Cardinal Glass LG Plant Reduces Unplanned Downtime by Approximately 60% With MaintainX

‍Key results after MaintainX

• Completed 70% more preventive maintenance work orders year-over-year 
• Reduced unplanned downtime by approximately 60%
• Increased on-time work order completion by 14% year-over-year
• Saved an average of 6 hours of preparation time per audit

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When maintenance manager Derrick Tuft first heard about MaintainX, he was skeptical. 

Cardinal Glass, a leader in the development of residential glass for windows and doors, has 49 locations focused on manufacturing and R&D across the United States. Since joining Cardinal’s Pennsylvania laminated glass (LG) plant in 2021, Derrick has dedicated much of his time to establishing consistent preventive maintenance processes. So when he learned that Cardinal had their own PM software, he was quick to get started. After implementing the system in his plant, Derrick was tasked with helping sister plants adopt it.

Derrick demonstrated the system at a meeting with other maintenance managers from Cardinal’s LG division. A Georgia plant said they were ready for new software, but another plant in Wisconsin advocated for the maintenance and asset management platform they were already using: MaintainX. After comparing the systems, the Georgia plant opted for MaintainX too, prompting Derrick to explore it as an option.

Still, Derrick was reluctant about the potential move. “In the beginning, during MaintainX negotiations with all the LG plants, I was in the corner playing devil’s advocate,” he explains.

But after his team tried MaintainX, they convinced him to make the switch. And once his plant started the transition, Derrick quickly agreed: “As soon as we got MaintainX, I thought, wow, I should have just jumped on board back in November.”

Challenges before MaintainX

Lack of clear insights about the team’s work

The plant’s previous work order management platform was clunky and outdated, making it difficult for leadership to get an accurate picture of what the maintenance team was working on. 

“It would say there were 12,000 overdue work orders when that wasn’t true. It would stack Saturday and Sunday, for example, and we don't work on Saturday or Sunday,” Derrick explains. “It would continue stacking, which would make it look like we weren’t doing anything.” 

Time-consuming request system

The work order request system also lacked details technicians needed to get the job done when they walked out onto the floor. 

“The request would just say ‘come fix the machine’ or ‘the washer’s down.’ Sometimes people would use the system for requests, or they would just page maintenance over the intercom,” Derrick recalls. “My technicians would walk over to ask what’s wrong, then they’d have to walk all the way back to grab the tool bag. Then they’d go back over to see that not only did the belt snap, but the gear was sheared. So they were making multiple trips.”

This system translated to hours of time wasted for Derrick and his team. “[The previous system] was so bad, and we didn't know it because it was better than anything we'd ever had here before. I spent 12 to 14 hours a day at work. I'd be fixing machines, and then I'd be in my office for six hours.”

Why MaintainX

User-friendly and mobile-first

MaintainX’s intuitive design and accessibility from anywhere was game-changing for Derrick’s team. “What stood out to us was that MaintainX is really app-centric. You couldn't navigate [the previous system]. It was just clunky,” says Derrick. 

He saw a big difference between desktop-focused software and MaintainX, which is designed to be intuitive for frontline workers on mobile devices. “One of the biggest selling points for MaintainX was how easy it was to navigate. Now my phone tells me, ‘please prepare this’ or ‘this is overdue.’ And it’s so easy for the production team to scan a QR code and tell me what’s wrong.”

Smooth onboarding 

Compared to Derrick’s experience getting the team’s previous system up and running, transitioning to MaintainX was a breeze. “The implementation experience was night and day. When we implemented [the previous PM system], it was a nightmare. We would find things wrong all the time: There were steps out of order, and it was hard to find procedures. So when we started using MaintainX, my guys told me, ‘this is how it should be. This is easy.’”

Derrick also appreciated the resources MaintainX provided to help his team learn. “With [the previous system], we didn't have any training. There was an instruction manual, but it wasn't helpful. MaintainX Academy was awesome. We also had someone to set us up. That was refreshing because we didn't have that support with the previous system.”

Outstanding support through implementation and beyond

Derrick has been consistently impressed by the MaintainX team’s quick and thorough responses to requests. “I’ll send them an email, and then I'm on a Zoom call the next day or even that day.”

Beyond responsiveness, he values how the team actively seeks out and incorporates customer feedback to improve the product. “What I like about MaintainX is that your team is always learning,” he says. “You're not like, ‘this is our product, and this is it.’ You’re learning from us.”

Results

Reduced downtime

Tracking downtime wasn’t as straightforward for the team prior to MaintainX. “Now, with this system, it's definitely on my radar,” Derrick says. “Since using MaintainX, our downtime has dropped like crazy.” He estimates the system has helped his team reduce unplanned downtime by 60% since implementation.

Better visibility for management

MaintainX has also given Derrick a powerful tool to demonstrate the value of his team’s work to upper management. “I didn't have to prove to everybody that maintenance was getting done because they could see it. I could just pull it up in meetings and show them.”

The system also helps Derrick better understand the team’s status on preventive maintenance tasks, allowing him to address any issues proactively. “With MaintainX, it's the way it should be. If someone misses a PM, I can pull up the work order and ask, ‘why aren't we doing that?’”

Faster response times

MaintainX’s mobile-first design and detailed work order requirements have helped Derrick’s plant increase on-time work order completion by about 14% year-over-year. This is in part due to how the software minimizes back-and-forth trips, improving response times when equipment issues come up. 

“In MaintainX, I love that I can make certain fields required for work orders: like take a picture and tell me what’s wrong,” Derrick explains. “We can look at the picture back in our shop, and we’re able to decide what we should do and get everything we need to repair it. So back-and-forth trips have definitely been reduced.”

The team also gets notified of problems in real time, so they never miss a request. “We all get notifications on our phones, which has been the best thing. Before, if I wasn’t listening to the intercom or sitting at my computer, I didn’t know if there was anything that needed to be done,” says Derrick. “With MaintainX, a supervisor can scan a code on the floor and tell me what's wrong. Then all of us get a ping at the same time. From there, the team can see if this is a legit work order or if we should cancel it. It saves a ton of time.”

Prioritizing preventive maintenance

Since implementing MaintainX, Derrick has been able to track his team’s progress towards their preventive maintenance goals. For example, he’s now comparing the amount of preventive maintenance his team completes versus reactive maintenance. “We’re aiming for 90% preventive. That's my dream right now. We’re at around 86. But that was a metric I never even looked at before.”

MaintainX’s reporting features have helped Derrick understand and illustrate his maintenance team’s work. “I like to show off the number of PMs that were created versus completed. It really paints a true picture of what's going on.” When comparing July 2024 to July 2025, it’s clear that Derrick’s team has ramped up their preventive maintenance: They completed 70% more preventive maintenance work orders year-over-year.

Looking ahead, Derrick is excited about the potential to integrate condition-based monitoring with MaintainX to optimize his preventive maintenance program further. “We just had bearings fail on one of our ovens, but we don't have vibration sensors or anything we can monitor. With MaintainX, I can take readings from this bearing and have it put in a work order to repair it if it hits a certain vibration,” says Derrick. “Water quality is also a big deal for what we do. We currently monitor that by pen and paper, but we're going to put in a system that can read and then give the information back to MaintainX.”

Streamlined audit process 

MaintainX has dramatically simplified audit preparation for Derrick. “I used to have to print screenshots of our procedures and go through binders of sign-off sheets. Now, it’s about a 15-minute process,” he explains.

He describes a recent audit experience: “Within two clicks, I had all the information the auditors wanted. That was the quickest one we've had. I've been through five since I started here, and my portion usually takes two to three hours. With MaintainX, I was done in 45 minutes.”

Quick procedure generation

Cardinal Glass frequently updates its technology, so the ability to rapidly create and adjust procedures for new equipment has also saved Derrick hours. 

“We update our IT stuff more than any other company I've been at,” Derrick explains. “Whenever we got a new machine in [our previous system], I was typing every line. Now I can go into a procedures library and find something very similar. Or, I can upload the maintenance manual, send it to the chat, and have a procedure done within an hour.”

Demonstrating the value of maintenance

The improvements MaintainX helped bring to Derrick’s plant ultimately protect the company’s bottom line. “Maintenance is a cost,” Derrick explains. “We don't make the product, we're not making the money, but if I can keep track of everything and make sure the machines are running, we've already made the money back.”

The decision to implement MaintainX has been a resounding success for the team. As Derrick puts it, “It's one of the best purchases I've made, and it will be my legacy here.”