In manufacturing, contracting, and other machine-heavy industries, you can struggle enough to find your niche on the market and get settled. You don’t need your machinery making it harder on you by suddenly refusing to work. But you don’t have to take ‘no’ for an answer, either. With the tips below, you should be able to solve the majority of your machine-related troubles.
Mine the data and see the problem
The tips below are all important ways to keep your vehicles, equipment, and factories running for longer. But to know which you need to spend more time and money investing in, you need to know which ones are the greatest priority. Ensure you’re keeping the data of which of your machines are breaking down and the causes why. While you want to fix every problem that comes up, you want to prepare the most for the greatest sources of downtime.
It’s in the operator’s manual
One of the most cringe-worthy yet common reasons for equipment failure, or suspected failure, is because the one using the machine isn’t trained and competent with it. Even if they use it regularly, they might miss the kind of provisions and tips that they could learn by simply consulting the operator’s manual on a regular business. A lot of downtime might be a result of missing an easy fix that is just a few pages away.
Make maintenance policy
Failing to maintain thoroughly is going to cause a lot of issues in the business. Besides making it policy to maintain your equipment regularly, you should systemize exactly what that maintenance entails. Give everyone in charge of maintaining equipment a checklist that they have to run through with each piece of equipment. That way, you’ll have no more problems due to not checking that transmission level you definitely thought you checked.
Add more fail-safes
Mistake proofing machines can be a great way to stop human error, by ensuring people can’t make a piece of equipment can’t do something that would result in an error. But there are fail-safes you can add to individual components of machines as well. For instance, a heavy duty hose clamp can stop a hose from suffering from flexing that will cause it to break down more often. Identify the parts of your equipment that fail more often and see what you can add to reduce the prevalence of that issue.
Not knowing a machine’s capacity
Most pieces of equipment have a breaking point and are going to need to be given the occasional planned downtime. But you have to also expect that some capacities aren’t going to ‘recharge’ with some rest. You have to keep in touch with your suppliers and ensure you identify those parts of the equipment most prone to wear and tear. That way, you can keep spares and keep downtime to a minimum with prompt replacements.
The equipment might keep the business running, but you need to ensure you’re the one running your equipment. Otherwise, you better be prepared for a machine uprising. Not of the Terminator variety, but more the idea that all your equipment will be going on strike more often than you’d like.
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