The added value of working with Centix for the Twente Fire Department is more control over the management of fire department equipment. Maintenance & Technology Coordinator Tom Steentjes says: “From legislation and regulations (compliance), regulations from our suppliers and from our own policy & safety, periodic checks, inspections and maintenance are very important to us. By tracking this process in Centix, we are in control.”
Of course, an important precondition for this is that the information in the system is correct, Tom admits. “To implement the system, ten key users worked in the system, with one colleague who checked out all vehicles and equipment. With that, there are now over 8,000 objects registered in Centix, with all maintenance and inspection information. For each object, all information is entered in Centix, from technical data to maintenance history and changes of location. So the entire life cycle – for example, of ‘rescue equipment’ – from the moment of purchase to depreciation – is registered. The advantage of this is that the fire department has the complete inspection and maintenance history ready in Centix,” says Tom, who expects the Fire Department to be more driven by that data in the future. Tom: “The intention is that we will soon be able to conjure up the right data and results with a few simple clicks. This will put us fully in control and allow us to easily create reports and analyses as needed.”
Tom Steentjes - "Is it necessary to bring a vehicle in for maintenance more often given its more frequent use? We can focus more on that in the future."
Decisions can then be made based on that data. Now often decissions are made based on a gut feeeling or experience. “Imagine: If you can count the numbers of cuts into a vehicle until the knife becomes blunt, you can anticipate that for the future. Then you know when the knife needs replacing. We can also see how often a car comes back for a repair and how often it was fixed with a first-time fix. Financially, of course, we also have to be accountable. Analyses, in turn, ultimately help us to create the budget. This makes for good foundation to build on.”
Learned lessons
"This works much safer for us because the margin of error is smaller."
Since the beginning of the collaboration with Centix, there have been more and more handy things that the key users have discovered in Centix. Tom explains, “An eye-opener, for example, was working with object types. By subsequently placing product-related documentation under these object types, we can easily ensure that the same documentation can always be found under the same brand and type of object. This is then easily accessible. It also helps us to easily record the odometer reading of “objects with meter readings” when vehicles arrive. Furthermore, linking object locations is also a godsend. During incidents or exercises, it may happen that several vehicles are involved/present at one location. There is a chance that materials will be exchanged between vehicles. By assigning a location in Centix for each object, we can see where the material belongs.”
Future
“As a fire department, we too continue to innovate,” says Tom. “For example, we are currently working on making our fleet more sustainable by switching to electric vehicles. Charging stations have been installed at a number of our barracks and the first fifteen electric vehicles are on order.” Furthermore, the digitization of operations, including with Centix, is an ongoing process according to the Maintenance & Engineering Coordinator. “IT is becoming more and more indispensable. This both in fighting incidents and in managing our equipment. It is becoming more and more important. Thinking about all the software that is integrated in our materials to the software we need to maintain the materials. In addition, more and more data is being generated, which we will be able to use more and more in the future. By analyzing it, we will be able to match our management even better to usage. One wish is still to be able to monitor this on a dashboard.”
Freedom to expand
Tom is positive about the partnership and thinks Centix is a good fit for the fire department. Like our fire department organization, Centix wants to keep improving itself. As a Maintenance & Engineering team, we want to do that to continue to help our colleagues as best we can. Centix helps us because it is very easy to manage objects. It is very user-friendly. With Centix, we have the freedom to expand, for example. That makes us more flexible as an organization. If we do have questions, something is scheduled immediately and we are also helped quickly.”