Digital maintenance solutions OnCare.Asset and OnCare.Health: Grupo Gondi reports positive results
Since the beginning of 2021, Grupo Gondi has been producing light recycled corrugated base paper with its PM 7 at the new Papel y Empaques mill in Monterrey. As a full-line supplier, Voith supplied the entire production line, including the BlueLine stock preparation system; the XcelLine paper machine; and MCS, DCS and QCS automation solutions. For the green field project Grupo Gondi also relied on the OnCare.Health and OnCare.Asset digital maintenance solutions from Voith’s Papermaking 4.0 portfolio. The intelligent maintenance management system started at the same time as production and has since then provided intelligent maintenance support in daily operations. In addition, Grupo Gondi uses the Voith Paper Webshop to order new spare and wear parts.
After one year, Grupo Gondi is now taking stock: the company is very satisfied with the successes achieved, the current status and the partnership with Voith. “We saw the new plant as an opportunity to integrate leading digital technologies from Voith,” says Victor Alcantar Lara, Corporate Manager Projects & Maintenance at Grupo Gondi. “After looking at all the benefits of Voith’s digital solution package, we were convinced by the smart applications. With the help of the digital products, we get a direct link to Industry 4.0. Voith is always at our side with valuable expert knowledge and pursues the highest quality standards in every project. We are therefore very happy about the trusting and good partnership with Voith.”
At the beginning of the project, Voith harmonized all data sources together with Grupo Gondi. For a seamless material management process, the Voith experts connected OnCare.Asset to Grupo Gondi’s ERP system via a bi-directional interface. The integration of the systems took only a few weeks and went smoothly. Since then, the condition monitoring solution OnCare.Health has partly analyzed machine data at the Mexican plant, targeting reduction of unplanned and planned downtime. In addition, the OnCare.Asset digital maintenance management system forecasts the appropriate maintenance measures on a preventive basis. To increase predictability the systems will be fully interfaced in the first quarter of 2022. In addition, the maintenance personnel benefit from quick and easy identification and ordering of spare and wear parts via the Voith Paper Webshop. Thus, the digital solutions significantly increase the productivity, maintenance efficiency and process stability of PM 7.
“Through intensive teamwork, coaching and training, all team members in Monterrey were quickly trained and qualified to operate the digital solutions,” says Francisco Javier Lozano Hernandez, Manager Planning & Scheduling Monterrey at Grupo Gondi. “OnCare.Health now partly monitors the current condition of the plant at all times, registers even the smallest anomalies, sends warning signals to the operators and independently develops optimization options. Combined with OnCare.Asset intelligent maintenance management, the solutions will increase and maintain our world-class machine availability.”
“We use the maintenance system every day and can now also use it to document and track current statuses,” adds Victor Alcantar Lara. “Thanks to the user-friendly operation and the continuously growing data collection, the operators have a comprehensive overview of the maintenance status and can react proactively and efficiently. The digital solutions can also be controlled flawlessly from a distance.”
About Grupo Gondi
Grupo Gondi is a leading paper packaging company with 66 years of experience in the Mexican market. The company currently employs over 7,800 people. A total of 14 converting plants and 7 recycled paper machines are in operation. The company specializes in the production of recycled paper, corrugated boxes, pre-printed corrugated boxes and solid fiber containers, folding containers, micro-corrugated boxes and digital boxes, as well as services to support the production of these products. In total, Grupo Gondi produces more than 1.1 million tons of paper per year.
