Walraven: Smart maintenance app
Walraven produces smart mounting systems worldwide and is also a partner and integrator in the installation industry. As a result, the family business offers customers not only products, but complete solutions that make installation work more efficient, safer and more sustainable. With tight control over the process — from concept to production and service — the company combines innovation, knowledge sharing and sustainability.
Customization that constricts
To keep production running optimally in a company like Walraven, smartly planned maintenance is essential. A new app, built with low-code technology, streamlines the entire maintenance process — from planning and inventory management to communication between technicians.
The existing maintenance software was a customized solution developed internally. The system ran on MySQL and PHP but became increasingly complex to maintain. Only a handful of employees had the necessary knowledge to make adjustments. This made it increasingly difficult to make updates or roll out the software to other factories in Europe.
Moreover, the system was not intuitive to use. Employees often spent a long time looking for the right place to find or fill in information. Real-time insight into spare parts was missing, which regularly caused unpleasant surprises. Communication between technicians and specialists was cumbersome because that was not possible via the system.
The wish: ease of use first
Walraven was looking for a new solution that would make work easier for everyone. The system was supposed to show technicians their tasks immediately and provide insight into the availability of spare parts. A direct line of communication between technicians and specialists would help solve problems more quickly.
The new system also needed to become smarter. The architecture allows us to read and analyze machine data directly in the future and thus to dynamically adjust maintenance schedules. This way, maintenance is done exactly when necessary, not based on averages or fixed schedules. But for management, in this phase, having one central dashboard with all maintenance activities was particularly important.
From prototype to fully-fledged solution
Our approach to the project had two phases: first a Proof of Concept, then the development into a final product. In the PoC phase, the team built a prototype to clarify all requirements. This approach had three advantages: it structured the many variables, convinced Walraven skeptics of the value of low-code, and gave control over the budget.
After a successful prototype evaluation, the team worked out the details into a complete solution in Microsoft Power Platform. The total development turnaround time was approximately 2 months.
“Blis helps us decide what suits us best. They keep asking questions, looking for solutions that provide exactly the functionality we need, and coordinate immediately where necessary. The combination of practical thinking and fast communication makes the collaboration successful.” (Remco Vink, Capability Lead Digital and Information Management at Walraven Group)
Working more efficiently, higher production
The new maintenance app makes work a lot more efficient. End users see what to do at a glance and managers have a dashboard where they can always see what's happening, by whom and where. The direct line between maintenance engineers and specialists within the company ensures that maintenance goes faster.
The result: more production because machines are stopped for less time.
But actually, there was an even more important success. This project was Walraven's first major low-code solution. Its success has already led to new ideas within the organization for automation, productivity gains. Walraven will soon launch an internal low-code community to further expand this movement, on the way to even more low-code innovation.
“Working with Blis is smooth and pragmatic. They keep agreements, respond quickly to questions and think beyond just delivering software. They look precisely at what the user needs and how we can manage the solution ourselves. That makes the difference.”
Continue reading
Want to know more about how we achieve a successful prototype? In our blog”Achieving an interactive prototype in the design phase” we share our approach and experiences. We show how, together with the customer, we translate all requirements and wishes into a working prototype that serves as a solid basis for the end product.
Also check out our case about the real estate company Redevco, where we achieved a similar transition from Excel to a modern app with Power Platform.
