Mobile maintenance using QR codes in the automotive environment

International Automotive Components (IAC) has more than 160 years of tradition in the automotive interior industry. It is a global operation that includes approximately 60 locations in 18 countries.

With more than 50 production sites and more than 18 design, technical and sales centres, it employs around 19 thousand people worldwide. It is the world’s leading supplier of automotive components and systems. The company has been operating in Slovakia since 2006 in Lozorno. It employs more than 1000 people.

Reasons for deploying the Maintenance Information System:

  • Planned introduction of a performance appraisal system
  • The sub-steps of the process were recorded in separate excel documents
  • The version of the maintenance recording software called MP2 no longer met the requirements for the presentation layer and reporting
  • The system did not provide any support for online work with mobile devices

System upgrade requirements

  • Introduction of QR codes to record fault reporting and verification of persons at activity write-off
  • Solution that can be used internally – ON-PREMISE within the web browser
  • Updating and adding assets across the company
  • Accurate statistics on the conclusion of work orders
  • Realisation of work standardisation for planning
  • Online workload, the ability to assign work to a specific person and to a group
  • Acceleration of reaction times
  • Detailed record of moulds with the possibility of writing the status of cycles with the setting of automatic creation of a new job
  • Mobile app for maintenance staff to simplify data entry into the system
  • Incorporation of various validation criteria (e.g. verification of the presence of a worker at the machine)
  • Extensive data reporting

We were able to cover the requirements with the current versions of EAM and iWi.

Implementation process

Work on the upgrade of the agreed version exchange of the systems started in December 2020. The first step was to develop a detailed analysis and design of the solution. This described the data structure, detailed maintenance processes and other extensive system setup. In addition, turnkey reports were incorporated into the system, in addition to the reports delivered as standard.

On the IAC side, it was not at all easy to prepare all the documents in a coherent way, mainly because of the possibilities of the current system, but especially because of the pandemic situation and the continuous absences of the responsible persons. Gradually, however, together with specialists from INSEKO, a.s., this was managed and in August 2021 a test run was started, during which IT staff installed a mobile application for designated maintenance workers and production foremen. After fine-tuning the discrepancies, filling in the missing settings, the system was launched into sharp operation in September 2021. One of the key features of EAM is that the test environment within a single application has been preserved and hence in future, any further changes required by the management or process owner can be simulated in this environment.

Benefits of a maintenance information system:

  • Ensuring transparency of the maintenance process
  • Immediate statistics on fault occurrence vs. fault reporting and response time
  • Possibility of printing and using QR codes
  • More accurate collection of repair data thanks to QR code scanning
  • Capturing the details of the daily routine of maintenance workers
  • Using one central system
  • Introduction of paperless maintenance
  • Collecting, evaluating and reporting data on staff effectiveness
  • High mobility support not only for maintenance workers, but also for foremen or responsible managers
  • Immediate reports on minimum stock levels
  • Better focus on the problem thanks to a wide selection of data

Customer statement:

Mário Pečimúth

Maintenance manager IAC Group (Slovakia) s.r.o.

Modern maintenance management requires a modern and reliable system.

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