American Gypsum’s Eagle Plant: 24/7 Uptime Powered by Benchmate Software

Located between Denver and Grand Junction, Colo., American Gypsum’s Eagle Plant operates around the clock to produce more than 113 miles of wallboard each day.

One small hiccup in a continuous production line that includes well over 1,500 pieces of equipment can spell disaster from both a financial and order‑fulfillment perspective.

Spanning a quarter‑mile, the plant’s maintenance crews must keep conveyor systems, crushers, hammer mills, feeders, mixers and the primary forming line running at peak performance with zero failures. Recognizing the critical need for reliability, the plant sought a maintenance‑management solution that would streamline equipment history tracking and eliminate the manual logbooks that had once governed the process.

Maintenance superintendent Bill Baxter explains that the search began with the goal of replacing cumbersome hand‑written records. “We knew there was a better way to manage the data related to equipment PMs, repairs and scheduled maintenance,” he says. “Keeping the production equipment running as much as possible with minimal downtime was—and remains—our top priority.”

After evaluating several options, the team selected Benchmate for its simplicity, intuitive interface and lack of unnecessary extras. The system was deployed with minimal training, quickly becoming the backbone of maintenance management across the plant.

Mechanics and electricians now create parts requisitions directly within Benchmate, sending them to purchasing for review, approval and order issuance—all within a single, unified platform.

Production personnel also leverage Benchmate’s trouble‑call feature. Foremen can log issues from the plant floor, allowing maintenance staff to review, prioritize and schedule repairs in real time. The resulting services log preserves a complete history of work performed on each piece of equipment, ensuring that everyone has the data they need to keep operations flowing.

Baxter notes that Benchmate has transformed maintenance workflows. A weekly “down day” is now scheduled exclusively for planned work, enabling the team to review upcoming tasks and optimize downtime. Comprehensive equipment history data ensures that every intervention is well‑documented and informed.

“Preventive maintenance is the key to our production uptime,” Baxter says. “We use Benchmate extensively to schedule our planned maintenance; it is the ‘heart’ of our maintenance management activities.”

American Gypsum sets preventive maintenance intervals based on expected equipment life—from major components to individual parts—so routine inspections catch potential failure points before they derail production. A single belt slip could shut down the line, causing costly delays. Benchmate’s step‑by‑step work instructions, coupled with electronic access to technical manuals, schematics and part diagrams, give technicians the tools they need to perform maintenance efficiently.

Routine reports show weekly maintenance plans, backlog status and man‑hour expenditures, enabling Baxter and his team to schedule downtime strategically and prioritize work orders.

Benchmate’s responsive support team ensures that any system questions or issues are resolved swiftly. With upgrades delivered seamlessly, production interruptions are minimized. Baxter plans to expand Benchmate’s role into spare‑parts inventory, integrating barcode scanning to further streamline parts tracking.

In the Colorado valley, American Gypsum continues to produce sheet after sheet of quality wallboard, feeding a nationwide market. As the nation’s fifth‑largest wallboard producer, maintaining continuous production is essential to staying competitive. With Benchmate tracking critical equipment, the Eagle Plant is poised to keep delivering top‑grade products and reinforcing its market‑leading position.