CDE powers preventative maintenance with seamless integrations

Challenge

Getting more value from data while streamlining operations

CDE designs, manufactures, and commissions machinery for processing aggregate from quarries, demolished buildings, and landfills, specializing in wet processing plants. Its solutions equip companies to recycle and reuse building materials, reducing landfill, and the need to source virgin materials, helping support a circular economy and a more sustainable future.

As the business grew, manually transferring data between disconnected systems became increasingly time-consuming. Despite some point-to-point integrations, much of the work still relied on spreadsheets and manual processes, which was inefficient. With plans to launch a new initiative for preventative maintenance using IoT-driven insights, CDE realized that handling growing volumes of data manually would be too labor-intensive. Automating data integration was essential to ensure accurate, timely information for smarter, more efficient operations.

Objectives

Integrating data to support preventative maintenance

To support the preventative maintenance project, which would create new opportunities to increase revenues and enhance customer services, CDE needed to:

• Automate data integration across three key business systems.
• Minimize manual administration and effort.
• Safeguard data accuracy and quality.

Solution

Delivering value in just 10 weeks

CDE partnered with NTT Data to implement MuleSoft, a solution that aligned with its Salesforce investment. "We selected MuleSoft for its API-led architecture, roadmap of continuous development, and the ability to deliver value quickly with a small internal team and the right partner," said William Humphrey, Data Architect at CDE.

In just 10 weeks, CDE was up and running on MuleSoft, and its preventative maintenance initiative was already showing results. NTT Data’s expertise accelerated deployment, providing demonstrations, testing, coaching, and best practices. The CDE team also participated in an accelerator workshop and completed Trailhead courses to get up to speed.

Enabling preventative maintenance

CDE’s IoT solution monitors key machinery. When an anomaly is detected, MuleSoft automatically triggers an inspection in CDE’s plant management system or raises a service request in Service Cloud. MuleSoft’s Salesforce Connectors ensured a straightforward integration.

For machinery parts that reach a specified number of operating hours, preventative maintenance alerts are generated, which are then pulled into Sales Cloud as sales opportunities. The solution generates 10-15 opportunities a day. Using MuleSoft, CDE's IoT data has been transformed into actionable, revenue-generating insights. Plus, as MuleSoft abstracts systems from integration tasks, if CDE chooses to upgrade or change its systems in the future, it has the flexibility to update integrations with minimal time and effort.

Automating data propagation

With the preventative maintenance solution already delivering results, CDE and NTT Data are working on a second project to further enhance efficiency and data accuracy. The new initiative integrates CDE’s ERP system with Salesforce to automate quote creation by seamlessly transferring data between the two systems. Currently, in the user acceptance testing phase, this integration reuses APIs from the initial project, making it faster and more cost-effective to implement.

As CDE continues deploying MuleSoft integrations, the process will become even more efficient with the ability to reuse APIs. Future use cases include extending the preventative maintenance initiative by integrating daily inspection data from CDE’s plant management system into Salesforce as sales opportunities or service cases. Additionally, CDE plans to pull historic quotes and orders from its ERP system into Service Cloud for improved visibility. With centralized data, CDE will be able to leverage AI to assist customer care teams in creating quotes and emails in the future, further enhancing efficiency and customer experiences.

Improving customer services throughout the lifecycle

CDE’s preventative maintenance project is set to improve customer services by helping to better understand needs and pre-empt requirements. By proactively addressing part issues before they arise, it potentially reduces unplanned downtime and boosts machinery performance. In the months ahead, MuleSoft will also help enhance efficiency, aligning with CDE’s annual business goals. Automating data entry will increase accuracy and free up employees for more fulfilling tasks.

“With MuleSoft handling data integrations, we can accelerate IT projects, driving business agility and growth,”

Graeme Fraser
Business Systems Manager at CDE.