Instandhaltungssoftware für Industrie, Versorger und Windkraft
Reference Customer | Case Study
The Karl Bucher Chemical Plant is optimizing maintenance, scheduling, and documentation with the GS-Service maintenance system
“We Keep Track of Everything”
Bucher is a specialty chemicals manufacturer based in Waldstetten, Bavaria. With 145 employees working in three shifts across 27,000 m² of production space, the company produces up to 3,500 metric tons of specialty chemicals per year.One key product is hexamethyldisilazane, or HMDS for short. Bucher products are used, among other things, in the pharmaceutical industry for the manufacture of medications and in the semiconductor industry.
In this case study:
Key Facts from the Case Study: GS-Service in Action at Chemische Fabrik Karl Bucher GmbH
Industry: Chemical Industry
Software Used:
GS-Service – GS-Manager; GS-Web
Processes supported:
- Technical Documentation for Machinery and Equipment
- Digital Inventory of Equipment, Personnel, etc.
- Maintenance and technical operations management by the electrical shop, metalworking shop, and technical service
- Coordination of repair and maintenance teams
- Planning, management, and documentation of
- maintenance and inspection intervals
Progress in plant digitization
Cross-departmental monitoring, controlling, and reporting by foremen, plant engineers, and the head of maintenance
Challenge:
- High machine availability with low maintenance costs
- Person- and department-specific tracking of
- maintenance efforts
Documentation of - machine/plant statuses and processes across locations and time periods
(knowledge database) – relevant for audits, among other things
Creation of an interaction platform for all process participants (internal/external)
Procedure:
Digital recording of infrastructure and equipment in GS-Service, inventory and analysis of operational processes, concept development with alignment and harmonization of analog and virtual workflows, pilot implementation, training, go-live
GS-Service ist das Rückgrat für unsere technische Dokumentation, für unsere Instandhaltung. Alle Aufgaben und Prozesse laufen da rüber. Mit dem System werden die Elektriker und Schlosser disponiert, die Wartungsaufträge erstellt und die Arbeitszeiten gebucht.
Alles drin: 50 Anlagen - 3.500 Komponenten
“We have about 50 production facilities with over 3,500 components that require maintenance,” explains Maximilian Merk (27), a chemical engineer and key user of the GS-Service maintenance system. “GS-Service is the backbone of our technical documentation and our maintenance operations. All tasks and processes run through it. The system is used to schedule electricians and mechanics, create maintenance orders, and log work hours.”
To map Bucher’s dynamic processes on the IT side, the GS-Service database first contains the asset records for all production facilities. This initially includes a typical facility with storage tanks, reactors, and distillation units. In addition to the production facilities themselves, the database also records equipment such as containers and IBCs, as well as fire protection and utility systems, the nitrogen supply, heating and cooling units, and information on safety systems, control panels, and the power supply—including emergency power units.
Specialty Chemicals
0
Production Facilities
0
Employees
0
Everything, all the time: “That's great!”
“All the data for the key components,” says Maximilian Merk, who, as an operations and project engineer at Bucher, is responsible for the HMDS production facility, “is in the system: the documentation, technical drawings, test reports, material certificates, manuals, and spare parts lists with details on the manufacturer, type, year of manufacture, and serial number. That’s great—you can look up anything at any time.”
Practical Work with a Systematic Approach
How exactly do the roughly 35 users at Bucher – maintenance, production, and operational management – work with the system? Merk explains: “GS-Service is used primarily by the technical department to manage their tasks. On the PC, for example, recurring tasks with a set interval – such as a semi-annual visual inspection – are displayed. Depending on their area of responsibility, the locksmith foremen, maintenance managers, or engineers carry out the work. For day-to-day business, the locksmith shop foremen are primarily responsible. When a task is due, they first schedule it and then print out the work order sheet.”
The technician carrying out the task – for example, working through a checklist – does so on a clipboard, leaving notes and recording their hours as well as the material used. The foreman receives the completed work order sheet back, enters the data into GS-Service, and moves the task in the system from open to completed. Only then, if required, does the so-called technical sign-off take place, carried out by the foreman, operations engineer, or head of maintenance. “He checks it over again – are the hours booked, is all the documentation attached. If necessary, he also checks the work again himself on site.”
According to Maximilian Merk, however, this hybrid approach will soon be a thing of the past. “Our goal has to be to move quickly toward paperless working, meaning every colleague enters the information digitally wherever possible.” ATEX-compliant devices are standard practice in the chemical industry environment and are, of course, already in use at Bucher.
On the topic of progress: for all important matters, Bucher receives support from software provider GreenGate as needed and on request: “It runs absolutely smoothly, communication is very good, the GreenGate team is always approachable and helpful.
When authorities are on site, the required tables, registers, etc. are pulled from GS-Service and made available. For the auditors, it is also a point of interest to see whether the data basis is reliably maintained.
Maximilian Merk, Operations and Project Engineer, Chemische Fabrik Karl Bucher
Mobile Maintenance with GS-Web
GS-Web – introduced at Bucher together with GS-Service in 2021 to replace the classic combination of Excel lists, binders, and tribal knowledge – was developed specifically for mobile use. The browser-based system (intranet/internet) fully maps processes in role-based modules: from capacity-based order planning, work preparation, and area-related scheduling, through mobile order processing, defect logging, and event reporting, to the analytical evaluation of technical and commercial KPIs. Synchronization with the central database happens automatically and in real time. Secure, authorized use of the web application with its pre-structured processes requires authorization via single sign-on.
Very practical: GS-Web is simple and intuitive to use – Merk: “The system matches our day-to-day business, both the planned tasks and the unplanned maintenance orders. One example: a production foreman notices a defect. He then goes into GS-Web, creates a maintenance order object, and enters the relevant information. And we need a lot of information.”
That’s why the object has properties that answer all maintenance-relevant questions: Which area of the plant is affected? What exactly is the issue? Who is the requester? What priority does the order have? “It also has to be clarified whether a release permit is required,” Merk explains. “If that’s the case, the maintenance technician has to go to production and get the handwritten sign-off, which is then scanned and attached in the system. That’s essential for us, and by no means trivial – how else is a locksmith supposed to know about the hazard situation?”
Streamlining day-to-day operations
In the GS system as the central data foundation, the Facility Management area holds information on room subdivisions, the entire building technology, lighting, elevators, windows, and doors. The equipment inventory – including personal protective equipment, ladders and step stools, fall protection for entering containers for regular inspections or roof work, vehicles, forklifts, and scales – rounds out the data set, although personnel information has so far been kept only very general.
Whether Bucher will also handle inventory management via GS-Service and implement an interface to the ERP system remains to be seen. What’s currently more important is identifying optimization potential in the plant or process area. “I myself am responsible at Bucher for the HMDS production facility.
“For that, I have the system show me the recurring tasks for, say, the next six months, and I can plan them optimally – it works perfectly.”
In fact, Bucher has recorded a boost in effectiveness through GS-Service, thanks to shorter travel times during interval-based rounds, targeted task assignment and communication from production to maintenance, and shorter latency times for unplanned orders. “I can group several tasks together at one and the same facility and plan more sensible routes through the plant.”
Rarely does a task fall completely through the cracks amid everyday stress: “We always see the tasks in the system, and the system doesn’t forget anything.” If too many overdue tasks pile up, this is addressed at the regular GS jour fixe attended by the head of maintenance, the technical director, and operations engineer Merk. All jour fixe participants are authorized to define and create tasks. Merk: “In this meeting, we mainly discuss current topics related to GS – the questions are obvious: How can we push digitalization forward and make greater use of GS? What’s new, where can we optimize, and what suggestions do colleagues have for that? The group as a whole benefits from the transparency GS provides. We keep the overview.”
Thumbs up from authorities, customers, and insurers
Flexible data access is especially the tool of choice when inspection organizations such as TÜV show up at Bucher. That happens several times a month, if only because many technical components at Bucher are subject to mandatory inspection. Maximilian Merk: “Careful documentation is absolutely essential here.” That’s why GS-Service accounts were set up specifically for department heads, quality assurance, and management for audits, inspections, and presentations.
The goal was also to use an operations management system like GS-Service to improve communication with the various authorities, inspection bodies, and regulatory agencies – constant companions of a chemical producer. “That works smoothly,” says Maximilian Merk. “When the authorities are on site, the required tables, registers, etc. are pulled from GS-Service and made available. For the auditors, it’s also a point in our favor to see that the data basis is being reliably maintained.”
The same applies to customer audits or communication with insurers: “When they see that we work very carefully and document everything consistently, that’s a nice advantage, a real plus point.”
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