Machinery breakdowns are often expensive. And getting them repaired takes money and time. In addition, machinery breakdowns may put site workers out of work for many hours or days.
A perfect way to avoid this is to ensure you prevent machinery breakdowns from happening in the first place.
Although this might not be completely possible, there are several tips from experts at Kor Pak you may follow to avoid machinery breakdowns:
1. Inspect Regularly
This is among the vital tips for preventing machinery breakdown. Like other equipment, it is important to inspect your industrial machine, be it small or huge. Besides, machines are important for daily operations. And without them, these operations can’t be completed.
During operations, if equipment stops working, the entire business will suffer. Thus, it is important to regularly inspect your machines so you can implement any issue if found.
When maintenance is done well, the reliability of a machine also improves. So it is important to have a schedule for machinery inspection to ensure productivity.
2. Focus on Training Operators
Multiple operations handle most types of machines. Like regular inspection, it is important to train machinery operators. Workers come and go, poor operation results in a breakdown, and skills become rusty.
You can revise the operator manual for specific work situations. It might be rewritten in simple language. And if you work in an eco-friendly or paperless environment, see to it that your operators use the current versions of manuals.
3. Avoid Overworking the Machine
Even high-performing components of your machine have their limits. Most pieces of equipment have a lifespan, after which they require replacement, lose effectiveness, or break down.
Others come with specifics on the amount of work they can handle. But businesses push their machines to their limits and risk overheating, early death, unresponsiveness, shorter lifespans, or breakdowns.
Fortunately, you can prevent this. Ensure the workload placed on the machine is less than the maximum required. Buying a new machine can be a less costly and safer option if you want to boost output or achieve quotas because overworking the existing equipment might lead to the following:
- Unforeseen machinery problems
- Costly delays
4. Ban Food and Drinks near Machines
Many unnecessary machinery damages happen when someone spills food and drinks on a piece of equipment.
In order to avoid such, consider instituting a strict policy of not allowing anyone to bring food and drinks around machines.
This might seem a little harsh to your workers. But it helps a lot to avoid repairs and frequent breakdown of machines.
5. Estimate Future Supply Needs and Replacement Parts
This is vital because you wouldn’t want to run out of supplies or replacement parts when your preventive maintenance is due.
Consider using the option in a Planning Report to look at the availability of technicians and parts for future preventive maintenance dates.
This is helpful as you can get warnings when replacement parts are projected to be inadequate for a future work order.
The Bottom Line!
As a business owner, you must make sure all your workers participate in machine maintenance management. For example, you may submit work requests when workers identify possible red flags. Doing so will help to minimize machinery downtime as you will provide preventive and regular maintenance.