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Brembo is known as an innovator inthe field of brake disc technology forcars, motorcycles and commercial

vehicles, but also makes frictions, seats, seatbelts and other components for racing use.The company operates in 15 countries onthree continents, with 36 production andbusiness sites.

In the Bergamo district of Italy there is anR&D centre and two production sites _Mapello which comprises a cast iron andaluminium foundry and a machining centrefor cast iron discs, and Curno where thefocus is on the machining and mounting ofbrake systems.

Predictive maintenance on furnaces at theMapello site is based on refractory infraredthermagraphy.Low pressure and gravity diecasting machines at the site are subjected toconsolidated preventive maintenance toensure high availability. Maintenance tothermal processing machines can only becarried out in August and December duringshutdown periods. The machines are

subjected to preventive maintenance linkecdwith predictive control of fan vibration.

The Curno site features two differentprocesses: The machining of parts whichcome mainly from the aluminium foundry,and the mounting of components to formthe different types of final product. There areseveral manual or semi-automatic lines forassembling the brake systems, as well as fordifferent finished product lines. Severalautomated assembly lines have been

introduced and all handling operations arenow performed by anthropomorphic robots.This has resulted in a change to preventivemaintenance methods.

TPM (Total Productive Maintenance) is atthe heart of Brembo’s production system.Implemented in 2003, TPM is still usedtoday to anticipate machine failures, toreduce equipment micro downtimes and toimprove workflow, not just in the correctivefield, but especially in the preventive field.

Wanting to standardise on its maintenancemethods and procedures and to optimise themanagement of its spare parts, Brembolooked at various CMMS suppliers during2008/9 before opting for a Carl SourceCMMS.

Reasons for Brembo choosing the CarlSource system included its latest generationInternet technology and Open sourceplatforms, its flexibility and itsmultilingual/multi-site capabilities that willenable the system to be repeated at otherBrembo production sites worldwide. Noadditional hardware was required and thesystem can be adapted to the group’schanging needs.

Brembo’s project team received five daystraining on the software which was sufficientto enable the company to then train its ownpersonnel. Brembo’s administrator for theproject took over the software in order tobecome fully autonomous in the

A computerised maintenance management systemdeveloped by CARL Software is helping boost efficiency forBrembo, a global provider of high performance brakingsystems. Val Kealey visited two of the company’s productionsites in Bergamo to discover more

CMMS FEATURE

Maintainingmomentum

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CMMS FEATURE

management and control of data and in thecreation of reports. Adjustments were madeto the system to customise it to requirementsand to simplify some of the operations.

An example of this is the Brembocalendar, an external tool that gives themaintenance manager an estimate of thepercentage of equipment that will be avalablefor each day of a particular week. This data,entered into the Carl Source software,enables the company to schedule preventivemaintenance work in accordance with theequipment available. To date, two specificdevelopments have been made: Work requestnumbering for each site; and automaticcreation of the date and time of a correctivework request.

Phase oneImplementation of the CMMS has beencarried out step-by-step on both productionsites. During the first 10-month phase (fromSeptember 2009 to July 2010) work involved:• Înstallation and definition of user profiles,

customisation and training• Export of an old CMMS database to the

Carl Source system• Defining and implementing maintenance

instructions for the preventivemaintenance of each piece of equipment

• Triggering the preventive maintenanceplan with the corresponding assignmentof resourcesBrembo reports that the first phase of the

development went well. The CMMS hasresulted in better management of the workrequired. Right from the start it allowed a lotof maintenance reports and analysis offailures by machine, enabling the companyto calculate the MTBF (Mean Time BetweenFailures).

Phase 2Having successfully completed phase one ofthe development, the project team was keento get on with the next phase – stockmanagement. The objective was to cutinventory costs by 10% for the Car BusinessUnit’s spare parts stock. Installation tookplace between September and December2010. Key factors included:• Analysis and classification of spare parts

and definition of the inventory policy forthe business unit

• Migration of the inventory database toCarl Source

• The loading and unloading of barcodeswith automatic updating of inventory andpurchase requests to ensure thatminimum spares are kept in stock

• Creation of an interface with the ERPsoftware Microsoft Axapta.Brembo is currently working on a new

development – Carl Mobility light. This willbe a PDA version for inventory management.

It will allow users to handle the inventoryprocedures in just three clicks.

Phase 3In the short term, the Brembo project teamwants the CMMS to be the hub of itsinformation systems. It will integratesupervision and control of productionprocesses in order to optimise productionand achieve efficient maintenance.Eventually, the company hopes that it will bepossible to control production via cellphones and to remotely activatemaintenance operations. While conclusion ofthis project, known as e-Maintenance, issome way off, implementation plans are inplace. They include:• Networking and centralised data

acquisition for each machine on the serverthrough the Ethernet network to monitorthe running status of the equipment,making online diagnostics while takinginto account readings from preventivemaintenance meters.

• Creation of a reference resource: using anintegrated server to store backup of datafrom various software (classified by siteand by equipment). This resource willinclude a documentary section whereusers will be able to find details ofmaintenance procedures and technicaldrawings.

• Setting up a link between Carl Source anda SCADA system to collect chronologicaldata from the alarm file for each piece ofequipment, so that it is possible tomonitor in real time energy efficiencyindicators, so that trends can be built upto help determine predictive maintenancework.Once completed, the E-Maintenance

project will allow the control of remoteinstallations in Italy and in other Brembo

sites around the world. The maintenanceteam will be able to remotely monitor datasent by different integrated applications, tosend alarms immediately by mobile phone,to provide maintenance and remote service,and to launch work requests with a simpleclick on the iPhone screen.

Although too early to quantify costsavings, Brembo has been impressed by theefficient imprementation of the Carl Sourcesystem and believes its infrastructure andarchitecture to be right for the company. Italso recognises its potential to beadapted/extended to meet future businessrequirements.

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