Enterprise asset management helps Belgian food producer Agristo improve maintenance efficiency and overall employee experience

Specialist European frozen food maker Agristo says maintenance teams at its growing network of production facilities are no longer fixing equipment based on gut feel, but are instead using accurate data to better manage and improve their machinery's utilization.

This transformation, says the company's Chief Group Maintenance Consultant Steven Volckaert, has become possible after digitizing core factory processes centered on enterprise asset management (EAM) technology.

Efficiency is rising, he explains, because pre-EAM there was only "minimal" digital logging of maintenance requests and completed jobs, which made it difficult to analyze workloads, manage parts inventory, and monitor the condition of the specialist machinery the company relies on.

That made it hard, he states, to gain real insight into the overall health of equipment and keep orders flowing at the rate management demanded.

But with EAM - sourced from Netherlands-based Ultimo - the company now logs every request, action, and ticket resolution ...