The Company
Buffalo Rock Company’s Marketing Equipment department handles the logistics, warehousing, repair and deployment of beverage dispensing and cooling equipment for the company. As the nation’s largest single-family-owned Pepsi and Dr Pepper bottler, Buffalo Rock operates across the Southeast from its headquarters in Birmingham, Alabama, managing equipment across multiple franchises and serving some of the world's biggest brands. Its teams depend on accurate information to manage service work, inventory, financial processes and facilities.
Tommy King, Director of Corporate Marketing Equipment and Franchise Communication, has spent 40 years with Buffalo Rock and has overseen the company's evolution from paper-based processes through handheld devices and into its current use of Accruent Maintenance Connection.
The Challenge
After more than 25 years using its previous maintenance management system, VMMS, Buffalo Rock needed a more flexible, scalable solution. Vendor support had ended and the application lacked flexibility.
Buffalo Rock needed a solution that could:
- Adapt to the specialized workflows of the bottling industry
- Support service, inventory, financial and facilities processes in one platform
- Give the company room to build new workflows, integrations and reporting capabilities over time
The team evaluated eight to nine solutions before selecting Maintenance Connection.
The Solution
After seeing Maintenance Connection in use at another bottling company, King recognized its flexibility and potential to support Buffalo Rock's unique business requirements.
Buffalo Rock worked closely with Accruent to configure the platform for a broad range of day-to-day needs:
- Manage work orders, service calls and equipment activity
- Track parts inventory, labor, drive time, depreciation and taxes
- Support facilities maintenance alongside field service operations
- Connect with Pepsi’s SAP environment for service information, billing and equipment tracking
Implementation began in 2021, with Buffalo Rock going live in October 2022. Success depended on strong collaboration between executive leaders, IT, operations teams and technicians. Today, approximately 160-175 users rely on Maintenance Connection daily, including dispatchers, managers, technicians and administrators.
The Results
Faster Reporting with Less Manual Work
Maintenance Connection significantly reduced reporting effort across the organization. Monthly reporting that once required multiple employees working several days can now be completed by King in approximately half a day, resulting in up to an 83% reduction in reporting time.
Automated reports also help managers monitor service activity, track unresolved calls and identify inventory discrepancies before they become larger accounting issues.
"Where it used to take three people and three days to run reports just to get the monthly data, I do it myself in about half a day."
– Tommy King, Director Corporate Marketing Equipment and Franchise Communication
Greater Visibility Across Service Operations
Maintenance Connection serves as Buffalo Rock's system of record for service operations. Teams use the platform to track work orders, equipment movement, parts inventory, labor, drive time and facilities maintenance.
The level of adoption reflects how deeply the system has become part of daily operations. As King explained, “We use it every day from the time we start our days to the time we end our days. When I say we're working in Maintenance Connection, we start at 8 o'clock in the morning and we finish at 5 o'clock.”
Download the Full Case Study
See how Buffalo Rock uses Accruent Maintenance Connection to streamline reporting, manage service activity and improve visibility across its operations. In this case study, you'll learn:
- How Buffalo Rock replaced a legacy maintenance platform after more than 25 years
- How Maintenance Connection supports service, inventory, financial and facilities processes across the organization
- How the company achieved 100% service department adoption and reduced monthly reporting time by up to 83%
Ready to Streamline Your Maintenance Operations?
See how Accruent Maintenance Connection can help your organization improve reporting, increase operational visibility and manage maintenance activities from a single platform. Explore Accruent Maintenance Connection to learn how organizations like Buffalo Rock are simplifying service operations and driving efficiency across their teams.
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