SanTan Brewing Co. Uses MaintainX to Open Up Maintenance Management

Overview

New to SanTan Brewing Company, Plant Engineer Adam Soltis started with several projects, one of which was finding a maintenance management program that would fit and work with the company. Unfortunately, Soltis found that many of the CMMS he tried out were “very convoluted and not very end-user friendly.” He explained, “They might work for requesters, but as far as people like me, you know the plant engineers and maintenance tech people with the boots on the ground, they didn’t really translate.”

Challenges

When Soltis arrived, the company had a mix of standard maintenance and a lot of reactive maintenance from the pub and restaurant. However, as Soltis noted, “We weren’t really tracking our costs per location. The restaurant is where all the reactive stuff was coming in, probably 75% of our reactive maintenance.” But, as Soltis recalled, “We didn’t have an official system to tell us this.”

In his previous work, Soltis worked with other maintenance systems, but “they were just so hard to integrate and so un-user friendly.” He also noted that those systems were more geared towards management and “not so much for the people who get dirty.”

Solution

Now, MaintainX is on employees’ phones. They take photos of maintenance needs, and they track time on task.

“MaintainX was #1,” Soltis said. “When I landed on the MaintainX free trial, honestly, it was love at first sight for me.”

“It’s what really hooked us,” Soltis explained. “We have everybody able to put in work orders. It’s opened up a whole new world of maintenance for us.”

Soltis appreciates that MaintainX doesn’t “require any extra attention. It’s really just plug-and-play—it’s high-end plug-and-play. It does everything that we need.”

Results

In just six months, SanTan has completed nearly 450 Work Orders and brought close to 340 assets online. Eight teams and more than 30 requesters use MaintainX. Before implementing MaintainX, “We weren’t tracking any sort of preventive maintenance or repetitive maintenance at all.”

For Soltis, MaintainX allows him to plan out his day more efficiently. “Definitely cuts down on my back-and-forth between the two locations.

Visibility is key. Now, when teams get work requests, “We see them immediately and track them,” Soltis said. “Just the tracking of items is like, OK, the oven in the kitchen…it’s the fourth time it’s been down in four months. So, it’s probably time to buy a new one because I’m tired of buying parts for it.”

Currently, SanTan uses MaintainX Reporting to track problem assets and repeat work orders at specific locations, along with priorities on work orders to determine weekly maintenance schedules. Soltis said it works because “It’s just a straightforward system that I put in everybody’s hands. You know, it gets it all done.”

Over time, SanTan plans to phase in asset barcoding and QR coding. “Fully integrating MaintainX is still a work in progress. Inventory management is crucial for us,” Soltis said. “Our parts inventory will end up being thousands of parts.”

To wrap it up, Soltis said, “I’m being 100% honest: there literally have been no complaints on my end as far as MaintainX goes.”

Spotlight on the Customer

In 2007, SanTan Brewing Company opened its doors in downtown Chandler, Arizona. In 2009, SanTan began packaging its beer in cans. As active leaders of the “craft can revolution,” the brewer is committed to the “supreme package,” easy to recycle and with improved freshness and shelf-life.

Launched in May 2018, SanTan Distilling uses 100% malted American barley in its handcrafted whiskey and vodkas, distilled in small batches in a custom-built artisan pot still. “Our spirits are crafted to drink and enjoy among friends, not sit on a shelf or in a lonely cellar.”

In addition to producing quality craft beverages, SanTan also runs two neighborhood brewpubs in downtown Chandler and Uptown Phoenix.

Since its inception, SanTan Brewery has won national and statewide awards, including medals at AmeriCAN Championships, Canfest Reno, the US Open Beer Championship, Great American Beer Festival, and the World Beer Cup.

As Anthony Canecchia, founder and brewmaster, says, “The simple truth is that brewers ferment grains–grains then become beer. Distilleries use science and technology to separate alcohol from fermented beer into pure ‘spirit’– and then the real fun begins!”

SanTan’s brewery and distillery include Grain Handling, the Brewhouse, Barrel Aging, Packaging, and more throughout its 35,000 sq. ft. facility.