Cape Utilities is a unison of Cape Crushing and Earthmoving & Underground Services Australia that provides innovative and cost-effective solutions to businesses operating in the resources, utilities and infrastructure sectors.

The company's areas of expertise include civil, mining services and underground utility installation and maintenance. Cape's comprehensive services & equipment are fully adaptable to the needs of the most diverse projects.

How has MEX been implemented?

Cape Utilities have been using MEX since August 2017 and have listed just under 1000 assets in their Asset Register, ranging from Earth Moving Equipment, Site Facilities, to Compactors and Generators etc. MEX was chosen as the best fit for Cape Utilities due to its intuitive and easy to use interface.

As far as implementation, the Cape Utilities Maintenance Team had a very small timeframe to roll out the system. This caused no issue in setting up the MEX system as the team managed to implement it seamlessly and effectively right from the start.

We are currently using MEX, Ops Requests and have just started cataloguing spare parts that we have in stock in the Stores Module. We aren't purchasing through MEX just yet; however, we do plan to do this in the near future to expand the use of the system.

What benefits have you gained from using MEX?

We have found since introducing MEX and using the Preventative Maintenance Policies, that the quality of our Maintenance and Fleet has increased, and our utilisation has also improved, which goes hand in hand. Prior to implementing MEX, our Maintenance records were not kept very well and it was hard to find history on equipment. MEX has helped to streamline our records and keep a full history which is very helpful when disposing/on selling assets.

What advice would you give to someone looking to implement MEX?

I'd advise Training for all end users initially, and at least 1 'Super User' that is more advanced and has a little bit of database/programming knowledge, who can then train any new starters after implementation.

I have customised a lot of areas of MEX to suit the way in which we wanted to use it; however, I do have a background in programming so found this quite easy. If you don't have anyone with this knowledge however, the Support Team at MEX are very helpful and respond fast to queries, so it shouldn't be a deal breaker.

As far as a CMMS goes, I have been very happy with MEX and would recommend it to anyone that is looking for something user friendly, and easily adaptable, with customisable reporting options. I'd also recommend having MEX host the database so that it can be accessed from anywhere. Initially we were hosting it ourselves, however migrated not long after implementing which has made using MEX, especially on our remote sites much better.