Digital Transformation: Actemium opts for Kizeo Forms to automate its maintenance activities

In this case study, Huug van Vossen, a Reliability Engineer at Actemium, explains the reasons that made the Actemium group choose Kizeo Forms to digitalize and go paperless for all of their maintenance activities.

Get a sneak-peek into the functionalities and benefits of this maintenance management software through this customer testimonial.

Actemium: The industrial performance expert

Actemium is the VINCI Energies brand that designs, builds and maintains industrial processes and sites. Today, Actemium has a worldwide network of 380 business units spread over 40 countries across the globe, a turnover of approximately 2.5 billion euros and around 21,000 experts who aim to deliver sustainable solutions.

Actemium Goes is one of its Dutch business units. It is actively involved in maintenance, electrical instrumentation, automation and analyzers and has over 120 field employees. In the Netherlands, Actemium has around 1000 technicians and engineers in 22 different business units.

Actemium is a pioneer in providing industrial solutions and new generation offerings to stimulate the industry of the future and smart manufacturing i.e., Industry 4.0.

Challenges in Maintenance Inspections

In the past, Actemium reported inspections on paper. Unfortunately, due to bad weather conditions, papers were often damaged and needed to be rewritten. To give you an idea of the time wasted, It takes about 20-30 minutes to rewrite a report.

Furthermore, a camera was needed to take photos for reports. These photos were identified with a code and physically stored. Many materials such as guides and documents had to be brought on the field. Moreover, the use of a paper guide did not guarantee that it will be up to date on the most recent procedures. The data collected from the field had to be re-entered into the computer systems.

For one contract, approximately 124 packages of paper and several printer cartridges were used to print more than 30,000 inspection reports. Using paper for field inspections had numerous disadvantages.

Field employees at Actemium were curious about how they can use digital tools in their daily work. And, a small pilot project was undertaken to understand how using mobile tools could impact/improve daily work.

Thanks to the positive feedback that Kizeo Forms received from Vinci Autoroutes, the Actemium business unit started using the app to create forms. Vinci Autoroutes is part of the Vinci group, which specializes in the provision and operation of motorway infrastructure. They use the Kizeo Forms application to declare motorway incidents and transfer information in real-time. As the app met their needs, they recommended it to the Actemium business unit during one of their regular business meetings.

At Actemium, high-quality standards are important. Data analytics is one of Actemium’s key focus areas for the foreseeable future. Through data analysis, they can generate reports and analyze inspections. This can help minimize errors and optimize processes. Digitalization is a means of achieving this objective and has thus been a very important aspect for the development of Actemium's business.

The digital journey with Kizeo Forms

The first few weeks of shifting to mobile forms were slightly difficult, but within a couple of days, employees were used to collecting data on tablets. They recognized the multiple benefits of collecting data and performing inspections with the Kizeo Forms application.

Kizeo Forms is easier to use than paper forms. There are no limits in the form creation process. You just need to drag and drop the different form fields such as photographs, calculations, text and modify properties. After the form is filled out, reports are easily handed over in real-time to the customers or other employees. The possibility to capture photos directly on the form as well as highlight areas by drawing over the photos was highly beneficial. Furthermore, geo-localization of teams on the field helped to save a lot of time.

With Kizeo Forms, teams were able to save time by using pre-filled forms. Kizeo Forms can yield up to 1000 pre-filled forms at a time. Supporting attachments (Such as analyzer manuals) can directly be added to forms which allow field employees to leave additional books and manuals at the office while performing inspections.

In the beginning, Kizeo Forms was only used to conduct ATEX inspections. ATEX is the acronym for explosive atmospheres. This is a European Union guideline which covers "equipment and protective systems intended for use in potentially explosive atmospheres". An atmosphere can be explosive for many reasons, for example for flammable gases, mists or vapors, or combustible dust. The Kizeo Forms application was used to perform these inspections directly from tablets. As these inspections were simple and easy to perform with the application, it was also used to perform several other maintenance inspections.

After using mobile forms, 30,000 inspections reports were easily created in just a few months just for a single contract. In total over 120,000 inspections were conducted using the Kizeo Forms application.

Every report is thoroughly checked. When an inspector notices an error, they notify teams to bring the right equipment to the site to perform repairs. Photos have to be taken along with equipment labels to list issues and prevent future problems. This ensures that there are fewer errors than before.

Results with the Kizeo Forms application

Paper consumption costs have considerably reduced by shifting to mobile forms.

The use of Kizeo Forms also improved accuracy and workforce efficiency. The app also helped the field employees and the customers of Actemium to save a considerable amount of time.

“Two years ago, we started with three accounts. At this moment, we have sixty accounts and I think that in two or three years, everyone will be using Kizeo Forms in our organization.”

Kizeo Forms helps Actemium achieve its data analytics objectives. In the long run, the data collected could be used to predict equipment malfunctions and to create dashboards for customers. A trend line for various measurements could be generated to help field employees detect an anomaly.

Go digital today!

Automate data collection by creating mobile forms. Learn how to create and customize mobile forms for maintenance management with the Kizeo Forms application.

Sponsored article. Expert contributors are independent from the appvizer editorial staff. Any comment and/or position is personal.