The following article is reprinted with the permission of Newport's Heavy Duty Trucking Magazine.

January 2002

Maintenance Software

How one company makes it work for them.

By John Bendel, Technology Editor

George Wagner looks after 7,500 vehicles at 40 locations in 12 states. He knows the benefits of fleet maintenance software. He also knows how to make it work.

Wagner is the Denver-based fleet systems coordinator for Xcel Energy of Minneapolis.

"Xcel Energy was the product of a merge of New Century Energy, a utility in Colorado and Texas, with Northern State Power, which is Minnesota and Wisconsin. We merged and we're still in the process of bringing everything together," Wagner said.

According to Wagner, 1,000 or so of Xcel's vehicles are trailers used to carry trenchers and backhoes.

From Trailers To Tugboats

Wagner said Xcel has been using Fleet Management maintenance software since 1997. The product has since been bought and is now marketed by Peregrine Systems, Inc., of San Diego, Calif. Until November, 2001, Peregrine called the product Fleet Anywhere.

"We had an inhouse mainframe system that was not Y2K compatible. It had a lot of problems in that it tracked everything very well, but it was very difficult to get anything out of it. You had to get a programmer to get any kind of report. A manager couldn't just say, I want to see what my costs are," Wagner said.

The company looked at the estimate to make the mainframe Y2K compatible, then began looking into off-the-shelf products.

"We started out with 21 vendors. Of those, I believe 12 responded to our initial request for information. Of those, we rated them and narrowed them down to four and had them come and do presentations."

At this point, Wagner made a critical decision.

"I didn't want to get tunnel vision. So we brought in our mechanics as well as managers. Then we had everybody evaluate the presentation.

Opinions From The Shop Floor

"I look at it from the point of view of administering the fleet. They (the technicians) look at from the point of view: What do I have to do to write a work order, to charge parts, to put in labor? How's it going to tell me when I need a PM on a piece of equipment? Where can I find parts history?

"Some of these things don't really concern me because I'm not involved with the day-to-day work orders. I didn't want to be the one to make the decision and say, this is what you need. So I thought it was absolutely key that they be involved. Plus it increased the buy-in when we actually rolled it out," Wagner said.

Despite general backing on the shop floor, not everyone bought into the software right away.

"The turning point was when the people could see they got something out of the system for what they were putting in. In the old system, they had to put all this information on the work order and nobody ever saw it again. Now they can very easily pull up a work history on a vehicle. It will display all the work orders this vehicle has had."

What kind of results did Wagner see?

"We had a big increase in warranty work, including parts warranties. A lot of these vehicles are three years, 36,000 miles or so. If people have a new vehicle or something major, they'd tend to look it up and see if it was under warranty.

"Now, people will be putting on a starter and they say, hey, this starter doesn't look that old. They'll pull it up and see the starter was replaced two months ago. They'll pull the starter out and say, this is a warranty starter. That increased dramatically," said Wagner

According to Wagner, warranty claims jumped from between $4000 and $5000 to $20,000. "That's still too low," he said.

But cash savings is just the beginning.

PMS Saves Engines

"The biggest benefit we have is in our PM (preventive maintenance) program," Wagner said. "In our old mainframe system, by the time mileages were input by different users around the company and you viewed it, it could be up to six weeks late and it was always two to three weeks late.

"We lost several engines on vehicles. Part of the problem we found was they didn't have PMs when they were supposed to. You can't put your finger and say that's absolutely the cause, but we find that the PMs don't get skipped now," Wagner said. Fleet Management will also provide projections, Wagner said.

"If you have a vehicle you bring in every 5,000 miles and it (Fleet Management) looks at the history and says, this thing runs 2,000 miles a month and we're 1,000 away, next month you'll need to do this. That's been an absolute godsend," said Wagner.

"We used to have six standalone systems for tracking permits, whether they're emergency parking permits for the city, DOT certifications or hazmat certifications. Now that all goes into Fleet [Management]. [It] produces a report every month that says, hey, this is what you have coming up.

"We take one look at it and say, okay, these are all the vehicles that need a heavy vehicle use tax statement. It's really valuable."

Wagner believes part of his job is helping the software evolve.

"On three occasions, I have gone to Peregrine and said this is something that we as a utility need and it's not in the system," he explained.

"When that comes up, you have two options. If it's something that just involves your company, you can pay for it and they'll put it on the enhancement list and get it on a future release. If it's something you can find broad-based support for, they will do it and you don't have to pay for it."

Nurturing Software

Wagner explained that government regulators require separate accounts for gas and electric operations. Originally, the software provided a single account to which equipment could be posted.

"I went to the users group and said, look we have the need for more than one account. Several other people said, yes, we do too. So I took that to Peregrine. The next release, they had multiple accounts. I've done that now with three different things that I've requested. I just put it out to the other users. If people want it, they'll put it in," Wagner said.

Are user group meetings worth the time, expense and effort?

"I find them very helpful. Not only does it give you a chance to see new features in the software that maybe you read about but really don't understand, it also gives you a chance to sit down with your peers," Wagner said. Recruiting in a recession.