Guide Ti Case Study: Toyoda Gosei
Toyoda Gosei is a leading North American manufacturer specializing in automotive sealing systems for major original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) such as Ford, General Motors, Stellantis, Toyota, and other global vehicle manufacturers. With over 75 years of industry experience, the company has built a strong reputation for innovation in rubber and thermoplastic extrusion, molding, bonding, and integrated sealing technologies.
To address the operational challenges created by their legacy maintenance processes, Toyoda Gosei chose Guide Ti.
Opportunities for Improvement
As a high precision automotive supplier, Toyoda Gosei must meet strict production requirements and internal audit standards. These requirements include government safety regulations, quality audits, and OEM-specific requirements. The company needed a manufacturing-ready CMMS to support its growth, strengthen operational reliability, and eliminate challenges, such as:
Operational Inefficiencies
- Difficulties locating maintenance history and equipment documentation
- Manual tracking of work orders leading to delays and data loss
- Limited preventive maintenance compliance visibility
“Paper‑based tracking was holding us back,” explains Benoit Gendron, maintenance manager at Toyoda Gosei. “Guide Ti gave us a clean, usable layer over our ERP data and a way to prioritize emergencies without losing our preventive work. It was the one option our technicians actually wanted to use on day one.”
Resource Management Limitations
- Challenging workload management for technicians
- Maintenance supervisors lacked real‑time insights into emergency requests, backlog, or resource allocation
Compliance and Audit Challenges
- Internal audits required clear documentation trails that were difficult to produce
- Safety‑related work orders were hard to monitor in real time
Technology Gaps
- Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) maintenance module complexity and implementation challenges
- Existing systems lacked mobility, digital planning tools, and integration capabilities
Solutions
After evaluating three options—Status quo, their ERP’s maintenance module, and Guide Ti—Toyoda Gosei selected Guide Ti for its ease of use, lower cost of ownership, and strong integration capabilities with their ERP. Key implementation steps included:
Organizational Best Practices
- Dedicated a full time CMMS leader
- Created a “Best Practices Cookbook” for consistent system use
- Implemented a formal communication plan and ensured IT involvement from the start
Preventive Maintenance Transformation
- Migrated over 6,000 assets into Guide Ti
- Structured preventive maintenance tasks and frequencies
- Cleaned and reorganized historical data for reliable tracking
“Once we migrated our assets and turned on the visual planning boards, our mechanics started accepting work orders on tablets and we stabilized the 30–60–90 day backlog,” Gendron shares. “That visibility let us balance workloads and plan shutdowns with confidence.”
ERP Integration
- Automated sync of equipment, inventory, and parts data
- Eliminated redundant manual entry and paperwork
Visual Planning and Work Order Management
- Implemented visual planning boards in Guide Ti to optimize scheduling
- Drag‑and‑drop task management and workload planning over 30, 60, and 90-day horizons
- Streamlined emergency request prioritization and management
Mobile and Shop‑Floor Technology Deployment
- Installed digital screens throughout the plant
- Deployed tablets for technicians, enabling real‑time notifications, task acceptance, emergency response, and data entry
Shutdown & Major Outage Planning
- Coordinated between maintenance supervisors and reliability specialists for structured shutdown planning
- Enabled detailed task planning, sequencing, and follow‑up
Guide Ti Benefits for Toyoda Gosei
Leveraging this solid foundation, Toyoda Gosei has realized the following key outcomes:
Improved Maintenance Performance and Reliability
- Technicians receive and accept work orders digitally, improving backlog management and timely completion
- Improved team productivity resulting from balanced task distribution
- Accurate preventive maintenance schedules reduced unplanned downtime
Stronger Data Integrity and Compliance
- Full audit trails and structured maintenance records facilitate internal and external audit readiness
- Real‑time tracking of safety‑related tasks improved compliance and workplace safety
- ERP integration ensures consistent equipment and parts data across systems
Operational Visibility and Collaboration
- Cross-functional Reliability Committee leverages Guide Ti reporting to improve communication across departments
- Key performance indicators are now visible to supervisors, engineers, and managers
Efficiency Gains Across the Organization
- Digital workflows eliminated paper processes and manual errors
- Maintenance teams gained real-time visibility into priorities, increasing accountability and work quality
“Audits and safety follow‑ups used to be stressful,” says Gendron. “Now compliance items are tracked in real time, our Reliability Committee reviews shared KPIs, and preventive maintenance is back on schedule. We spend less time chasing paper and more time improving reliability.”
Conclusion
With Guide Ti, Toyoda Gosei has modernized its maintenance operations, enabling more strategic preventive maintenance, better resource planning, and stronger alignment with the company’s long‑term operational goals. With these gains established, the company has been able to future-proof its maintenance operations.