Sonepar brands across the US provide industrial and automation services to customers managing manufacturing plants, automotive plants, and other industrial facilities. Learn about Crawford Electric's services here.
A glass manufacturing plant can’t just shut down. In fact, once a furnace becomes active, it shouldn’t stop for another 14 years! Keeping the industrial machinery running is absolutely critical to business – so when it comes to asset management and reliability, you need a partner you can trust.
The Challenge
Carlex Glass America LLC is a glass manufacturer with a plant in Nashville, Tennessee, that produces glass primarily for the automotive industry. One of only a few facilities in the U.S. capable of producing full-circuit glass, the plant uses a variety of Rockwell Automation equipment to control its processes.
Carlex needed a strong local partner who would work to understand their business, provide resources on site, offer quality control and risk management services, and be a committed, reliable team player.
Crawford Electric’s Solution
As an authorized service provider for Rockwell Automation, Crawford Electric (formerly Irby Electric) was initially brought in to help Carlex implement a Rockwell reliability program to manage hard and soft assets. The program included process improvements, plant optimization, spare parts, and a net positive effect on overall equipment efficiency (OEE).
Over time, Crawford proved to be a reliable and capable partner, and Carlex chose to have them own the entire process. Crawford now manages critical risk across several key phases of reliability: maintenance, engineering, asset management and logistics.
Crawford's asset management & reliability (AM&R) solution was solidified by an Integrated Services Agreement (ISA) that includes
- Streamlined communication and support: Crawford provides Carlex with a single point of contact for all of their automation needs. The ISA helped to streamline coordination between Carlex, Crawford Electric, and Rockwell Automation.
- Repairs & remanufacturing: By owning the strategic spare inventory process for repairs and remanufacturing, Crawford ensures that critical replacement parts are managed within Carlex’s designated optimum levels for confidence and quality. Crawford's Reliability Specialist is directly responsible for storeroom and supply chain consulting, due diligence and data-driven analytics, following standard Kaizen and Kanban principles to improve OEE and enhance cost savings initiatives. For the last 12 years, these initiatives have led to greater than 50% return on investment (ROI) year over year.
- Field labor: A Crawford Electric specialist is on site three days a week to assist with engineering, maintenance, and supply chain issues. A local technician provides capacitor reform services that prevent early drive failure. With key partners, Crawford Electric has also conducted front-end engineering and design (FEED) studies to look at how to best replace drives that were becoming obsolete with the lowest cost and least downtime.
- Remote support: The embedded specialist from Crawford also facilitates remote support through Rockwell’s TechConnect services, including product support for HMI software, motion control hardware, information automation software, low-voltage drives, and automation control hardware.
- Quality control: The quality control program helped to identify and correct potential problems before they caused downtime.
- Risk management: Crawford did reliability and analytical studies to help Carlex identify and mitigate risks that could lead to downtime, as well as prepare for potential risks like flooding or natural disasters, a substation fire, electrical storms, or grounding system arcs.
Customer Results
Crawford's bundled services and reliable long-term support have dramatically reduced costs and downtime for Carlex Glass.
Some highlights:
- Significant cost savings due to proactive risk management, service bundling, asset optimization and reduced downtime
- 161% return on investment for Carlex was achieved in the first quarter of 2023 with some key performance initiatives exceeding $69,500.00 in additional savings
- An average of $60,000 loss in drives per year was completely eliminated, thanks to research and identification of a ground arc issue
- Eliminated price increases of more than 5% year over year during the contract period
- Capacitor reform service that optimizes low voltage drives and prevents failure within 3-5 years of use saved an estimated $15,000 per year
- Annual Repair Agreement within contract maintains an additional $8,000 per year in hard savings and provides data-validated warranty to critical components
The consistent delivery of these results led Carlex to put their trust in Crawford’s knowledgeable and dedicated associates. Crawford strives to understand a holistic view of your business, what affects your key performance indicators (KPIs), and the best strategy to improve your bottom line. They have a proven track record of success in helping customers improve their plant performance and reduce downtime.
To see if your local Sonepar distributor offers industrial automation services, contact your nearest branch.