Why the Mobile App Changes Everything

With the launch of GS-Web, the mobile GreenGate application for maintenance and facility operations, SIMON GROUP had the opportunity to achieve end-to-end digitalization without analog intermediate steps. The browser-based system (intranet/internet) maps processes completely in role-based modules: from capacity-based work order planning, job preparation and area-based dispatching, through mobile work order processing, defect recording and incident reporting, to the analytical evaluation of technical and commercial KPIs. Synchronization with the central database takes place automatically and in real time. This means that, since 2022, manually transcribing handwritten work order sheets has simply been eliminated at SIMON GROUP. It also means, however, that technicians are across the board required to work with digital support. In practice, this means that planning and task assignments are sent automatically to the technicians via tablet. The task list includes, for example, scheduled recurring work such as inspection rounds that check supply lines for compressed air, gases, cooling water, etc., or repair orders that the shift supervisor submits after production downtime, a defect, or an incident.

Depending on the order, activities are guided by checklists. Either way, every machine (clearly identifiable on site by its label number) is a service object. Tasks are booked to the service object accordingly, and the service object links to the filing system where circuit diagrams, manuals, and images are stored, in each case whatever the respective team leader considers relevant. Finally, technical and commercial feedback is also submitted via the IT system. Before any work is carried out, the qualifications and certificates of the employees are always verified; these are consistently maintained in the GS system. GreenGate’s permit tool tracks deadlines inherently within the system so that records are always up to date. Dennis Schneider: “Just to operate a forklift or crane, you need, among other things, a driver’s license, initial instruction, annual instruction, authorization from the company, etc. Or, for jobs for colleagues with a hot work permit, the fire alarm system has to be switched off. For this, a risk assessment covering areas, processes, and persons is built into GS. The information block is automatically added to the work order.” Occupational health and safety, work safety, and legal protection go hand in hand here and benefit everyone: employees as well as the company. Information also flows into GS from the risk assessment of reported near misses, which by definition are sudden, unplanned events that do not result in significant injuries, illnesses, or property damage, but had the potential to do so. Marcin Schulz: “Dealing with the employers’ liability insurance association works much like responding to inquiries from TÜV and other authorities: instead of hurriedly pulling files from cabinets all over the place, in GS we have the evidence of exact conduct or of the regular equipment inspections, equipment checks, etc. at hand with just a few clicks.” SIMON GROUP has 3,000 objects alone that regularly require inspection under accident prevention regulations (UVV), so digitalization makes more sense every day. This also applies to ongoing optimization, such as greater maintenance effectiveness by matching and analyzing effort and cost centers, with working hours and materials booked automatically to the machine, or to improving the machine fleet itself. “There are systems that we build in their third or fourth generation,” says Marcin Schulz, “but data such as material consumed or working time expended are now available with clear distinction for the first time. On the basis of GS Service, we can also provide feedback to our own plant engineering.”