Saint Jean: predictive maintenance for fresh pasta production

Well-known to the general public for its pasta, ravioli, quenelles, and many other ready-to-eat dishes, the Saint Jean Group has been preserving regional heritage for nearly 90 years.

Today, it operates several factories to meet increasing demand. In this context, the renowned pasta maker, which plans to double the size of its main plant in Romans-sur-Isère (Drôme) by 2023, has chosen to rely on the CMMS solution from CARL Berger-Levrault to optimize its maintenance operations.

CMMS to reconcile quality and production system availability

In the food industry, beyond questions of safety, quality, hygiene and traceability, one of the priorities is to keep production lines running. In this context, the Saint Jean Group, France’s leading producer of ravioli, aims to constantly innovate, relying on its employees and high-performance production tools.

The 520-strong company includes a factory at Saint-Just-de- Claix in Isère, and another at Frans in the Ain, both of which produce quenelles. A third plant at Bourg-de-Péage in the Drôme produces ready-made meals.
The main plant in Romans-sur-Isère, which employs approximately 380 people, produces fresh pasta and ravioli. The process begins with raw materials arriving and being mixed into dough, which is then passed through rolling mills to create sheets. These sheets are further thinned using calibrators. Afterward, a machine forms the ravioli by sealing two layers of dough around a filling. The ravioli are then transferred directly to thermoforming machines, packaged, and finally palletized.

To ensure quality and meet availability targets, the Group’s four plants are supported by a multi-disciplinary maintenance department. At the Romans-sur-Isère plant, this department consists of 25 people, led by a Maintenance Manager and an Operational Assistant. The department fosters knowledge sharing and includes technicians divided by roles, such as equipment specialists responsible for monitoring recurring breakdowns. It also integrates members of the Methods department, who focus on preventive maintenance, and a team handling inventory and purchasing of spare parts. Additionally, specialized staff in automation and energy conduct shared missions across all sites.

Saint-Jean in figures

Roll-out of the solution, daily use cases and assessment

In response to a significant increase in demand, the Romans-sur-Isère plant expanded its size from 20,000 to 40,000 m². This expansion gave production capacity a new dimension, and the implementation of a new CMMS (Computerized Maintenance Management System) was anticipated as part of the upgrade. The integration and deployment of the new maintenance management software were carried out between 2016 and 2017, following the decision to switch systems as the previous CMMS no longer met the company’s scalability needs. Stéphane Gerbert, former Maintenance Manager at the Romans- sur-Isère site and now CMMS Referent and Infrastructure Expert for the Saint Jean Group, explained:
«We operate on a just-in-time basis because of the fresh nature of our products. In our industry, ensuring consistent product freshness is critical. We cannot afford for a breakdown to disrupt an entire workshop. On top of this major challenge, our facilities include a mix of highly automated lines, such as ravioli sheet grippers for packaging, and predominantly mechanical machines, like rolling mills and calibrators, which are washed and disinfected daily».

The Maintenance Department plays a vital role in overseeing production tools through preventive maintenance. It draws on the expertise of the Methods, Automation, and Energy teams. For instance, the Energy team monitors chillers and steam boilers, focusing on optimizing their operation and reducing consumption through heat recovery. Meanwhile, the Methods team audits machine specifications based on manufacturer recommendations, collaborates with technicians to analyze recurring breakdowns, and schedules preventive maintenance.
At the Romans site, the CMMS is now integrated with the automated storage system (Kardex Towers), streamlining the preparation of parts required for maintenance tasks.
The Maintenance Department also ensures the replenishment of spare parts and manages the procurement of items and services using CARL Source. Additionally, the software is employed to manage and track contracts related to subcontracted activities, particularly those involving regulatory compliance work.

«CMMS has becomes an essential channel for communication between maintenance departments and equipment life cycle.»

Stéphane Gerbert, CMMS Referent and Infrastructure Expert at Saint Jean.

Reinforce preventive and predictive maintenance

With the deployment of CARL Source CMMS across all the Group’s industrial sites, Saint Jean had a number of ambitions. These included «easily filling out maintenance work orders, enriching and sharing maintenance history, gaining a comprehensive overview of all preventive maintenance, and improving inventory management», explains Stéphane Gerbert. The Lyon-based software publisher was quickly chosen, not only because of CARL Berger-Levrault’s leading position in the industry , but also, and above all, because of the software’s performance and ease of use, while benefiting from «the publisher’s unfailing support in implementing the tool, and then in upgrading it over time».
Another priority for the CMMS referent is to centralize data within CARL Source so that all departments can use it easily, while reinforcing the synergy of skills. Patrick Duhautois, Technical Director of the Saint Jean Group, also views the system as an excellent tool for providing valuable feedback to management. «CARL Source enables us to monitor the health of our production lines via indicators, by measuring preventive and corrective maintenance rates at each of our sites… and, if necessary, justifying to management the need to recruit additional maintenance resources».

The ambition is to reduce corrective maintenance in favor of preventive maintenance, while controlling the proportion of systematic operations and moving towards more forecasting. With the suport of CARL’s BL.Predict module, Saint Jean is now capable, thanks to the many machines it has connected to. «We are alerted to the slightest fault in a variable speed drive or a filter that could tear or clog,» explains Stéphane Gerbert. «Based on this data, BL.Predict suggests the necessary maintenance actions, which the Methods team then assigns to the appropriate maintenance technician».
Other objectives include the analysis of bearing wear (causing shaft and bore problems, and the risk of breakage) by using vibration or ultrasound diagnostics, particularly for slower-moving machines.

Generalize and facilitate use by by enhancing communication

What remains to be done now is to extend CMMS to utilities management and, in the long term, to establish a one-click link between CARL Source and the company’s MES tool (VIFsoftware solution). This integration aims to simplify and enhance the reliability of tracking downtime and identifying causes of stoppages, thereby improving OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness) calculations. A dedicated working group has been set up to raise user awareness of CMMS. This has borne fruit, with work orders now being more thoroughly completed, enhancing the quality of information and its flow between departments.
In addition, the CARL Touch application is currently being tested with plans for its deployment to the maintenance team in the near future. Based on feedback from those involved, it appears that mobile access to the CMMS environment will enhance practices, both for planned maintenance tasks and in cases of unexpected actions that require quick reporting.
Finally, the introduction of an electronic signature system is being considered to track and certify key modifications to data or the validation of steps in a maintenance procedure.
For the time being, the teams are waiting for the new version 7 of CARL Source and its CARL BI Analyses option, which will enable simple activity reports to be generated that are easy for non-maintenance specialists to understand. One of the software’s key strengths is its in-house ability to customize the tool to meet the specific needs of each user and business.

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 5.0.

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