A partnership based on CMMS

For more than 10 years, SQLI has assisted Albioma with the technical, organizational and human deployment of Maximo, IBM’s CMMS tool.

2022

THE CLIENT

The energy producer Albioma is engaged in energy transition with its biomass, PV and geothermal technologies. Over the past 30 years, the Group has built a unique partnership with the sugar industry to produce renewable energy from ‘bagasse’, a fibrous sugarcane residue. In addition to its projects in Mainland France, Albioma is the leading solar energy producer in French Overseas Territories, where it builds and operates innovative facilities integrating energy storage.

CHALLENGES

Sustainable management of complex industrial assets

In order to fulfill its mission, which is to guarantee the security of electricity grids, Albioma must ensure that equipment on its production sites is reliable and long-lasting.  Albioma relies on SQLI to control, maintain and optimize a unified maintenance tool, which it uses for the management and maintenance of industrial assets at its thermal power plants in the French overseas departments.

OUR SUPPORT

A partnership initiated in 2009     

In 2009, Albioma wanted to equip one of its production units, located in Guadeloupe, with IBM’s CMMS solution Maximo. The company selected SQLI to carry out this mission, from IBM’s network of partners. The initial project to deploy Maximo on the new site was expanded to the setting up of a single Maximo system for all of its plants. SQLI carried out the upgrade of each installation, to align them with an identical version and standardize maintenance within Albioma. 

The energy producer then entrusted SQLI with the creation of a simple-to-deploy core model for maintenance, to enable all staff to access the same tools, functionalities and processes, while facilitating future upgrades of the solution. SQLI managed data migration, workflow creation and developments to enable Albioma to carry out:

  • Management of its corrective maintenance operations
  • Management of its stocks and purchases
  • Interfacing with SAGE, the accounting ERP system, for the payment of orders

Since production of the core model began, SQLI has worked closely with the teams at Albioma’s head office on the CMMS roadmap. Both sides are working together to think about ways to further develop Maximo. SQLI provides third-party application maintenance and coordinates major projects, including:

  • MIA for inventory management. Because plants are far from Mainland France, restocking lead times are long and costs high. This means inventory is crucial to ensure the availability of parts and, as a result, operation of production units. SQLI developed a web tool integrated in Maximo, with a user-friendly design, which makes it possible to efficiently carry out inventories, rapidly control and document faults, produce reports and more.
  • OPTIMO, for planning of maintenance work. SQLI developed a simple, easy-to-use tool to assign work orders to maintenance personnel and facilitate the planning of maintenance operations, by updating Maximo in real time.

A relationship of trust has been built between SQLI and Albioma

Over time, SQLI has developed in-depth knowledge of the company and its business operations, which, combined with its expertise in Maximo, enables it to be a proactive partner for Albioma’s CMMS, better identify its needs and work more efficiently on projects. As for Albioma, its initial choice of IBM Maximo as a CMMS tool for its biomass plants was confirmed in early 2022 (including development of preventive maintenance, improvement of budget management, optimization of supplier and spare parts management, and more), which requires further changes in the way the tool is used.

Maintenance is not a necessary evil; it is a performance-boosting tool! It needs to be based on people and technical expertise, as well as methods supported by an efficient and relevant CMMS, which enables us to capitalize on knowledge and good practices. The improvements we are working on with SQLI are focused on these areas.

Anne-Laure Comte Maintenance Director