As the name does not indicate, Renault Trucks has been part of the Volvo group since 2001 and produces not only trucks but also utility vehicles for public works, including some heavy-duty vehicles. With 10,000 employees in 150 countries and more than 58,900 vehicles sold in 2022, Renault Trucks is one of the world leaders in the design, production and marketing of transportation solutions. To meet the challenges of this industry and to improve the efficiency of production lines, the Renault Trucks maintenance team has been equipped with the CARL Source Factory CMMS solution since 2012.
A CMMS solution that meets the challenges of the truck sector
Prior to 2011, various CMMS software solutions – including CARL Master – and a few in-house Access-type tools were used for maintenance management at Renault Trucks. The teams also use Excel and even paper notebooks to keep track of maintenance operations on three of the manufacturer’s French production sites.
When the company started its search for a common tool, it included in the requirements the harmonization of the maintenance process, as well as the logging and digitizing of all interventions. Emphasis was also placed on the concept of preventive maintenance, and on improved management and monitoring of stocks, the cost of which we wished to reduce.
The CARL Source CMMS solution was selected. It satisfies the strategy of pooling and performance improvement for maintenance at the Group’s three sites, thanks to the sharing of indicators, comparative analyses, pooling of stocks, etc.
Renault Trucks, a large-scale project
Deployment of CARL Berger-Levrault CMMS software
By choosing CARL Source in 2011, Renault Trucks is requesting co-piloting over a one-year period. “With the teams from CARL Berger-Levrault, we managed to complete the implementation of the databases within the allotted time,” says Vincent Hopital, IT Solution Leader at Renault Trucks.
“At the same time, we familiarized ourselves with the general operation of the software, its rules of use, the creation of equipment and user accounts, as well as the recovery of breakdown histories. It was also necessary to reference more than 30,000 items from 2,500 different suppliers, in the company’s 15 warehouses”.
All of this data is transferred via CARL Loader. “We also wanted to be autonomous in the management of users and equipment, explains Vincent Hopital, which is why CARL Source referents were trained by the CARL Berger-Levrault teams from the outset, on each site. As members of the steering group, these referents were great vectors for reporting needs in the field and, above all, to get everyone on board for this change in method”.
The gradual deployment of functionalities started at the heart of the business, with the maintenance and manufacturing departments, and extended to the spare parts warehouses and then to the production staff, in order to improve communication between production/maintenance departments.
“ Over the past few years, our Bourg en Bresse plant has averaged just one minute of downtime. ”
Vincent Hopital, IT Solution Leade
There are now 150 daily users of the CARL Source Factory solution, which supports them in organizing and monitoring their maintenance operations. “In the event of a breakdown, our diagnoses are made easier, as is the preparation of all our annual audits on the traceability and monitoring of a facility,” explains Vincent Hopital.
“The software includes 500 preventive maintenance procedures per center. Equipment availability is dramatically improved, and this translates into production gains, as was the case for that penny saved on the maintenance cost of 2 million parts produced at the stamping center. 2% and €25,000 saved per year!”. We owe these statistics to the many reports and performance indicators customized by the system for Renault Trucks.
Other important benefits of stock visibility: pooling various items and reducing related costs. The CARL Touch mobile application effectively completes the ergonomics of the solution adopted, and allows better support for interventions and time savings for technicians. “With this new CMMS software, we have standardized our methods, and were able to compare our maintenance departments and reorganize them efficiently”, summarizes Vincent Hopital.
“We keep listening to our technicians so that the solutions are dynamic and scalable. For example, at their request, regulatory inspections may be automatically integrated into CARL Source via the Control-S module and full compliance to Industry 4.0 may be achieved thanks to the BL Predict IoT platform integrated into the CARL Source CMMS solution“.
Our maintenance management solution for the industrial sector: CARL Source Factory
CARL Source Factory is our solution of CMMS dedicated to the industry sector. It has been designed to guarantee you the best operating conditions for industrial equipment, associated structures and the safety of your personnel. It allows you to manage your maintenance activities in real time, new works and regulatory diagnostics, monitor your service providers and manage your contracts while reconciling quality and budgetary control. Designed in partnership with major industry players, this solution allows you to addressing the challenges of Industry 4.0.
