How Star Produce Boosted Equipment Uptime from 70% to 99.8%

‍Challenge

When Franschwa Barnard joined Star Produce as their Maintenance Supervisor over three years ago, maintenance operated almost entirely in reactive mode.

They managed work orders and parts manually, maintenance was largely reactive, and there was no meaningful way to measure maintenance performance. Technicians simply responded to equipment failures as they happened.

"We were in firefighting mode. Just fix things as they go. There was no way of measuring anything." — Franschwa Barnard, Maintenance Supervisor

Without reliable maintenance data, the team couldn't answer basic questions like:

• How much are we spending on maintenance?
• Which assets are causing the most downtime?
• Which spare parts do we have in inventory?
• Where should we focus improvement efforts?

Even routine workforce planning was difficult because maintenance work couldn't be forecasted or balanced across technicians. And as the site's maintenance leader, Franschwa was responsible for everything, from planning and purchasing to reporting and continuous improvement, which made visibility and organization even more critical.

Solution

After evaluating several maintenance platforms, Star Produce selected Limble because it offered the functionality they needed and seemed easiest for technicians to use.

Instead of trying to digitize everything at once, Franschwa focused on getting assets into the system, generating QR codes, and making it easy for technicians to report issues directly from the production floor. He then built preventive maintenance schedules and configured dashboards that tracked the KPIs that mattered most to the business.

Today, technicians scan a QR code to submit work requests, attach photos, access equipment documentation, record maintenance activities, and capture accurate downtime information. From there, the maintenance team uses Limble to schedule preventive maintenance, manage spare parts inventory, track labor and operating costs, monitor equipment performance, identify recurring failures, and plan technician workloads.

Results

Since implementing Limble, Star Produce has transformed from a reactive, firefighting-driven maintenance operation into a proactive, data-driven one.

Equipment uptime jumped from 70% to 99.8%. When Franschwa began building the maintenance program, uptime hovered around 70%. Today, preventive maintenance and better visibility into equipment health keep the facility running at 99.8% uptime. Rather than reacting to failures, the team uses maintenance data to identify recurring issues, perform root cause analysis, and eliminate problems before they happen. As Franschwa puts it: "If something goes wrong, don't just fix it. Ask why. Then eliminate the cause so it doesn't happen again."

Planned maintenance now accounts for 88% of all work, up from almost none before Limble. Only 12% is unplanned, and just a small portion of that results in production downtime. Franschwa uses Limble's scheduling calendar to see technician workloads at a glance and intentionally plans 80% of available maintenance time, leaving the remaining 20% buffer for unplanned surprises. 

"I can click on my PM calendar and instantly see the workload for every technician. It makes staffing and planning much easier."

Maintenance costs are now fully visible, where they were once a black box. Star Produce tracks labor costs, operating costs, parts usage, downtime by asset, equipment history, and cost trends over time — giving leadership clarity on exactly where dollars go and helping justify capital replacement decisions before costs spiral.

Maintenance leadership now has full visibility from anywhere, even away from the plant. Whether working remotely, out sick, or on leave, he can see work orders as they're created, monitor technician progress, and coach his team from his phone. "I can manage work from home because I have Limble on my iPhone."

While Star Produce continues expanding its parts inventory and documentation inside Limble, the foundation is already in place. What was once a reactive operation built around firefighting is now a proactive maintenance program driven by data, planning, and continuous improvement.

"Getting out of firefighting mode—that's the biggest thing."

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