How Hypertherm Associates Is Turning Machine Data into Maintenance Efficiency With MaintainX

Key Results

• Built the foundation to turn machine data into clear next steps for the team
• Enhanced reporting so the team can spot patterns, fix root causes, and adjust PM frequencies
• Improved capacity planning and balanced technician workloads
• Reduced costs by optimizing their parts inventory

When Hypertherm Associates, manufacturer of Hypertherm® plasma and OMAX® waterjet cutting systems, set out to modernize its technology ecosystem, the goal was bigger than improving maintenance workflows. The company envisioned a future where machine data could drive smarter decisions and more efficient work across plants from New Hampshire to Washington and Minnesota.

“We want to get data from our IoT platform into MaintainX to generate usage-based PMs versus time-based PMs,” explains Daniela Schumacher, Hypertherm Associates’ digital manufacturing team leader. “That’s the direction we’re going.”

This was a high priority on maintenance team leader Philipp-Eric Fricke’s list as he helped narrow the asset management platform search down to five vendors. For the transformative goals Hypertherm Associates had on their roadmap, MaintainX was the winning choice.

Challenges

Outdated user interface

Before MaintainX, Hypertherm Associates' maintenance system was slowing the team’s work down. “The view was from the ‘80s, and you needed 100 clicks to close one work order,” recalls Philipp. 

Cumbersome reporting

Reporting was also a major gap. “There was one person creating custom reports, but it was a very manual process, and only one person knew how to do it,” says Daniela. “We couldn't upload the data into our data lake like with our other systems.”

Limited data

Philipp remembers how difficult it was to manage maintenance without reliable metrics or equipment performance insights. “There was no way for our teams to have KPIs. There was no cycle count program, and parts transfers between buildings was not an option. I couldn’t find the cost for machines, or how many maintenance hours we spent on each machine.”

Why MaintainX

Integration capabilities

When Hypertherm Associates began searching for a new platform, integration and scalability were non-negotiable. MaintainX’s Open API and operational technology integrations make it easy to connect the platform with any system.

“That was one of the requirements for any software we went to, because we knew we wanted to integrate in the future,” Daniela says.

Outstanding customer support

Hypertherm Associates also found MaintainX’s support team to be uniquely proactive. “Whatever problems or questions we had, the team was really quick to help,” says Philipp. 

Daniela adds, “MaintainX focuses on what’s going to make their customers better and how to provide the technology to meet their goals. We meet monthly to talk about what’s working and what’s not. But they also ask us about the biggest challenges we’re having in the business, and how they can help support. It’s an approach that I haven't seen too often.”

Easy adoption

MaintainX’s ease of use sealed the deal for the team. “The training was really good. The team was excited, so adoption was quick,” says Philipp. “One of my technicians said, ‘If you can use Facebook, you can use MaintainX.’”

Daniela agrees that the user-friendly system was a game-changer. “From the user perspective, it’s so easy to pick up. I think we see more requests now than before. It was very complicated before, and now it’s very simple.”

Results

The data foundation for usage-based maintenance

Since implementing MaintainX, Hypertherm Associates has gained a new level of visibility into its operations—and the equipment data needed to move toward a usage-based strategy.

“From my perspective, the benefit of usage-based maintenance is the reduction in costs,” Daniela says. “Having 10 PMs every month might not be accurate. We might be using the machine once every so often, and yet we’re still doing the PMs. So it could reduce over-PMing.”

Philipp emphasizes how usage-based maintenance will extend equipment life. “You can address the needs of a machine more specifically. So if one machine wants part A, but part A creates really fine chips, you’ll have to do more PMs to keep the machine clean. I'm looking for the best PM cycle for each machine.”

Reliable data for actionable insights

With MaintainX, Philipp’s team is able to capture data instantly and analyze trends they couldn’t before. 

“I'm very confident in the quality of data going into the system,” he says. “In each work order, for example, time is a required field. So I now have a better idea of how much time one PM will take. That will help us sketch a machine’s downtime much better in the future.”

Daniela is excited that the platform can feed information seamlessly into their existing tools, which will ultimately give the team deeper insights. 

“One of the big points for MaintainX was the ability to not only develop internal reporting, but also the ability to put that information in the data lake, so that we can do some standard reporting using Power BI and other platforms,” she explains. “That's key to us because we have several softwares, so having that information in the data lake, we can connect ERP/MES and the MaintainX side.”

More accurate PMs and resource planning

The team is also using MaintainX data to enhance their preventive maintenance program. “We can find PM gaps—for example, if we’re missing PM A on this machine and PM B on machines one, two, and three, MaintainX is really helpful to streamline work and be more accurate,” says Philipp.

“Also, the labor between every technician is more equal. It could be that one technician does maybe 500 PMs a year, and the other does only 200. Now, my lead technicians can really equal out the work between each technician.”

Stronger collaboration between teams

“Other staff members like production support technicians and manufacturing process engineers are also included in MaintainX,” says Philipp. “It’s amazing because you can clearly see which jobs tech staff and maintenance staff are doing, and the whole history of the process. Also, if you have questions later, it makes communication better because both teams are on the same work order.” 

Mobile capabilities for greater efficiency

With mobile access, MaintainX also simplifies daily work. Philipp appreciates how the mobile interface makes requests clearer. “It’s super helpful that we can add pictures right in the work order,” he says.

Beyond convenience and a more efficient workflow for technicians, the mobile capabilities help Philipp with planning. “If technicians do a PM, they have to use the timer ‘start/stop’ function, so it gives me a better overview of the estimated time for each PM for better capacity planning.” 

Inventory cost reductions

The work order improvements extend to inventory cost control. “With parts attached to work orders and the cycle counts, it keeps our inventory in much better shape,” Philipp says.

“It’s much easier and cleaner. I don’t have a ton of inventory anymore, and we reduced overall inventory costs.” Philipp adds, “I have data showing which parts we haven’t used in five years. There’s no need to buy those again.”

Developing technician expertise

With features like standardized procedures, MaintainX has helped the team streamline work and build a digital knowledge base for the next generation of Hypertherm Associates maintenance technicians. 

“We added maintenance procedures to every single PM, so even a new technician can go step-by-step and know what they have to do,” Philipp says. “It's much easier for them to find the right information, or even look at old comments from a senior tech about what they did. In the future, it will be much faster to bring up new technicians.”

Looking ahead

Hypertherm Associates plans to use MaintainX to evolve toward a fully integrated maintenance ecosystem. “For us, the next step from preventive maintenance to more predictive maintenance is to add more sensors and devices to be a step ahead,” says Philipp.

MaintainX’s AI capabilities also promise major efficiency gains for the team. “With the AI function, we could search our assets and all their attached PDFs,” says Philipp. “It makes life for every technician much easier if they’re looking for what they should do if a certain scenario happens, or for an error code.”

Daniela anticipates that the partnership with MaintainX will support continued innovation at Hypertherm Associates. “There are always new features coming. It’s really exciting to review roadmaps with the MaintainX team and see what could be beneficial for us that we might not be thinking about already.”