Webinar Recap: Remote Plant Management Strategies from a Fiix Power User

Insights from Tom Dufton: Mastering Remote Site Management with Fiix

The Fiix community unites seasoned maintenance professionals from a wide array of industries, each bringing valuable lessons from real-world CMMS deployments. In our March 24 “In Conversation With” session, maintenance veteran and Fiix user Tom Dufton explained how he pivoted to remote plant oversight amid the COVID-19 pandemic, ensuring that egg‑based products continued to reach grocery shelves.

We are an essential service, so maintaining uninterrupted production of food‑processing, dried ingredients for human and pet consumption was critical.

Below is a concise summary of Tom’s key recommendations for successful remote site management during these unprecedented times:

1. Build a Prioritized Work‑Order List

Tom filtered open work orders by urgency, tagged the highest‑priority items, and shared this list with senior leadership. This transparency empowered decision‑makers to allocate critical resources and staffing more effectively.

2. Leverage Mobile Tools to Reduce On‑Site Staffing

By enabling technicians to document tasks directly from handheld devices, coordinators and managers could monitor progress from anywhere, adjust plans in real time, and cut the number of personnel needed on the shop floor.

3. Embed Manuals, Safety Protocols, and PPE Info on Every Work Order

Housing essential documents within each work order fostered a safety‑first culture, facilitated instant updates, and allowed Tom to conduct remote walkthroughs and troubleshooting sessions with field staff.

4. Utilize the Parts & Supplies Module

This feature gave Tom a real‑time view of inventory location and quantity, enabling him to direct contractors and technicians to the correct items without on‑site supervision.

5. Maintain Daily Communication Channels

Adopting mobile messaging platforms like WhatsApp for daily check‑ins helped keep staff aligned, managed workload distribution, and mitigated burnout during a volatile period.

Communication is paramount in uncertain times. Daily touchpoints with the team help manage workload and protect maintenance staff from being overburdened.

Tom also shared his journey from reactive to proactive maintenance, illustrating how this transition fortified his team during the crisis. For those short on time, skip to the relevant sections in the full recording:

• 5:00 – COVID‑19’s specific impact on his team
• 8:00 – Production disruptions at the facility
• 9:38 – Details on the essential work‑order list
• 11:40 – Pre‑existing tools that supported the shift
• 14:58 – Strategies for safeguarding physical and mental health
• 18:29 – Communicating successes to leadership for CMMS endorsement
• 20:26 – Using backlog reports to justify hiring
• 22:15 – Joint health and safety team’s use of Fiix
• 23:02 – Securing team buy‑in for the CMMS
• 25:34 – Lessons from scaling Fiix across multiple sites

Across the plant, Fiix is ubiquitous—used by production, QC, HR, and even the plant manager. Its ease of rollout and implementation delivers rapid buy‑in.

Audience Q&A Highlights

• 28:40 – New COVID‑19 safety procedures introduced at the site
• 29:50 – Persuading management to deploy Wi‑Fi throughout the facility
• 31:05 – Overcoming mobile app adoption hurdles
• 32:45 – Integrating health and safety protocols into the CMMS
• 34:40 – Connecting Fiix to IoT devices
• 37:00 – Starting small when implementing a CMMS
• 38:36 – Assigning work to contractors via the system
• 40:32 – Standardizing Fiix usage across sites for audit efficiency
• 42:57 – Enhancing team flexibility through Fiix
• 44:28 – Overview of the new Fiix work‑request portal rollout

Tom Dufton
Maintenance / Project Manager, Perth County Ingredients & Maintenance Improvement Manager / Continuous Improvement Initiator, L.H. Gray & Son Ltd.

A licensed Red Seal 309 electrician, Tom has been in the field since 2000, specializing in automation within the food & beverage sector. He joined L.H. Gray & Son Ltd. as Maintenance Manager for the Perth County Ingredients plant in 2017 and accelerated his career by spearheading CMMS rollouts across multiple L.H. Gray facilities.