Challenge
Mataura Valley Milk (MVM) aspires to be the world's best nutrition business, sourcing milk from a select community of local suppliers in Southland, New Zealand. The company manufactures premium nutritional milk powders for baby formulas and dietary supplements, using the best ingredients, people, and technology. Acquired by a2 Milk Company in 2021, MVM's plant boasts the most up-to-date production equipment in the world.
As senior level Reliability Engineers, Mike Arnold and Simon McGowan were tasked with finding a Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS) solution that could deliver three critical outcomes: reduce operations interruptions and downtime, promote processes that enable compliance with regulatory and food safety requirements, and organize maintenance tasks and inventory needs. With experience across multiple CMMS platforms, Arnold and McGowan required powerful functionality tailored to their unique environment as the most discerning food safety markets.
Solution
During a visit to another dairy manufacturing plant, the MVM engineering team saw LLumin's CMMS+ software firsthand and immediately knew it was the right solution. Arnold recalls, "They knew straight away that they wanted LLumin on-site at Mataura." LLumin CMMS+ is a configurable and easy-to-use maintenance management system designed specifically for maintenance operations.
MVM's LLumin platform was wholly configured to the plant's existing maintenance processes, simplifying the user experience and adoption. The system features automated workflows that trigger actions and notifications, integrated safety and compliance functionality with clear, auditor-approved reporting and activity logs, and HMI integration that allows operators to generate work requests and create work orders directly from their HMI screens. Arnold emphasizes: "I've worked with a lot of different CMMS platforms, and LLumin is built for maintenance."
LLumin provides automated prompts and notifications to alert teams when assets and components are due for preventative maintenance and calibration. The system also tracks inventory, enabling the maintenance team to order spare parts, tools, and materials on demand or for restocking. With a minimal learning curve, the software is accessible to team members with diverse backgrounds and experience levels, and comprehensive support is available whenever needed.
Results
- Reduced operations interruptions and machine downtime
- Expedited repairs through HMI integration and easy work request submission
- Proactive, condition-based maintenance triggers from machine control systems
- Ensures food safety compliance and meets all regulatory requirements
- In-depth transaction and activity logging for quality and safety standards
- Detailed, auditor-approved reporting for global buyers
- Organizes and prioritizes planned and unplanned maintenance work
- Effective scheduling and resource allocation for right work at right time
- Inventory tracking for spare parts and materials management
- Minimal learning curve enables rapid team adoption
- Responsive support team for quick issue resolution
The Impact
"Without LLumin, we would not be able to function as a maintenance team. It would be very hard to track, prioritize, and actually complete maintenance tasks."
LLumin CMMS+ has become integral to MVM's maintenance operations and food safety compliance strategy. By delivering all three critical outcomes—reduced downtime, regulatory compliance, and organized maintenance operations—the system enables the Reliability Engineering team to maintain seamless plant operations while supporting MVM's aspiration to be the world's best nutrition business. The platform's configurability, user-friendly design, and integration capabilities have made it the backbone of MVM's maintenance excellence program.
Key Features Used
- Configurable CMMS+ platform tailored to plant processes
- HMI (Human Machine Interface) integration for operator work requests
- Automated workflow triggers and notifications
- Integrated safety and compliance functionality
- Auditor-approved reporting and activity logging
- Condition-based maintenance triggers from machine control systems
- Preventative maintenance scheduling and alerts
- Calibration tracking and reminders
- Inventory management and spare parts tracking
- Minimal learning curve and user-friendly interface
- Responsive technical support team
