Customer Success Stories

When Maintenance Manager at Centrica Storage Limited (CSL) sought to find a strategy for their maintenance that could improve employee safety, ensure regulatory compliance and increase production uptime, he looked to AG Consultancy & Apps Ltd for their industry expertise in SAP EAM. With AG Consultancy’s Award-Winning Smart Inspections solution, CSL were able to plan and execute Safety Critical Inspection routines in a more efficient and cost-effective manner.

"Smart Inspections has been a huge benefit to CSL and we are delighted to have implemented the solution."

 - Maintenance Manager, Centrica Storage Limited

Here’s how they did it:

The Challenge

At a major facility such as CSL’s Easington Gas Terminal it is critical to uphold Regulatory robustness requirements and to give peace of mind that their people and assets were safeguarded against Major Accident Hazards (MAH's). To ensure this, a comprehensive array of Safety Critical maintenance inspections need to be carried out and entered into SAP, which is used to optimise maintenance efficiencies and to provide a repository for regulatory compliance.

CSL did not have an end-to-end solution that gave them what they needed and were looking for the best possible solution. They wanted to improve efficiency by enhancing the recording and reporting capabilities and enabling storage of records on a common platform.

Centrica's tech team detailed the challenge: “At the core of our inspection management strategy is SAP Plant Maintenance which was meant to oversee maintenance requests. This does the job, but lacks key integrated features, as well as useful & formalised reporting and follow up work capture that can be easily referenced back to the original inspection.” their team engaged with AG as their specialist SAP Enterprise Asset Management Partner.

Deepal Ratnayaka, AG’s Director of SAP Consulting explains: “CSL had very good reason to approach AG, predominately because of the reputation earned and impact we had after working with sister company Spirit Energy on a comprehensive and highly-acclaimed Maintenance Excellence initiative.

The challenge was complex; it involved implementing both a new technical solution to an already operational core business process while also standardising work routines and supplementing all the associated data.”

The Solution

Working harmoniously with SAP Plant Maintenance (PM) and Quality Management (QM) and standard SAP functionality, AG’s SAP Certified Add-On ‘Smart Inspections’ is a single solution within SAP for the end-to-end management of Maintenance and Operational Inspection needs.

The solution was designed and built by AG’s EAM experts to align with Industry best practices to address Regulatory requirements and safeguard against Major Accident Hazards (MAH's).

With Smart Inspections, CSL were able to plan, execute and report (including predictive trend analysis) for all work and projects of this nature. This provided CSL a traceable and repeatable process for addressing a crucial business function.”

Close attention was paid to the User Interface (UI), which was developed to dramatically simplify the process, ensuring the correct safety critical maintenance was performed and recorded.  

AG’s Smart Inspections delivered tangible improvements in the management of safety-critical risks – all which are vital for adhering to the industry’s strict regulatory compliance. This provided CSL with a structured process for recording and reporting safety critical equipment inspection data. As a result of embracing the Smart Inspections solutions, CSL’s much-improved data and records are now fully managed inside their SAP solution.

The Result

• Assurance the right safety-critical maintenance is performed and the health of CSL process safety barriers protecting against MAH’s is effectively demonstrated
• Recording and trending of equipment performance with ‘Pass’, ‘Fail’ or ‘Repair & Pass’ functionality
• Follow-on work orders clearly identified and linked to original work order, simplifying Safety Audit needs
• Greatly improved quality of data now fully managed inside SAP, reducing overheads

As Smart Inspections is built on core SAP Plant Maintenance and SAP Quality Management - whilst dealing positively with the traditional usability issues these modules face – it offers the perfect solution for CSL.

"Smart Inspections has delivered an efficient, comprehensive, and structured process for recording and reporting safety-critical equipment inspection data.."

 - Maintenance Manager, Centrica Storage Limited