Tips For Maintaining Your Industrial Equipment Proactively
Posted on: 21 December 2017
In a manufacturing environment, equipment up-time is a critical factor. In fact, your equipment up-time matters for multiple reasons. Not only does keeping your equipment running directly contribute to your company's productivity, but downtime can be disastrous not only to your metrics but also your operational costs. You'll be paying employees for unproductive time, which nets you no return on the investment. Here are a few tips to help you keep your machines up and running and minimize your downtime.
Keep Up With Routine Maintenance
When you're constantly operating under a process of just dealing with issues when they arise, you're going to lose more productive time than necessary. Instead, implement a maintenance program that allows you to head off many operational failures before they occur.
Establish a system of inspections and upkeep for your equipment. Make sure that you understand how to monitor the fluid levels, lubrication needs, and all of the gauge readings and statistics for each machine. Do visual inspections regularly and then have a technician conduct a complete maintenance inspection at least once a year.
Another great investment for maintaining your equipment is to invest in equipment reliability software. The software monitors performance, provides operational statistics, and even alerts you to potential malfunctions and concerns based on current operation as well as the hours in service.
Make The Most Of Maintenance Downtime
To minimize the effect of downtime on your operations, you should maximize your maintenance efforts when you do take the system down for any kind of care. Before you actually take the system down, take time to think about any upcoming issues, any other repairs or upgrades that should be done before the system is put back in service, and any failures or problems that may have occurred since your last full maintenance procedure.
Addressing everything at once will allow you to minimize the frequency of your downtime because you will avoid having to take the system down again for unplanned work due to failures that you could have addressed at the time.
Implement A Lockout System
Shut down the power to the equipment before you perform any maintenance. Put a lockout tag over the power switch to prevent any accidental power restoration by another employee. Complete your maintenance and inspections, then test everything before you restore the power and put the machine back in service. Don't remove the lockout tag from the power switch until you're confident that everything is complete and safe.
Contact a company, like Applications Research, Inc, for more help.
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