The ‘Time & Material’ contract ensures that a range of pre-determined related site activities are undertaken by Sidel experts on the Schweppes Suntory equipment (“Time”) and a list of agreed-upon spare parts is provided after every 3,000 hours of production (“Material”). This allows the company to accurately schedule and execute its preventive maintenance according to a predefined operational period and the scope of supply. In this way, the value of the equipment is maintained throughout its lifecycle, downtime is minimised and the organisation gains full control of maintenance costs over time. All maintenance work is undertaken on-site by a skilled Sidel team under the guidance of a Sidel supervisor, who manages all activities. The ‘Time & Material’ agreement with Sidel also covers the provision of 24/7 hotline assistance, as well as 24/7 on-time, in-full, worldwide delivery of spare parts - designed, tested and certified by Sidel experts - for both scheduled and emergency maintenance, for maximum production uptime.
Schweppes Suntory was founded in 2015. The beverage manufacturer, based in Seville, Spain, specializes in the production of non-alcoholic drinks in the JSDNIT category. With Schweppes Suntory’s annual production time covering 4,500 hours and Sidel providing lists of spare parts that needed to be changed every 3,000 hours, the main challenge was originally in determining how often to change parts of the equipment, as the aim of any maintenance programme is to find the optimum time at which to do so. The objective was to achieve better predictability and control of costs, while ensuring a proactive service from Sidel and support via a dedicated, single service contact.
Schweppes Suntory Plant Manager, Valentin Rodriguez, explains: “Here in Seville, we are already seeing the value of Sidel’s ‘Time & Material’ maintenance contract, but we are also benefitting greatly from the exchange of knowledge and active coaching around our specific production set-up and maintenance needs.” Sidel Aftersales Manager, Giovanni Giberti, continues: “As we understand our customers’ market, value chains, asset and product portfolio, we can provide a dedicated core team on-site, who executes maintenance activities in collaboration with the customer’s team, for production optimisation and maximised performance. With hundreds of parts of equipment currently under maintenance agreements around the globe, we have the expertise to offer advanced, modular maintenance solutions to liquid packaging producers, giving them ideal flexibility in choosing the agreement that best suits them.”
The Sidel equipment installed at Schweppes Suntory’s production site in Seville is used to produce six ranges of Sunny Delight soft drink in different flavours and various bottle formats (from 50 ml up to 1,500 ml), totalling 25 SKUs (stock keeping units). The plant manager continues: “In addition to having our spare parts tailored to our specific needs, we are also benefitting from reduced preparation time on-site thanks to the customised spare parts pre-packaging by sub-assembly that Sidel carries out on our behalf.”
“Not less important, we will also enjoy maximum equipment availability and the financial advantages due to the adoption of the ‘Time & Material’ maintenance contract, such as equal payment distribution, improved cash flow and the reduced impact of inflation in spare part costs in the future”, underlines Valentin. Additional services such as diagnostic and technical visits, on-the-job training, emergency troubleshooting, and remote access including data box and EIT™ (Efficiency Improvement Tool), are also available on demand for those customers who activate ‘Time & Materials’ maintenance contracts with the Sidel Group.
The first maintenance intervention carried out on the Sidel solutions under this new contract with Schweppes Suntory was a 24,000 hour service, a very complex operation in which a large amount of parts needed to be exchanged. Valentin comments, "We are very happy with the competence and the support provided by the Sidel team. In Seville, their expert engineers were able to conduct all the maintenance work in a shorter period than originally planned. As a result, we have been able to restart production two days ahead of schedule, without any issues.”
Giovanni concludes: “With the right agreement with Sidel in place, manufacturers can maximise equipment availability, as productivity and efficiency are increasing, while unscheduled downtime is minimised. All of this is being implemented, while the customers maintain high safety standards and ensure final product integrity.”
