Morey’s Piers Vaults into 21^st Century Maintenance Technology

By Pat Smith and Michael Stone

Morey’s Piers implemented TabWare EF^X from AssetPoint in the spring of 2007 to replace an older CMMS they had in place for 10 years that did not have sufficient functionality to support their current and planned operations, address their maintenance program improvements and to convert manual inspection documents, logs and checklists to a central automated system.

Gone are the spiral bound notebooks for ride inspection notes and logs.  Gone are the handwritten comments.  Morey’s Piers now captures and reports all inspections, Preventive Maintenance, corrective work, staff certifications, training, incidents, staff attendance and spare parts inventory operations using TabWare EF^X.  While they are still using some paper forms for capturing inspection and PMs, that information is keyed into TabWare.

Mr. Pat Smith, Director of Attractions Maintenance at Morey’s Piers realized he needed to implement a better way of tracking maintenance and handling equipment warranties in addition to addressing the issue with their inspection logs.  He hired Mr. Don Burkholder to help improve their overall maintenance program.  Don knew of TabWare from a previous employer and encouraged Pat to evaluate the package.  Along with Don, Pat assembled a team of his key staff members to evaluate and select a new CMMS system.  After an evaluation of several software systems, the team chose TabWare EF^X from AssetPoint.

Morey’s Piers is a seasonal theme park that usually starts up in April of each year and runs through October. During the off season Morey’s focuses on ride disassembly, inspection, refurbishment and reassembly as well as building new rides for the park.  State safety inspectors review each ride in their park prior to each season opening as well as periodically during their operating season.

With the 2007 season opening approaching, Morey’s team needed a system they could quickly implement, was easy to use for their staff and required minimal training for start up.  AssetPoint provided TabWare University, an internet-based series of self-paced training tutorials to assist the Morey’s team getting up to speed using TabWare.  Morey’s put their entire maintenance staff through TabWare University for familiarization and concepts and then had AssetPoint conduct onsite hands on classroom training.   This proved to be an excellent approach in that the staff had a basic understanding of TabWare before the instructor arrived on site.

Morey’s had implemented bar coding for their spare parts inventory with the old system.  TabWare integrated nicely with the barcode system already in place which further accelerated their implementation project. Concurrent with the TabWare implementation the team implemented new work processes to control inventory issues, returns and receipts.

Today, technicians must have either a work order or stores requisition in order to draw parts and material from the storeroom.  Pat said “implementing the new work processes and using TabWare for tracking has given us much better control over our inventory and we can quickly identify the right parts and get them issued faster.”

Once Morey’s staff was trained in the use of TabWare, they welcomed the fact they didn’t have to deal with the manual logs and forms any more.  The technicians simply access pull-down menus and point-and-click to select the results of their inspections and corrective work.  This effectively eliminated handwritten comments and put standard processes in place.  For each inspection, technicians are required to enter the results and observations in TabWare.  Their work processes with TabWare are much quicker and easier than the manual method they had been using.

Safety and reliability is a critical concern in the amusement industry and it is no different at Morey’s Piers.  Morey’s team implemented a reliability program prior to implementing TabWare.  Through their efforts Morey’s has attained a record of over 99.2% reliability of their equipment and their safety record has significantly improved as well.

Since Morey’s Piers began using TabWare for their inspection logs, the team figured that if it would help them improve their performance it could also help the state safety inspectors in their efforts.  So, the team gave the state safety inspectors access to TabWare and trained them in accessing the inspection logs and event records within TabWare.  Now the state safety inspectors can quickly review all the logs and focus on individual rides without having to chase down the manual logs and notebooks.  With all the information in a central repository with on-demand access the inspectors have improved their efficiency and effectiveness as well.

The first season of Morey’s Piers with TabWare went very well.  The park now plans to implement TabWare’s Purchasing Module throughout park operations.  Since TabWare is integrated with their Microsoft Dynamics SL accounting software they expect to significantly improve performance in their procurement operations as well as streamlining their invoice approval and payment processes.  Further, the team plans to implement TabWare’s Mobile Maintenance Module to give technicians handheld units to eliminate paper-based work orders and provide inspection checklists on mobile computers to further streamline their operations and improve efficiency at the technician level.

In summary, Pat said “Our experience with TabWare has been gratifying, it was easy to implement, our work processes work well with it and our technicians have really embraced it in their daily work.  Additionally, the state safety inspectors like the fact that we have implemented standard work processes and the information they need is readily available and easy to access.” 

Pat Smith is Director of Attractions Maintenance at Morey’s Piers. 

Michael Stone is Sr. Director – Product Strategy & Marketing at AssetPoint LLC.

About Morey’s Piers:

Morey’s Piers, located on the boardwalk in Wildwood, New Jersey is a classic seaside amusement park, family owned and operated since 1969.  Voted one of  the best seaside amusement parks in the world in 2007,  Morey’s Piers attractions span six beach blocks and include three amusement piers and two beachfront waterparks.  Convenient to the major population centers of the Northeast but a world apart, Morey’s Piers along with Morey Hospitality combines the pure joy of an amusement park, the sights and sounds of a classic boardwalk, outstanding accommodations, together with the rhythm of beach life.  Visit them at Surfside Pier, featuring Ocean Oasis Waterpark and Beach Club at 25^th Avenue, Mariner’s Landing Pier, featuring Raging Waters Waterpark at Schellenger Avenue, and Adventure Pier at Spencer Avenue.  Admission to the Piers is free. For more information, visit www.moreyspiers.com or phone (609) 522-3900.

About AssetPoint:

Established in 2002 as a spin-off from a major engineering, construction and maintenance corporation, AssetPoint has a legacy of over 25 years in delivering integrated Enterprise Asset Management / Computerized Maintenance Management (EAM/CMMS) software and services that improve profitability and productivity for a variety of industries including: process, manufacturing, mining and metals, facilities maintenance and amusement. The scalable software solution is delivered as an onsite option or as a fully secure, web-based hosted solution.  For more information see http://www.assetpoint.com