How To Shrink Processing Equipment Maintenance Costs
A key to keeping a processing facility running at optimum performance is routine upkeep on equipment. Preventative maintenance on your plant’s equipment is an excellent starting point to reduce costs, but there are other ways to lower overheads and keep your plant highly efficient. Here are a few questions to ask to do so.
What’s Vital, What’s Not?
Prior to making a decision to purchase processing equipment, speak with it manufacturer and your plant’s operators and engineers about it. Be sure to discuss whether or not suggested preventative maintenance is in fact needed, as unneeded upkeep can cause equipment malfunctions. Further, be sure to review maintenance procedures annually, making any necessary adjustments as necessary. By following this strategy, your company can get the most out of its equipment while minimizing downtime caused by breakdowns.
Is Maintenance REALLY Needed?
Processing equipment manufacturers offer suggested timeframes to perform maintenance and even rebuild machines.
However, these recommendations may not be completely accurate with your facility’s needs. If a particular piece of
equipment’s manufacturer suggests maintenance every three months, but the equipment is only running for a few,
sporadic hours in that time frame, is the effort of upkeep really needed? Make sure your equipment is on a maintenance
schedule applicable to its actual use.
When’s The Best Time For Maintenance?
Routine upkeep on your facility’s equipment should be just that: on a scheduled routine. Examine the patterns of
productivity of each machine and schedule maintenance around downtimes. This will allow your plant to take
equipment out of service at a time that won’t hinder efficiency much.
Can Employees Be More Efficient?
Any time your facility can keep maintenance and repair work in house is a time of cost savings. It may be beneficial to
train employees to do these tasks on a routine basis. This will take the weight of repairs off of senior staff, and even a
paid third party. Production employees should be able to clean processing equipment, complete inspections of machines
and parts, and examine equipment for non-characteristic behavior. Should the machine begin to act in an
uncharacteristic manner, an expert should be brought in to examine the machine and plan a course of action.
Is There An Overall Upkeep Plan?
Preventative maintenance is only one form of caring for your facility’s equipment. A complete maintenance plan for
your facility’s processing equipment should include two other forms of upkeep: predictive maintenance — using best
practices and prearranged plans to determine when a machine will need attention — and reactive maintenance —
unplanned, but necessary fixes and repairs. By using all three maintenance types together can help control costs
while maximizing production times and minimizing downtime.
Here are five tips to keep your equipment in top form:
1. Upkeep
A great place for processors to start is to simply follow the equipment manufacturers’ recommendations for planning
preventative maintenance. Regularly inspecting all of the equipment’s components, replacing worn out parts, and
upgrading various components to higher-quality alternatives can help to extend the functional life of the equipment and
avoid any costly breakdowns. Additionally, by keeping a detailed log for each piece of equipment, processors can ensure
that preventative maintenance practices are being properly followed. Don’t forget to regularly lubricate your equipment
with the proper grade lubricant.
2. Routine Calibration
Equipment gauges can naturally fall out of alignment over time, which can cause issues such as disproportionate mixing
or inaccurate weighing of products. By regularly calibrating equipment, processors can bring gauges back into alignment
and restore accuracy throughout the production line. To be sure all equipment continues to maintain a high level of
performance, processors should aim to regularly calibrate their equipment at least once per month.
3. Keep Extra Parts
Even with diligent preventative maintenance, equipment can still experience breakdowns. In the event of a breakdown,
processors can save valuable time and reduce operational downtime by stocking the spare parts recommended by the
equipment manufacturer. Having part replacements on hand will enable processors to get the equipment up and
running again and limit the losses of any breakdowns that may occur.
4. Operator Education
As with many elements of production, there is a right way and a wrong way for processing equipment to be operated.
Incorrect operation will likely cause unnecessary increases in wear and tear, reducing the functional life of the
equipment. Worse still, improper operation can result in outright equipment breakage, which can result in costly
replacement or repair. Spending the upfront time and cost to properly train employees is an investment that will pay off
in the long run. When operators are properly trained in the setup and orientation of processing equipment, production
efficiency can be improved and equipment will last longer.
5. Inspection
Aside from preventative maintenance and calibration, equipment needs to be inspected on a regular basis. One of the
best ways to approach inspection is to create checklists for what to look for in the way of wear and tear and inspect all
equipment components thoroughly. Although inspection may cost time, close inspection can catch potential
breakdowns before they happen, limiting downtime and mitigating repair costs.