Massmart is a large South African wholesale and retail chain and part of Walmart. Massmart recently won the South African SAFMA Award for Technology 2021. The organization received this prestigious award for the digitalization of asset management and facility management processes. This resulted in an efficiency improvement of 25% for Massmart’s 400 locations in South Africa.
Massmart chose Pragma On Key ’s maintenance management system to take facility and asset management to the next level. To achieve this, the assets across the 400 branches were inventoried, tagged, and linked with On Key. This approach earned Massmart the SAAMA Award in 2020 .
Optimizing the processes and implementing On Key resulted in a 25% efficiency improvement. This represents a significant time saving for operational staff and store managers across 400 stores with a diverse range of assets.
Colin Garton, General Manager Facilities Management at Massmart: “The goal was to implement an enterprise asset management system that gives us a comprehensive overview of the facilities, assets, and maintenance of 400 stores in South Africa. The system helps us manage maintenance and gives us insight into the maintenance history.”
Through the implementation and optimization of various asset management processes, Massmart was able to realize cost savings. In addition, work processes were optimized. A number of additional benefits for Massmart:
- The ability to select a preferred contractor based on retail location, asset type, and service;
- Costs are automatically estimated based on historical expenditures;
- Reduction of the administrative burden because contractors upload invoices to work orders and the Operations Manager within On Key can approve the invoices using the ‘Approval app’ on a mobile device;
- Due to the integration with SAP, financial administration has been reduced and accuracy increased;
- Massmart can now pay one consolidated invoice for all work performed in a specific period, per contractor or per region;
- The dashboard reduces the manual maintenance of reports. It is also used to manage and improve contractor performance. Costs can be better managed through clear insight into the budget relative to actual expenses.
Thabelo Mbambale, Project Engineer at Pragma South Africa: “One of the objectives of the project was to make the right information available so that informed decisions can be made regarding risks, costs, and customer experience. Facilities support is centralized and organized by one team and from one system. This makes it possible to continuously work on improving the processes and systems.”
Achieved results for Masssmart
The complete project consisted of various components to ensure that the On Key maintenance management system was correctly configured to support the Massmart organization. In addition to the implementation of On Key, the following results were achieved:
- Building the asset register, including tagging. Massmart handled the tagging of the assets itself using the Pragma mobile app;
- Setting up Massmart’s facilities call center: The stores submit maintenance requests to the call center, after which a work order is created. Additionally, they answer questions from suppliers, among others. Currently, the call center manages an average of 250 work orders per day;
- Streamlined work order process: Pragma and Massmart jointly analyzed and improved the work order process. By integrating interfaces and applications and automating the process, the work order process has been simplified and shortened;
- Cost control: cost-saving opportunities have been identified and analyzed. Best practices were implemented to realize cost savings. Examples include Service Level Agreements, structuring supplier rates, combining non-urgent work with urgent work, and reducing breakdowns through preventive maintenance;
- Integration with SAP: the administrative burden has been reduced by the integration of On Key with SAP;
- Defining and developing dynamic reports (On Key Insights Business Intelligence tool): the information enables Massmart to monitor asset costs and continuously look for opportunities for savings.
“Massmart has defined clear KPIs for asset management containing ambitious objectives. The entire team drives the KPIs. That is one of the key success factors for achieving the objectives within this project,” says Kribban Coopoosamy, Senior Executive at Pragma South Africa.
About Masssmart
Massmart is part of the global Walmart and consists of two business units: Massmart Wholesale and Massmart Retail. They primarily sell branded consumer goods and focus on optimal service and delivering the lowest price. The business model is geared towards high sales density, economies of scale in purchasing, and cost efficiency. Massmart has 443 locations in 14 countries. https://www.massmart.co.za/
About On Key Connected Asset Management Suite
Because a maintenance management system is a crucial component of asset and maintenance management, Pragma has developed On Key : a Connected Asset Management Suite . The suite redefines the traditional lines of business software in asset management. It provides customers with an integrated, tailored solution, as opposed to a generic set of functionalities. On Key Connected Asset Management is a specially designed platform with a maintenance management system at its core. Are you not using On Key as your maintenance management system? No problem. Any standard maintenance management system can serve as the core of the On Key Connected Asset Management Suite. On Key is suitable for all types of organizations and for all asset types. It supports all asset management processes and can be extended with integrations with various platforms. With this, Pragma offers customers a complete and integrated asset management solution that includes not only software but also training, consulting services, and specific asset management expertise.
About SAFMA
SAFMA stands for South African Facilities Management Association. It was founded in 1997 and is a leading organization within the South African Facilities Management Community. SAFMA views facility management as the driver for sustainable business performance, productive workplaces, and optimal business support services. SAFMA presents annual awards for, among others, technology implementation, Facility Manager of the Year, and emerging facilities talent. https://www.safma.co.za/
Read the original news report in English.
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