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Background 

The Penn Waste Recycling Center has been using Asset Essentials to track and manage equipment maintenance since 2016 with powerful results, including consistent up times ranging from 96% to 98%, above the industry average. 

In March 2022, a fire destroyed the equipment in the recycling center, temporarily halting operations. However, 52 weeks later, the recycling center reopened with a new building outfitted with high-tech equipment and advanced capabilities. With the upgraded facility, the center went from 67 to 154 motors and six to 11 optical sorters, with tons of new conveyors and robotic sorters. 

“We now have twice the equipment in the same footprint, so it’s even more important to stay on top of our equipment maintenance,” says Joe Wojciechowski, maintenance manager. The team is relying on Asset Essentials to help them implement appropriate maintenance schedules and tracking for the new capacity and maximize uptime to provide its community with the utmost service.

Tracking and Recording Maintenance

“In a perfect world, all the work would be completed every day,” Wojciechowski says. “But in the real world, that doesn’t always happen. And Asset Essentials gives us a really good safety net so we can always keep up with what did and didn’t get done.” 

Because Penn Waste maintenance techs always track their work in Asset Essentials, when one shift leaves or when a worker is absent, it’s easy for those who come behind them to see instantly what needs to be done. 

In addition to keeping the work on track, those detailed records have also resulted in cost savings. At least twice, Penn Waste has experienced problems with a machine despite completing maintenance exactly according to manufacturer recommendations. By presenting maintenance records from Asset Essentials, both times manufacturers have provided replacement parts even though the machines were out of warranty.

Accessing Historical Data 

Before the fire, Penn Waste had an established system of preventive maintenance that worked well for all its equipment. But with all new machines and new capabilities in the rebuilt facility, the team had to start from scratch to build new maintenance schedules. 

Wojciechowski is using Asset Essentials data to set new maintenance guidelines to achieve maximum efficiency in the new facility. “We’re accessing the performance and metrics of our equipment through our Asset Essentials data,” he says. “We might believe we need to do a preventive maintenance task every two weeks but over time, the data may show that we need to do it more often or less frequently. The more you can forecast and predict potential problems, the better you can do at staying ahead of those.” 

Maximizing Uptime 

Wojciechowski credits Asset Essentials with accomplishing the plant’s consistent uptime of 96% to 98% before the fire. “That’s the result of everyone having access to information so they can know what’s going on and what needs to be done at any given time,” he says. 

With a new facility and new equipment, it’s normal to need time to learn the new machines and establish maintenance schedules that work. In the first 17 months since the postfire reopening, Penn Waste has used Asset Essentials to achieve 91% to 92% uptime, with a goal to reach 95% by the 20-month mark. “With Asset Essentials, we can dial in faster and implement appropriate PMs to increase our uptime sooner,” Wojciechowski says. 

As a result of Penn Waste’s success with Asset Essentials, another Waste Connections recycling center in Manassas, Va., is in the process of implementing the software too. “We told them it’s a lot like your cell phone: It can do a million things, but we only need it to do a few things, and it does those - tracking parts, tracking costs, tracking depreciation - really well," Wojciechowski says. "It really gives us peace of mind."