-
Car failure leading to no transport.
-
Unable to get to your place of work.
-
Non attendance at work equals no pay
-
Dissatisfaction from your boss about you missing
work time.
-
Low confidence in your ability to maintain your
schedule or be at work on time.
-
Disciplinary action with the potential loss your
job.
These all sound very serious and they are, but
many companies run their machinery just like a person who does not service their
car. They continue to run the machinery until it either fails or develops some
serious problem that puts it out of commission for a while. A recent survey
concluded that 85% of machine failure occurrences could have been avoided by
giving the operator more education about the machine. This would allow them to
take a more active role in recognizing potential downtime issues before they
occur. The education process involves maintenance technicians allowing the
operator to take a more active role in the maintenance process. A simple way of
doing this is to define the required activities, when they happen and who is
responsible. Some companies develop a schedule to indicate the required
activities. It can be color coded to show the type or priority of the checks
|
Check
|
Who |
Action |
When
|
| oil
pressure |
operator |
clean
glass |
daily |
| oil level |
operator |
refill
oil to level |
daily |
| oil
filter |
maintenance |
clean
filter |
monthly |
| drive
belt |
maintenance |
adjust
belt tension |
monthly |
Total Productive Maintenance (TPM)
TPM is an initiative for optimizing the
effectiveness of manufacturing equipment. TPM is a team-based productive
maintenance system, which involves every level of an organization, from top
executives to the shop floor. Here is a list of 4 levels of a TPM procedure:
| 1 |
Predictive Maintenance |
e.g. equipment
requires replacement every 1,000 hours. |
| 2 |
Preventative Maintenance |
e.g. change oil
every 3,500 miles |
| 3 |
Operator training |
e.g. clear
understanding of daily machine checks. |
| 4 |
Indicators |
e.g. gauges or
devices to show status of equipment. |
The goal of TPM is not only to prevent breakdowns
and defects, but for machinery to run in an effective and economical way.
When you started reading this page you saw some
of the consequences for not servicing your car on a regular basis. Well, believe
it or not the same rules apply for equipment. The effect of not maintaining you
equipment on a regular basis is:
-
Downtime, because of machine failure.
-
People idle, with no work.
-
Loss of production, unable to make products
-
No products to sell equals no revenue
-
Dissatisfaction from you customer at not meeting
their schedule requirements.
-
Low confidence in your ability to maintain
deliveries on time
-
Loss of a customer who used another vendor
Remember "Prevention is better than cure".
Every company must include a level of prevention in their manufacturing system
to be totally successful.
|
