Auckland Community Print has been able to save over $100,000 within the first year of operating the Workmate maintenance system.

"The formula is simple" says Rex Paterson, Maintenance Manager for Auckland Community Print "all you need is to focus on the key areas of your plant that need attention, a great maintenance tool to work with and the results are there.

We had a reliability problem with some parts of our printing press with an average of four call-outs per week to fix the faults. This was costing us about $250 per call-out and $1,000 per week or $52,000 per year. This is a huge expense and became the first focus of my attention. We needed a strategy to get on top of the breakdowns and an excellent tool to help us achieve our aim of zero call-outs.

We had heard about the Workmate system through the DEMM magazine and decided to follow up on the article. We purchased the Workmate system in January 1999 and have not looked back since.

I have no hesitation in stating that I now have my finger on the pulse. Workmate has enabled us to be more proactive in our focus on maintenance. Workmate has increased the number of hours that I have to spend looking at ways to improve the way we do things and there really is no waste of time. Since implementing Workmate we have had only three call-outs in seven months. This is a remarkable achievement.

In addition to the call-out savings, we have been able to save 10’s of thousands of dollars by simply keeping a close watch on parts that need to be replaced at regular intervals and replacing them only when absolutely necessary. Without Workmate this would not have been possible.

The system has been incredibly reliable and has enabled us to build a defined structure for our maintenance processes that works like clockwork. We are now going through the process of expanding the system throughout the site so that more people can use the system.

We know that we are not using the system to its full ability, but we have been able to make such amazing progress in such a short time that we are happy to learn as we go and grow into the system over time.

Workmate is a very easy system to operate. Combine this with a strategy that focuses on your problem areas and you have a combination that will increase equipment reliability and save thousands on your budget."