Machine downtime can be a severe threat and crucial problem, particularly for the manufacturing industry. A longer manufacturing time caused by downtime may equate to extensive financial loss for any company. On the other hand, if product manufacturing is maximized and takes minimum time, more profit can enter the business.
With that said, it is necessary to find ways to maximize manufacturing productivity and reduce machine downtime. To help you, take a look at the seven ways below in reducing machine downtime in manufacturing.
- Create A Technology Plan And Adapt Modernization
Creating an updated and strategic technology plan for your manufacturing plant allows you to integrate new technologies and implement modernization. A step-by-step plan is vital to have a clear outline and plan of action to achieve your goal in adapting and implementing modernization.
Having a technology plan and adapting modernization will help your company achieve increased productivity, better automation which improves production performance, and better machine and equipment performance, which reduces unplanned machine downtime. Overall, this increases your company’s manufacturing rate.
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- Improve Staff Communication
Communication between departments, supervisors, and personnel should be at its peak. Every team member must be informed and provided details concerning downtime and business profits. The supervisor must provide details on what should be done, at what time, and what shouldn’t be done. This makes every team member feel part of the team in making important decisions which implements an increased sense of urgency and efficiency. More importantly, having good, quick, and efficient communication between departments helps appropriate personnel address issues faster, minimizing downtime.
- Upgrade Manufacturing Equipment
Upgrading your manufacturing equipment improves your production performance and often reduces manufacturing downtime. Unreplaced machinery slows down the manufacturing performance. Hence, making the company unproductive. Installing new parts in the machine allows your plant floor to stay up-to-date with the latest technologies.
- Set A Maintenance Plan
It’s always good to have a budget and a plan for upgrading machinery equipment to reduce downtime. Additionally, having a maintenance plan and carrying out machinery repair is critical to maintaining a high level of business productivity. A developed strategy should include preventive, predictive, and conditioned maintenance.
Preventive maintenance is performed during planned downtime. It’s a regularly scheduled check-up done whether the machine is down or not. While on the other hand, predictive maintenance is the most important because it requires a specialist that checks on the machinery failure before it occurs and deals with it before the production process is disrupted.
Conditioned-based maintenance is repairing equipment after failure has occurred. Unlike preventive and predictive, conditioned-based happens during the unplanned crisis, making it costly to solve the downtime.
- Track Your Downtime
It’s advised to know where, when, and how downtime occurs. An easy way to track how and when downtime occurs is by recording all the maintenance, troubleshooting, and overhaul that have been done, including its costs. By carefully and accurately following these records, you’ll know when downtime is more likely to happen and which part to prevent it earlier.
- Properly Train Equipment Operators
Human errors are one of the causes of downtime in product manufacturing. It’s advised to ensure proper training for production line employees to be familiar with the machine and what they’re doing in the factory. Also, the operators should be shown how to maintain all equipment and how to handle a breakdown. Personnel training must be one of a company’s utmost priorities. This is because aside from producing efficient results, it also helps to improve safety in the production line.
- Conduct Regular Risk Audits
Risk audit is critical to be conscious about in the manufacturing business. You can experience losses due to unplanned downtime. Therefore, it’s necessary to perform risk audits, whether regularly or occasionally. This can help identify which equipment should be replaced or repaired. For the old machine, you can replace them with new ones because finding old replacements can be complex. A risk audit will help notify the problem before it happens, reducing frequent downtime in the manufacturing process.
Conclusion
Downtime can cause damages to your business and is also known to cause hazards, especially when it is unplanned. Therefore, it must be managed and handled properly. However, it is significant to note that it can be reduced and prevented in many ways.
Remember to follow the tips mentioned above to help reduce machine downtime, avoid encountering losses, and ensure a high level of productivity in your manufacturing business.
