Product category:
Maintenance management software
News Release from: DPSI | Subject: Fleetmaint
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk Editorial
Team on 23 September 2003
Dallas Independent School District -
Case study
The Dallas Independent School District uses Fleetmaint for Maintenant management of its fleet.
The Dallas Independent School District (DISD) is the 12th largest school district in the nation Covering a territory of 350 square miles, the district's 250 facilities serve more than 160,000 students
This article was originally published on Manufacturingtalk on 23 Sep 2003 at 8.00am (UK)
Related stories
Manchester tank uses PMC - Case study
Manchester Tank and Equipment, a leading manufacturer of low-pressure vessels for North America and Australia, uses PMC for maintenance management.
Celestial Seasonings uses PMC - Case study
Celestial Seasonings, the largest seller of specialty teas in the United States, uses PMC for its maintenance management.
Its mission is to prepare all students to graduate with the skills to become productive and responsible citizens.
DISD's commitment to student success and a progressive learning environment are reflected in a challenging core curriculum and special programs, such as career education, character education, advanced placement, talented and gifted, science and engineering, fine arts, and multilingual and multicultural enrichment.
The problem: Keeping records for 550 registered vehicles For DISD fleet maintenance field supervisor Paul Burke and his 20-person staff, success means maintaining a fleet of 550 registered vehicles, along with 88 trailers, 75 large tractors, 25 forklifts, and 1,600 lawnmowers and weed-eaters.
Further reading
Wisconsin state fair - Case study
The Wisconsin state fair uses PMC for maintenance management
Ajax Textile - Case study
Ajax Textile Processing Company Ltd uses PMC to manage its maintenance.
The Bacova Guild - Case study
The Bacova Guild, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Ronile, uses PMC for its maintenance management
In addition to keeping the vehicles and equipment in top condition, they must also maintain complete, detailed records on each maintenance and repair task performed.
"It was taking us three weeks of eight-hour days to do a report on 50 buses," recalls Burke.
"Manually keeping track of what we were spending on tires, antifreeze, oil, and batteries was extremely time-consuming.
I had to look through every work order to collect data, and we were generating 10,000 work orders a year.
I have a mathematical mind, but I couldn't accurately get a handle on our costs." The solution: FleetMaint makes the grade DISD decided to acquire a computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) to better plan, control, and monitor the fleet's operational activities.
After reviewing a number of programs from the industry's leading companies, DISD selected FleetMaint, a Windows-based software program from DPSI.
According to Burke, FleetMaint has enabled him to save money, cut the number of work orders from 10,000 to 6,000 a year, and even reduced the number of times a vehicle comes in to be serviced.
"When a vehicle used to come in for servicing, a brake job, for example, we would fix it and put the vehicle back on the road.
Then, a few months later, the intake manifold would need to be replaced, inconveniencing the driver, creating a new work order and increasing our costs," Burke explains.
"Now that I'm able to track our fleet with FleetMaint, vehicles come in at regular intervals for preventive maintenance and check ups.
We inspect the entire vehicle, performing preventive maintenance or replacing parts before they become a problem," says Burke.
"For example, I can almost guarantee that you're going to have an intake manifold problem when a mini pick-up gets to 100,000 miles.
Water could get in and ruin the entire engine.
So when it gets to 80,000 miles, we change the intake manifold gasket, saving a considerable amount of money." "It's the same thing with brake shoes on an LTD police car," Burke adds.
"At 24,000 miles, the brake shoes run completely through and ruin the rotors.
Now we flag it and bring it in between 18,000 and 20,000 miles, turn the rotors and replace the brake shoes, saving ourselves $320 and making the customer a lot happier." FleetMaint inventories NAPA parts A National Automotive Parts Association (NAPA) outlet located in Burke's service center is the district's sole parts supplier.
In exchange for the sole-supplier relationship, NAPA sells its automotive parts at a discount.
The outsourcing system works well for everyone: Burke requires fewer employees, the parts he needs are immediately available, and the school district no longer bears the cost of maintaining inventory.
NAPA benefits because the school district pays its overhead costs and guarantees a certain net profit.
"Before NAPA came here, it took me more than 24 hours to get about 20 percent of the parts I needed," Burke adds.
"By the time the parts came in, vehicles were in worse shape and it took me twice as long to fix them.
With NAPA, all I have to do is walk a few feet and say 'Give me this part.' Now I can get 92 percent of our parts right then and there, and I don't pay for them until I use them." One of Burke's requirements for entering into the relationship was that NAPA maintain inventory data in FleetMaint.
NAPA agreed, which means that Burke now always knows what is in stock, and can track parts expense along with the rest of his maintenance costs.
Burke is in the process of enhancing the system, implementing FleetMaint's bar code system.
"We print a work order with a bar code, and mechanics scan their badge to show who used the part," explains Burke.
"When mechanics are through with the job, they go to the counter and scan in a code of what they did, adding remarks and how many hours they spent on this particular job.
This cuts data entry time considerably, and the information is available instantly." FleetMaint makes reporting as easy as A-B-C Burke uses FleetMaint to run a variety of reports for both external and internal use.
Because DISD uses taxpayer dollars, state auditors demand several reports to ensure the department's quality and efficiency.
"FleetMaint makes it easy for me to keep very detailed records for the state," Burke explains.
"Each year, auditors want to know how much money we spent combating vandalism, replacing tires, and performing maintenance on our vehicles.
They take these statistics and compare them with other school districts in the state to see how we measure up.
We've always received good reports from the state." FleetMaint also keeps detailed data on each vehicle's maintenance history to prove vehicle safety.
"If any of our vehicles were in a collision, the first thing the lawyers would do is ask for the repair history of the vehicle.
If preventive maintenance isn't documented in writing, they'll assume there was something wrong with the vehicle," he says.
"So we regularly check the important systems every 120 days, regardless of mileage, and document it within FleetMaint." When one of DISD's buses was in an accident, Burke produced a 184-page document that detailed all the work that had been done on the vehicle since its purchase.
"The lawyers couldn't say the maintenance had been neglected, probably saving us the cost of a lawsuit," claims Burke.
Burke also uses vehicle histories to determine when DISD should stop putting money into a vehicle and buy a new one.
"If we've purchased a vehicle worth $20,000 and we've spent $22,000 on it, we know we need to get rid of that vehicle and replace it with a new one.
We don't want to spend more money repairing it than it's worth." FleetMaint also comes in handy for tracking the efficiency of the department's repair staff.
Information on the number of employee hours spent per work order is reflected on employee evaluations.
"You can think you're doing well, but unless you see it on paper you can't be sure," Burke says.
"We use a reference called the Mitchell Manual to tell how much time a certain repair should take.
FleetMaint will tell me if a particular employee is taking significantly more or less time than the manual allows." FleetMaint will also calculate a ratio of work orders completed to those left open, another internal benchmark that tells Burke how efficiently the department is performing.
DPSI customer service responsive and fast Burke is very happy with the customer service he gets from DPSI.
"When they told me they were going to change the number of procedures you could do with one work order, I told them that would create a problem for us, and in eight months they reversed the change.
They're very responsive to customers." "At one point, the information technology department here wanted to take FleetMaint away," says Burke.
"I told them it would be over my dead body.
They decided to keep it." DISD passes the privatization test At a time when many taxpayer-supported organizations are privatizing their maintenance services to save money and increase efficiency, Burke's department has remained untouched.
"I preach to my employees that if we don't do the job efficiently, DISD might decide to privatize," states Burke.
"To prevent that, we need to take care of our paperwork.
And the only way to do that is through a work order tracking system." "Two auditors, one in 1993 and one in 2000, spent several weeks going over hard copies of our records to determine whether they should privatize our department," says Burke.
"With FleetMaint, we were able to give them the reports they needed in a simple Excel file.
The auditors looked at our costs and compared them to school districts of similar size.
Both of them concluded that we were doing as well or better than the others without privatizing." FleetMaint lets the department turn in an efficiency report card that's as good as any private company's - or better.
• DPSI: contact details and other news
• Email this article to a colleague
• Register for the free Manufacturingtalk email newsletter
• Manufacturingtalk Home Page
Search the Pro-Talk network of sites
