CMMS

Dunlop Aircraft Tyres, a UK-based manufacturer of aircraft tires for platforms including Airbus, Boeing, and Embraer, was operating under a fully reactive maintenance model — addressing equipment failures only after they occurred. A shortage of on-site engineers compounded the problem, effectively doubling the workload of those available. Maintenance records were managed through a legacy Microsoft Access database supplemented by paper logs and Excel spreadsheets, with no capability for scheduling or planning. In an aerospace-grade manufacturing environment where equipment reliability directly affects product quality and safety compliance, this approach created persistent operational firefighting with no clear path to improvement.

Dunlop selected Fiix CMMS, a computerized maintenance management system under the Rockwell Automation portfolio, as the foundation for modernizing its maintenance operations. The choice was influenced partly by the existing trust in Rockwell Automation — the same brand controlling most of Dunlop's plant floor PLCs — which simplified vendor alignment. Fiix replaced the Access/Excel stack with a centralized, mobile-accessible system that engineers could use from phones or tablets anywhere on the facility floor. After approximately one year of CMMS deployment, Dunlop added the Fiix Asset Risk Predictor (ARP), a predictive maintenance tool that analyzes asset condition data to generate risk scores. The ARP was integrated with existing temperature and pressure monitoring systems to enable cross-system root cause analysis, and configured to trigger automatic work orders when assets exceed predefined amber-alert thresholds via the Prescriptive Maintenance feature.

Measurable improvements appeared within the first few months of Fiix CMMS deployment. Plant managers, who had previously compiled reports manually, began receiving automated daily reports tracking key metrics including Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF), reviewed in weekly maintenance meetings. The shift eliminated manual data entry errors that had previously compromised scheduling accuracy. With the addition of Fiix ARP, Dunlop has recorded zero full-blown asset failures since implementation — attributed to early-stage risk detection and automatic work order generation before failures escalate. Additional outcomes include:

• Significant time savings in report generation and data retrieval
• Improved resource allocation through accurate, error-free maintenance scheduling
• Enhanced decision-making supported by daily and weekly performance analytics
• Full historical work order and machine history visibility across the facility

• Start with data hygiene: replacing paper and spreadsheet-based records with a structured CMMS is the prerequisite for any predictive capability — Dunlop could not have deployed ARP effectively without a year of clean CMMS data first.
• Vendor ecosystem alignment matters: Dunlop's pre-existing trust in Rockwell Automation accelerated adoption of Fiix; manufacturers should evaluate CMMS vendors against their existing automation stack.
• Stage the rollout: deploying CMMS before predictive tools allows teams to build operational habits and accumulate historical data before adding analytical complexity.
• Risk-threshold automation reduces response lag: configuring automatic work orders based on asset risk scores removes human bottlenecks from the failure-prevention loop.