FerrouSouth Transforms its Maintenance Department
By Steven Garcia
FerrouSouth is a world-class, hot rolled steel, toll processing company located in Iuka, Mississippi – a hotbed for the Southern Steel industry. Toll processing is an arrangement where raw materials or semi-finished goods are processed by one company for another company, an industry where logistics is king.
Due to the back and forth nature of the toll processing industry, it requires a location that can act as an epicenter for other companies in that industry’s region. Nestled in the Port of Yellow Creek, the intersection of the Tennessee River and the Tombigbee Waterway, Iuka is an ideal location, allowing for the convenient shipping and receiving of steel via barge.
FerrouSouth was and remains a leader in the Southern steel industry but its maintenance department, in stark contrast, lagged behind – until Timothy Brubaker joined the world-class company.
Brubaker, the Corporate Engineering and Maintenance Manager, when asked to describe FerrouSouth’s preexisting maintenance process in one sentence: “How about one word: Disorganized. We had no organization, no spare parts, and no preventative maintenance.”
The less than ideal maintenance process had already caused a stir amongst the organization prior to Brubaker’s arrival: “I started here in June of 2017, and the owner’s brother had started the research knowing something was needed. I have used other systems so I started researching.”
Brubaker’s research eventually led him to MaintiMizer. Tim felt that the ease of use and the comprehensive training MaintiMizer provided was a clear advantage over other CMMS. It would give FerrouSouth’s maintenance department a clear roadmap to success and everything it lacked before Tim’s arrival: better processes, a parts program, and preventative maintenance.
Once MaintiMizer CMMS was implemented, Brubaker remarked upon the ease of use and consistent availability of Ashcom’s support and sales team; as well as the significant impact upon machine reliability and uptime.
MaintiMizer has been a success for FerrouSouth, and the steel giant continues its own success as it provides valuable processing for an entire region of companies. When asked how we, Ashcom Technologies, could improve upon MaintiMizer, Tim simply replied, “Keep up the good work!”