Manufacturing has always been fast paced. Tight deadlines, demanding customers, and changing priorities often combine into a hectic work environment.
A successful production manager must keep many priorities balanced – labor, productivity, quality, and safety – all while delivering product on-time. With all these factors combining to disrupt a production schedule, it is important to maintain flexibility in production operations. A nimble operation can adapt quickly, taking advantage of shifting market conditions.
The role of unplanned downtime. Among these competing concerns, routine maintenance of critical equipment tends to fall by the wayside. We’ve seen it happen repeatedly, and it’s a natural choice for production managers to make. After all, orders need fulfillment, and the machine needs to keep running, right?
When routine maintenance tasks are repeatedly deferred to prioritize other “more urgent” matters, the production is making a trade-off wager. In the heat of the moment, it may seem like an easy decision to forego the preventative maintenance work. The thought is: “it can get done later, when things aren’t so chaotic.” However, if the equipment sees a catastrophic breakdown, this can be a losing wager.
It may seem obvious, but keeping machines running well is an essential component of a successful manufacturing operation.
Equipment breakdowns can lead to unplanned downtime, one of the biggest costs to a production’s bottom line. In fact, a study on downtime conducted by GE Digital found the following:
· 82% of the companies surveyed experienced unplanned downtime in the previous three years.
· The cost of the downtime totaled over $2 million.
· Unplanned downtime causes further downstream effects: 46% of operations couldn’t deliver services to customers, 37% lost production time on a critical asset, and 29% were totally unable to use specific equipment or assets.
Planned maintenance tasks need to be completed somehow. But how can they be completed with so many competing priorities? Following her are some ideas for incorporating periodic maintenance into your schedule.
Scheduling work. It’s not always easy to develop a planned maintenance (PM) schedule. However, there are some ways you can work your preventative maintenance tasks into your busy production calendar.
1. Schedule around busy periods. As best as possible, aim to schedule PMs and routine maintenance work around busy production periods. If you know a busy run is coming up, shift PMs to be completed before then.
2. Schedule off-shift maintenance. A best-case scenario may be simply to conduct your planned maintenance during a shift where production is lowered, or even halted. However, this may require extra pay and logistics, or it may be simply infeasible for some operations.
3. Communication and cooperation. In cases where maintenance tasks cannot be completed easily due to a frantic production need, weigh the risk and plan accordingly. Keep the operations team in contact with the maintenance team, so that maintenance tasks can be added to the schedule when opportune times arise. This is where flexibility, cooperation, and communication are critical. With the proper emphasis on the importance of maintenance from top management, it is possible to maintain some sort of balance.
Production demand changes. As demand in one area increases, its equipment will be relied on more and more, and the operation should adjust accordingly. Conversely, assets with reductions in production value may receive less effort and attention. Here are some steps to adjust maintenance to production demands:
1. Review current maintenance efforts. Make a thorough review of the existing maintenance plan for the asset. Is the current plan applicable to the new situation? What are the manufacturer’s recommendations? Are there known industry standards?
2. Change, if needed. Does the existing maintenance plan meet the needs of the asset? If not, make modifications to it that reflect the new priorities. If the asset is experiencing a heavier use, it’s likely that routine and PM tasks on it need to be scheduled more often to prevent degradation (and vice versa .)
3. Modify support levels elsewhere. Perhaps the asset with added demand should see an increase in maintenance attention. But, does this attention in man-hours come at the expense of other assets? Does your staff have the capacity to take on this added responsibility? Examine the levels of support across the plant, or accept overtime, late PMs, and many other potential problems.
4. Periodically review and adjust. The maintenance plan for the entire site should be reviewed periodically. Try to focus on periods where you experienced a big spike in production levels. Review how much overtime work, deferred maintenance, and equipment breakdowns you experienced and try to correlate that with your existing maintenance plan at that time. A great way to future proof your maintenance plans is to learn from past mistakes.
A CMMS is vital. As you look to adapt your maintenance to match production, a computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) becomes invaluable. All the strategies mentioned above benefit from a CMMS. A CMMS can schedule work on specified timelines, track the time spent, and help with other administrative tasks like parts and MRO management.
For example, a CMMS can automatically schedule routine maintenance tasks and track completion. It can provide rapid reports of the maintenance situation on an asset, detailing maintenance hours, spend, downtime, and more. Assessing the maintenance for an asset becomes quick and relatively painless.
A CMMS can also help you determine where the biggest problems are in maintenance, and help you figure out if you are spending too much time and effort on an underused asset.
As your production levels change, you should be examining the maintenance strategy and adjusting where needed. This is a challenging yet worthwhile endeavor.
Avoiding unplanned downtime is a core goal, and it should be emphasized. Look for ways to incorporate maintenance into your production schedule. Alter the maintenance as assets increase in value to ensure you can realize maximum profit per production line. With organizational support and focus, a sound strategy will result in improved maintenance efficiency.
Bryan Christiansen is the founder and CEO at Limble CMMS -- a modern, easy-to-use, and mobile CMMS software that takes the stress and chaos out of maintenance by helping managers organize, automate, and streamline their maintenance operations.
