The Waarbeek
“With the maintenance strategy in McMain we reduced breakdowns by 90%”
A park filled with children’s voices and the sound of a starting ride. In the middle of Twente’s Hengelo, you will find Amusement park the Waarbeek. Acquired by Kevin Moespot and his wife, they converted this historical amusement park to a nostalgic place with a modern touch. Head of Technical Service and director Kevin Moespot talks about his McMain experience and the maintenance strategy of The Waarbeek.
From the amusement park of his father-in-law, Drouwenerzand, Kevin and his wife took the big step to their own amusement park. “I am the director of the park, but I also work with the Technical Service. From my experience in my previous job, that was a logical decision.”
“At Drouwenerzand, the park I used to work, we already started digitalizing the maintenance and I immediately wanted to continue that here. So once we started working in The Waarbeek, I instantly took those first steps for a maintenance management system. We have the honour of being the owner of the oldest amusement park in the Netherlands. I want to maintain that ambiance, but add something modern to it.”
“My technical personnel indicates that McMain improves communication and it is easier to work with than paper. We’ve got it good.”
At the time of purchase, the maintenance left much to be desired. It was recorded badly and almost impossible to trace. “And that while it is so important especially in an amusement park. I know a technical person is not an administrative person, but I had three pillars that I kept in mind during my search: easy to use, effective and affordable. The goal was to find a program that would make the record keeping as easy as possible. That is how in the future we can see up to the smallest detail what happened to a ride and which parts are connected.”
Safety first
“My father-in-law is my biggest role model when it comes to tackling maintenance. He taught me to perform punctual maintenance and to avoid taking risks to save money. We always say: if something rattles or it doesn’t look right, replace it. We work with people and for people, so errors have to be contained and a maintenance system helps with that. It helps you to remember and plan your maintenance. It is and remains an amusement park and no two days are the same. So having a system that helps us, is a big step forward.”
Establishing a maintenance strategy
“Where we started, is the inspection of all rides. Inside and out, so we knew them well. The rides were completely new for us. Based on this familiarization and learning process, we established a maintenance strategy. A good example are the bearings. How long do these last and when do they need to be replaced? Those were questions that we composed. We went through all rides and parts and put this acquired knowledge in the system. It is nice to know that McMain will help us to remember to carry out certain actions. Right now we have to check everything ourselves and McMain will take that off our hands.”
“With the maintenance strategy we are enforcing with McMain, we have 90% fewer big breakdowns.”
Inside the Technical Service of the Waarbeek, technicians also strive for a certain goal, says Kevin. “We have the ultimate goal to have as few as possible breakdowns per year. This means as little as possible downtime during opening hours. If downtime does occur during opening hours, we strive for solving the breakdowns within 5 minutes. When we started with this, we had 20 big breakdowns, which caused the rides to have multiple hours of downtime, and we were able to decrease that to 2 big breakdowns. A decrease of 90%. Maintenance is the key and our own maintenance strategy works.”
McMain is indispensable at the Waarbeek
With the maintenance, it is important that the team communicates well and is up to date on all the performed maintenance. We have a team of six and that includes externals, so consultation is indispensable for us. The moment something happens with a ride that has happened before, the work is considerably more efficient. With maintenance software you do not just improve the quality of the ride, but also the quality of the maintenance.”
“The best part”, he adds, “is the fact that the complete Technical Service sees what it brings and what the difference is with the previous situation. They realized themselves, by simply using the software, that it is easier to use than paper. So I was very happy when they told me that McMain is a beautiful program, that it improves communication and that we’ve got it good with McMain.”
Start now
Do you want to experience for yourself how it is to work with the McMain maintenance software? Try the trial version of McMain Online for free and see what it is like! If you have any questions, feel free to contact us at sales@mcmain-software.com or +31 341 – 750 500.