle cost. This report provides a comparative analysis of vehicles grouped according to the work they are doing.

v) Garage/depot performance report. This is a one-page statement on each garage . or depot, comparing actual expenditure with the budget, indicating how labour resources are being used. It also accounts for work done by other garages and shows a debit for work undertaken by other depots on this garage's vehicles.

vi) Indirect labour summary. A report that assembles, by category, all labour which cannot be assigned to a specific vehicle.

vii) Garage/depot maintenance costs. This report summarizes maintenance costs by type of repair, cost and cause. It detects repetitive work and, says Mainstem, shows up undesirable trends in workshop scheduling, viii) Origin of vehicle repair reports. There are two reports here, indicating where vehicles are repaired arid /or fuelled away from their home base.

ix) Department billing report. This analyses, by department, the operating and maintenance costs of each vehicle being maintained and operated from a specific garage or depot The intention here is to enable vehicle operating costs to be apportioned to the user section concerned.

x) Inventory, mileage, fuel and oil report. This is the monthly print-out of mileage, fuel and oil consumption per vehicle which is updated monthly by the client to form an input document.

Among the many claims made for the system is that it identifies operating costs precisely, by depot and by vehicle, and shows up below-standard results, "rogue" vehicles, thirsty trucks and losses of material—for example by pilfering.

As reported in CM on May 14, the former deputy managing director of Cummins Engine Co Ltd, Mr David W. Mansell, has been appointed managing director of Mainstem Ltd, operate as a completely company. which will autonomous

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Organisations: US Federal Reserve
Locations: London

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