From a long-held idea to a working system in one week: Höganäs' Digital Maintenance Logbook

In nearly twenty years working in maintenance, Rafael Grandechamp do Carmo built up deep knowledge of the operation and of a recurring problem in the field: teams produce important information every day, but much of that knowledge ends up getting lost.

Incidents, decisions, recurring problems and lessons learned are scattered across paper records, spreadsheets and people's memories. Logging them takes time. Finding an old record is difficult. Without an organized history, patterns that could lead to better decisions go unnoticed.

Rafael had wanted to build his own tool to solve this problem for years. The idea was there. The obstacle was turning it into a working system without the cost, time and dependency that usually come with software development.

A talk about artificial intelligence gave the idea a way forward.

Bringing operational knowledge and AI together

Rafael discovered Lovable at a Pruftechnik event, where Gianluca Giuliani gave a talk on the business applications of artificial intelligence.

The possibility of building applications with AI opened up a different route. Rather than starting with a long, expensive project defined entirely on paper, they could build a working first version, put it in users' hands and improve it based on real use.

The project began with an important advantage: Rafael was not simply the person requesting the tool. He knew the process being digitized inside out and had already tried to build his own prototype.

Gianluca's role was to turn that operational knowledge into a more structured, testable application suited to the maintenance team's daily work.

What Rafael had imagined as a years-long project became a reality in one week.

What we built

The result was the Digital Maintenance Logbook for Höganäs in Brazil: a delivered, working proof of concept already in use by the maintenance team.

The application lets the team record and look up information from each shift on their phones. It brings the following into one place:

• shift logs;
• maintenance incidents;
• activity schedules;
• historical records;
• outstanding task tracking;
• dashboards and metrics;
• different user access levels.

The team can also import its maintenance schedule from the file it already uses. The system organizes the data and cuts down on some of the manual spreadsheet work.

The project was built and refined in short cycles. The team used the application, identified what it needed and shared feedback. Each round brought the tool closer to the day-to-day reality of the operation.

That user involvement was essential. The technology made it faster to build, but the team's knowledge determined what needed to be built.

From paper and Excel to a phone

The main change goes beyond the format of the records. By replacing scattered information with a searchable digital history, Höganäs can begin preserving something companies often lose: the knowledge generated by their own operations.

According to Rafael, tasks that once depended on paper and spreadsheets can now be handled on a phone. This has reduced the time spent keeping records and made the data more reliable.

An organized history also makes it easier to spot repeated incidents, patterns and problems that might previously have gone unnoticed.

Rafael Grandechamp do Carmo

Reliability Technician, Höganäs in Brazil

"I have worked in maintenance for nearly twenty years. It is a field rich in information, but one that has historically lost a great deal of knowledge because there was no easy, accessible way to record it.

For a long time, I wanted to develop my own tool, but the cost and the need for specialist professionals were always major obstacles.

I discovered Lovable at a Pruftechnik event where Gianluca presented the tool and, I should add, gave an excellent talk on AI. He was essential throughout this process, practically a teacher guiding the development.

What had once seemed like a years-long project became a reality in one week.

Today, we have a tool for recording daily maintenance incidents, and it is becoming a true history of our department. As well as preserving the information, it makes searching and retrieving it much easier.

What used to be done on paper and in Excel spreadsheets, with all the difficulties that brought, I can now handle in the palm of my hand, on my phone, with Lovable.

This has greatly reduced the time spent on these records and made the data more reliable. Having this organized history has also been extremely helpful when making decisions because we can see patterns and recurring problems that previously went unnoticed."

Validate before making a larger investment

For Höganäs, the Digital Maintenance Logbook is also a way to test a different approach to digitizing maintenance.

Instead of beginning with a large investment in development and infrastructure, the company started with a working proof of concept. Users can work with the solution, assess its usefulness and find out what needs improvement.

This approach reduces the risk of investing in a system based only on theoretical requirements. Decisions about a possible expansion can be based on actual use, team feedback and what the company learns during the project.

Luiz Alberto Moraes

Maintenance and Engineering Manager, Höganäs in Brazil

"Together with Gianluca, we are developing a proof of concept to digitize processes in the Maintenance department at Höganäs in Brazil. The first project is a digital maintenance logbook built using the Lovable platform.

The idea came from a real operational need: to improve how maintenance incident information is recorded, organized, traced and shared, replacing more manual processes with a digital solution that is simple and accessible for users.

Gianluca's work has been very positive, particularly his ability to understand the operation's needs quickly and turn them into a working application in a short time.

Using Lovable allowed us to move from an initial idea to a prototype that we can use, test and improve with our users.

This approach is especially valuable because it lets us validate the concept before making larger investments in development and infrastructure.

Based on what we learn from the digital maintenance logbook, we can assess new features and other processes that could become part of a future digital maintenance ecosystem.

We believe this proof of concept is an important opportunity to demonstrate in practice how digital solutions can help make maintenance processes more efficient, structured and scalable within Höganäs.

Gianluca has been fundamental to this process, connecting the business need with the technology and allowing ideas to be turned quickly into solutions that we can see, test and develop."

What this project teaches us about AI in industry

Industrial digitization does not need to begin with a complete transformation or a complex integration across every system in the company.

It can start with one specific process that causes real difficulties for the people using it.

In this case, the starting point was the maintenance logbook. The first deliverable was an application the team could use, test and improve. That created a concrete basis for assessing new features and other processes that could become part of a future digital maintenance ecosystem.

The project also showed the importance of combining two kinds of knowledge.

The Höganäs team knows the operation, its exceptions and the needs that would be difficult to capture in a requirements document. Gianluca connected that knowledge with the technology and led the application's development.

This combination made it possible to move quickly without treating speed as a substitute for validation. Before the application was considered delivered, the team tested it with real maintenance data, users and situations.

A practical route to digitizing important processes

Many companies still have important processes trapped in paper records, Excel spreadsheets or fragmented systems. In many cases, the people doing the work already know what needs to improve, but assume that turning the idea into software will take months and require a large initial investment.

AI development tools change part of that equation.

They make it possible to turn the knowledge of the people who run the process into a working application much faster. The company can test the idea, learn from users and make its next investment decisions based on concrete evidence.

That was the approach behind Höganäs' Digital Maintenance Logbook: start with a real need, build a usable proof of concept and improve the solution through day-to-day use.

Does your company have an important process trapped in paper records, spreadsheets or fragmented systems? On Thursday 27 August at 16:00 CEST I am running a free live masterclass on moving from occasional AI use to a system that works for your business every day. Save your seat.