The contract will take effect immediately and will offer users at the company’s production sites in Carlton (South Yorkshire), Moreton (Wirral) and Stoke-on-Trent (Staffordshire) access to specialist day-to-day Mainsaver assistance via telephone, email and web portal.

“We are delighted to begin our new relationship with Manor Bakeries,” commented Spidex Managing Director Jonathan Starling “and we look forward to serving them as customers.”

“Spidex Software has a near-perfect customer retention rate and a large part of that success can be attributed to the strength of our in-house support team. Each member is a specialist, because supply and support of Mainsaver is Spidex’s central purpose rather than a secondary or legacy one.”

Spidex Software is the sole designated Mainsaver distributor and support centre for the UK & Ireland. It provides technical assistance for almost the entire Mainsaver user community across the territory, as well as delivering brand new installations, training, onsite consultancy and software upgrades.

Manor Bakeries manufactures some of the UK’s most familiar and best-loved products. Mr Kipling Slices, Cherry Bakewells, Cadbury Mini-Rolls, along with comprehensive ranges of own-label pies, fancies, cup-cakes, battenbergs and swiss rolls are all created at its three production sites.

Manor Bakeries is part of Premier Foods, the largest food producer in the UK.

Spidex dRA (Dynamic Risk Assessment) is a web- and mobile-enabled health & safety module, specifically designed to operate in real-time environments alongside the company’s well-established maintenance management solutions, including Spidex WM and the award-winning Mainsaver CMMS.

Spidex dRA automatically prompts an engineer logging on to a maintenance work order to consider the safety implications associated with the task he or she is about to carry out. This takes the form of a short “yes-no” questionnaire which is configurable by each customer to suit the specific requirements of their operating environment.

The responses entered by the engineer will either confirm that any risks associated with the impending task have already been mitigated, or will trigger an exception requiring the creation of a fresh risk assessment with associated approver sign-off.

Spidex Managing Director Jonathan Starling said “There is still pressure on all types of organisations – both from customers and from regulatory bodies – to demonstrate the presence of a 'safety conscious' culture. Spidex dRA offers a straightforward, easy-to-use, fully auditable means of improving workplace safety and achieving greater regulatory compliance.”

“Look in any edition of any trade publication and there will usually be a report of an injury or fatality to someone in his or her workplace. There are potentially dreadful consequences of unsafe working practices, many of which are attributable to simple underestimation of risk and hazard. Spidex dRA forces users to re-consider these risks on each and every work order.”

Spidex customers interested in purchasing Spidex dRA will require an upgrade of their existing CMMS installation to Mainsaver v.11.6 alongside Spidex WM v.2.2. To arrange this, or simply to find out more, please call Spidex Software on +44 844 324 9190 or email sales@spidex.co.uk .

Mainsaver has been used successfully by the engineering team at SITA’s Tees Valley plant for a number of years but as UK demand for Energy-from-Waste increases, the company is looking to roll out standardised maintenance procedures across its existing and forthcoming new-build facilities.

SITA’s Energy-from-Waste plants convert ordinary household and business waste into electricity as part of a multi-site energy recovery operation that collectively produces more than one million megawatt-hours every year.

“Energy-from-Waste is the future” says SITA’s EfW Regional Manager Cliff Matthews, “and we need to ensure that our ongoing investment in new facilities is fully supported by robust maintenance procedures.”

“SITA has already won waste industry awards for operations and maintenance excellence, but we can still improve knowledge-sharing within the business. Our aim is to define, refine and standardise maintenance best practice and thereby compare performance between sites to improve output.”

“In order to do this we need consistent, easy-to-analyse management information, which is what Mainsaver provides. We will be making good use of all the technology advantages that Mainsaver offers, including touchscreen operation, mobile working and barcode scanning.”

The existing facilities included in the initial Mainsaver rollout will be the EfW plants on the Isle of Man (pictured above) and at Kirklees, Yorkshire.  SITA UK’s new-build programme is already under way, and Mainsaver is included in the original build & commission specification at additional sites in Cornwall and Suffolk. Each new site will have Mainsaver already installed when its first day of operation arrives.

The four sites – at Corby, Banbury and Ossett in the UK and at Helmond in the Netherlands – produce a comprehensive range of batters, breadings and seasonings. These ingredients are used by successful food producers across the globe to create innovative new products for the retail and foodservice markets.

The selection of Mainsaver was prompted by a requirement for consistent management information across the four factories. Senior Engineering Manager Steve Evans explains the background to the decision.

“We had a number of separate systems in place, each recording a different aspect of maintenance” he explains “which made it difficult to get a clear overall picture of how we were performing. We fully expect that when Mainsaver is installed at all four sites we will have access to consistent, meaningful management data that we can use to improve. ”

There are two immediate areas in which improvements are being anticipated following Mainsaver’s introduction. Steve Evans again: “In common with most other engineering departments, our objective is to increase the amount of planned maintenance that we do – being proactive, rather than reactive. But we also see a great opportunity to rationalise our spare parts stockholding by analysing Mainsaver’s spares usage data – in fact, stores savings alone should justify the entire project.”

As the appointed Mainsaver distributor and support provider for the EMEA region, Spidex Software will be providing full technical, training and implementation assistance, as well as ongoing helpdesk services for the project. The first phase of Mainsaver user training and site implementations are scheduled to commence in early 2012.

Spidex Managing Director Jonathan Starling commented; “We are delighted to welcome such a widely-respected food ingredients manufacturer as Newly Weds to our ever-expanding Mainsaver user community, and we look forward to a long and happy association.”

In conjunction with specialist training partner Astutis (www.astutis.com), Spidex is offering all the required courses and examinations necessary to attain the NEBOSH National General Certificate in Occupational Health & Safety. This certificate is the leading foundation-level qualification in the subject, providing not only a thorough grounding in H & S theory and practice, but also a solid basis for future specialism or further study within the discipline.

The courses will take place in two separate week-long sections with a subsequent day of invigilated exams at the Spidex training facility in Coleshill, Warwickshire. The dates for these sections are as follows:

Unit 1 - Management of Health & Safety: 30th January - 3rd February 2012

Unit 2 - Controlling Workplace Hazards: 27 Feb – 2 March 2012

Unit 3 - Examination Day: 12th March 2012

The standard cost for the NEBOSH course is £1695.00 per delegate. Spidex customers will pay just £1000.00 - a discount of more than 40%!

Further information, the syllabus and booking details are available on the Spidex website at http://www.spidexsoftware.co.uk/events  Those interested in attending should contact Spidex directly or simply fill in the inquiry form on the website.

The event, held at the four-star QHotel Stratford Manor on 22^nd - 23^rd September, was attended in record-breaking numbers by delegates from five different countries.

Over the course of a packed 48 hours, feature presentations, product demos and interactive training workshops were provided by Spidex personnel and guest speakers on core applications Mainsaver (CMMS) and SpidexWM (web maintenance suite). Delegates also had the opportunity to view some brand new software modules – still in the development stage – that will become available in early 2012.

Away from the Conference chamber, delegates were treated to an offsite team challenge where they tried their hands at a variety of activities (many for the first time) including clay-pigeon shooting, 4x4 off-roading and archery. Dinner and drinks get-togethers each evening gave attendees the opportunity to network with counterpart Mainsaver users and exchange ideas and experiences.

On the closing day of Conference, delegates completed feedback questionnaires from which the response (once again) was overwhelmingly positive.  “The presentations were of high quality” reported one delegate. “As usual, the attentive support of Spidex staff has made this another very enjoyable experience.”

“First time at Conference” reported another “but I’ll be back next year!”

Spidex MD Jonathan Starling said “UC2011 has been a resounding success, but we are always looking to improve. We will be looking in detail at the feedback from delegates to ensure that the next User Conference raises the bar even higher – watch this space!”

A full report on UC2011 will appear in the next issue of the Spidex newsletter later this month.

Release notes giving details of this latest set of improvements can be downloaded from the Spidex website at www.spidex.co.uk/customers

(This is a secure area of the website for Spidex customers only. It requires a username and password to enter. Any customers who have not yet requested these and would like to access this part of the website, please email Spidex at sales@spidex.co.uk or telephone us on +44 (0)844 324 9190.)

More on the latest enhancements within Mainsaver and details of planned future developments will be presented at the Spidex User Conference taking place on 22nd-23rd September 2011.