Cohesive Masters Maximo Upgrade, Enabling Global Pharma’s Expansion Goals

The Challenge

The company initially implemented Maximo in 2019 at their UK manufacturing facility to replace paper-based and Excel-based processes with a more GxP-compliant and efficient digital system for asset and maintenance/inspection work management. This initial implementation was successful in achieving those goals.
However, as the company grew and expanded its operations, it faced new challenges. The existing Maximo system was on-premise and needed to be upgraded to the latest version to ensure continued support and access to new features. Additionally, the company wanted to expand the system to include its Irish facility and move to a hosted solution for improved security and reliability.

The challenge was threefold:

• Upgrade the existing Maximo system to the latest version: This involved migrating from an older version (7.6.1.2) to the latest Maximo Application Suite (MAS) version 8.8.
• Convert from SQL server to Oracle Database: This was necessary to ensure compatibility with the new MAS version.
• Move from an on-premise system to a hosted solution: This would provide improved security, reliability, and scalability for the growing company.

All of this needed to be accomplished while minimizing downtime and ensuring data integrity, which was critical for a pharmaceutical company operating in a highly regulated environment.

Our Solution

Cohesive Polska, as the leading IBM Maximo implementation partner in the region, was selected to deliver the solution. Recognizing the complexity of KUT’s requirements, we implemented a comprehensive approach that included:

Phase 1: Upgrade and Migration

Cohesive built a standard MAS 8 solution on their hosted environment.

• A temporary Maximo 7.6 system was used to migrate all configurations from the existing on-premise system.
• Cohesive’s proprietary Cohesive Data Utility (CDU) solution was used to migrate all data tables from the SQL server database to the MAS Oracle database.
• The temporary database was then upgraded to MAS 8 and used as the foundation for all environments.

Phase 2: Data Validation and Expansion

• Data validation was a critical requirement for the pharmaceutical company. Cohesive provided comprehensive support, including data counts and screenshots, to demonstrate the accuracy of the data migration.
• The CDU solution significantly reduced the time and effort required for data validation, minimizing system downtime.
• Cohesive integrated the Irish site into the new MAS 8 system using a third-party system and Maximo’s MIF (Maximo Integration Framework) functionality.

Phase 3: Ongoing Support and Development

Cohesive continues to provide support and development services, including plans to upgrade to Maximo Mobile and deploy MAS to other European manufacturing sites.

The Client Benefits

By partnering with Cohesive, the pharmaceutical company successfully achieved its goals of:

• Upgrading to the latest Maximo Application Suite: This ensures ongoing support, access to new features, and improved performance.
• Migrating to a hosted solution: This provides enhanced security, reliability, and scalability for their Maximo system.
• Expanding Maximo to their Irish site: This enables standardized asset and maintenance management across multiple locations.
• Minimizing system downtime during the migration: Cohesive’s efficient processes and the CDU solution significantly reduced the outage, minimizing disruption to operations.
• Ensuring data integrity: Comprehensive data validation processes guaranteed the accuracy and completeness of the migrated data.

What’s Next

The company plans to further leverage Cohesive’s expertise to:

• Upgrade to Maximo Mobile upon release of calibration support.
• Deploy MAS to other European manufacturing sites.
• Continue ongoing system support and development.