Flowserve uses Smartsheet to gain better visibility into production processes, get products to customers faster, and be more proactive

Enterprises across the globe rely on Flowserve fluid motion control solutions to support their most critical applications. Flowserve, founded in 1997, manufactures and services more than 100 pump models and a range of valve and seal products. “We create and service the products that help move liquids and gases for customers in all industries,” says Matt Wagner, a project engineer for Flowserve. For example, Flowserve created pumps that pushed water back out to sea after Hurricane Katrina, and the company made the seals to protect the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine.

Several of Flowserve’s project management teams rely on Smartsheet software to manage projects, stay on top of urgent tasks, plan production schedules, and deliver updated project data to leaders. “Smartsheet makes our processes much more efficient,” says Wagner. 

Flowserve’s corporate strategy is based on three “Ds”: decarbonization, diversification, and digitization. “Like our company, many of our customers are going through an energy transition. We use the Ds to improve the way we do business and drive innovation while getting products to customers faster,” says Wagner. Flowserve sometimes struggled to support the third D – digitization – because it used manual, error-prone processes for communication and collaboration internally. “The design and creation of our valves can be quite complex, and lots of communication is necessary between the many teams and individuals,” says Wagner. “We have many different locations and we relied on a combination of paper notes, spreadsheets, and emails to collaborate on products. This didn’t always present the most accurate and updated information, especially when managing project changes.” 

Flowserve also needed better communication tools because more employees increasingly worked remotely. “Between the pandemic and increasing work with our technology teams in across the world, we needed better collaboration,” Wagner says. “We were still using emails and scanned files, but that wasn’t consistent or accurate in many cases.”

Integrating Valve Assemblies and Order Information with Smartsheet 

Several teams within Flowserve had already been using Smartsheet, and Wagner sought to expand the solution to the control valve and pump aftermarket team. “I did my own homework on different solutions, and Smartsheet really stood out in terms of its customization and functionality,” he says. After choosing Smartsheet, Wagner created an order handoff system to streamline the flow of work at the manufacturing site. “Using Smartsheet, I built a master sheet connecting department-specific dashboards. Automation helps optimize the flow of information between several sheets and business functions, including order engineering and virtual valve assembly creation,” says Wagner. 

Now, the control valve team uses Smartsheet to begin tracking the order management process immediately when a new order enters the manufacturing site. “Some of our sheets have more than 50 automated workflows, so it’s very comprehensive,” says Wagner. The Smartsheet solution also contains reminder notifications for employees involved in different steps of the order process, which proves to be helpful in improving on time delivery. 

Previously, control valve employees relied on paper and pen and email to track processes, which led to inefficiencies and inaccurate data. “There was a lot of wasted time,” says Wagner. “Smartsheet solves that problem by standardizing information and processes. It makes everything more consistent and accurate, so we can collaborative more easily and, when there are issues, make updates to the process to address those issues.” Flowserve also uses a Smartsheet project management dashboard to view resource allocation.

Additionally, employees at the aftermarket pump site use the Smartsheet mobile app to gain real-time access to shipping and receiving data. “The workers can use the mobile app on their phones to enter data into the shipping and receiving log, which then triggers a notification to inform specific employees when a pump has arrived and needs repaired,” says Wagner. “The workers can actually just take a picture of the pump within the mobile app and add it directly to a Smartsheet form.”

Faster Cycle Time and Product Delivery 

Flowserve also expanded its use of Smartsheet to manage a critical pump repair and reporting process. “Whenever we need to repair a pump, we first disassemble it to identify the issue. We then coordinate the repair process with the customer. The entire repair can be quite complex and vary greatly depending on pump type,” says Wagner. “Our two deliverables are the actual fixed pump and a report detailing the repairs we made. Some of these reports can be 50-plus pages long, and we now use Smartsheet to manage the creation process for the reports.” 

By utilizing automation, Flowserve has been able to promote standardization and accountability. This has decreased the cycle time for repair reports by 50 days and improved on time delivery by 8 percent.

A More Proactive Approach 

Through the insights gained from its Smartsheet implementations, Flowserve can be more proactive in resolving valve manufacturing issues. For instance, the company has better visibility into manufacturing bottlenecks because it can now easily view different lead times in different parts of the process.

“We can track metrics and make process improvements more easily because of this improved visibility,” says Wagner. “We can compare information in a way we couldn’t before, and that definitely helps us be more proactive.”

Flowserve is also using Smartsheet to track specific errors that are identified during the virtual valve assembly process, part of the company’s digital transformation work.

“We categorized and quantified errors by tracking the historical data in Smartsheet. The errors identified have added up to about $80,000 in cost savings so far,” says Wagner. “We were unable to gain insight into that kind of information before implementing the Smartsheet system.”

Flowserve continues to see strong adoption of Smartsheet in other areas of the business. “Smartsheet is spreading throughout our company at a pace I didn’t expect,” says Wagner. “It’s so customizable and simple to use that I could see it being used anywhere to improve any process. I have had the opportunity to train some of our global engineering support team on using the Smartsheet platform, and I continue to identify ways to implement Smartsheet solutions across the Flowserve organization.”

For more information about this story, please see our case study.