Strategies to Implement to Reduce Unplanned Downtime
Reducing production downtime is vital for all businesses that need to maximize productivity throughout the day. Unplanned downtime can be attributed to higher costs, lower output, increased risk of accident or injury, and reduce confidence in and the reputation of your company as a whole.
As a business owner, you need to be at the forefront of reducing downtime and looking for ways to help your facility operate as it needs to as smoothly as possible at all times.
Monitor Downtime
Before you go ahead and start making changes, you need to identify all incidents of downtime and go back through records to figure out when it happened, how it happened, what it was doing immediately prior to downtime, and who was working. Look at all attributes in each incident and for common themes, people, or complaints surrounding the downtime. From here, you can look at putting together a plan based on the data to help you avoid this happening over and over.
Preventative Maintenance
Preventative maintenance is when you plan for repair work, servicing, or manual checks to be carried out. These are important as they give you a clearer idea of the health of your equipment, allow you to order the required parts such as OMRON parts for robotics, and so on, and ensure that nothing unexpected will happen, resulting in unplanned downtime. Doing this requires you to block off planned downtime to carry out the work, which you can factor into your schedule and not be surprised during operation as an unexpected failure.
Operator Training and Support
One of the easiest ways to reduce and any unexpected downtime is to ensure all operators are expertly trained and qualified to perform their job roles. They must know all safety precautions and correct operating techniques and be equipped with handbooks and troubleshooting guides to help them work through any issues. White, you shouldn’t expect them to fix major technical problems; being able to rule out minor issues for users, such as user error or unblocking debris from moving parts, for example, can help you to get back up and running faster. Not only this, they will cause less damage while using equipment if they know how to use it correctly, and you will experience fewer workplace injuries as a result.
Automate As Much As Possible
Automation has come a long way in recent years, and while the subject of AI is an exciting topic, it has massive benefits for most industries. One such one is the option to automate manual ongoing processes to remove the human element from the equation. Machines aren’t subject to making human errors, and implementing automation can help you achieve consistency and a higher output without worrying about variables due to human intervention. This enables you to work to a higher standard and reduce downtime from rectifying mistakes or checking quality control. This frees up your staff to take on other roles where they are needed more to support operations.
Unplanned overtime is the curse of all industries. While you cannot eliminate it entirely, you can improve your chances of not experiencing frequent events that cause hold up and issues during production. By being proactive and identifying the leading causes of your unexpected downtime, and revamping how you operate, you can work to a higher standard and at a more consistent frequency.
