How To Reduce Equipment Downtime

Downtime during production is inevitable. However, the approach a manufacturer takes to recover from disruptions can make a significant difference in reducing production delays and incurred costs.

Although planned outages are scheduled for maintenance, they still put production on hold, so they need to be scheduled ahead of time to avoid unnecessary delays.

Unplanned outages occur from faults in the system, parts breaking down, electric outages, human error, extreme weather, or hazards on the production floor. Whether outages are planned or incidental, it’s necessary to have a plan in place to reduce downtime. 

Strategies To Reduce Downtime

Reducing downtime relies on several strategies to respond to minor or critical system outages quickly and effectively. Manufacturers can reduce equipment downtime in several ways:

Create A Preventative Maintenance Schedule 

Setting a preventative maintenance schedule is a proactive approach to reducing downtime that involves regularly checking equipment to identify and address faults. Preventative maintenance encourages staff to report lagging equipment rather than waiting for maintenance checks. This approach goes a long way in finding faults before there is a serious outage and prolongs overall equipment effectiveness (OEE).

OEE is a standard that measures the efficiency of production in terms of performance, quality, and availability. Improving OEE prolongs the lifespan of equipment and increases production quality.

Replacing Damaged Or Faulty Components 

This point ties into preventative maintenance by replacing components that are causing delays in production or affecting production quality before they cause a serious outage. Replacing equipment requires the right parts on-site at the right time to avoid emergency purchases that will most likely cost more to deliver at short notice. 

Taking account of which components are regularly required to create a backup stock of replacement parts allows for more efficient budgeting. In addition, employees are less likely to be disrupted by having to wait for an extended period to receive replacement parts. Maintaining a list of local distributors for specialised components is necessary to find compatible parts quickly and reduce the reliance on international imports that prolong waiting time.

Monitor Downtime And Production Metrics

Using software to monitor downtime and collect data on each incident pinpoints areas of concern and improvement. Downtime data can include the process area, the duration of the outage, environment details such as temperature, and comments by staff. Adding categories in the system to tag incidents provides a future reference should a similar outage reoccur.

Tracking incidents in this way allows them to be compared and categorised. Monitoring production efficiency also highlights areas where downtime occurs, which can indicate specific problem areas.

By comparing downtime data alongside production data, it’s possible to pinpoint areas of interest that may indicate a fault in equipment, or inefficient production practices. 

Using Analysis To Reduce Downtime

Analysing downtime data with a LEAN methodology approach such as the DMAIC analysis is an excellent way to find the root cause of downtime. DMAIC stands for define – measure – analyse – improve – control. 

Using the data gathered from downtime and production, manufacturers can define the scope of their analysis, and measure specific areas in the production cycle with graphs to gain a visual insight into outages. 

The five-why analysis is another useful tool, which works by finding five answers to a why question to get to the root cause of the problem. Creating visual dashboards with analysis data is helpful for future comparison and allows for specific categorisation, for example, downtime caused by faults, human error, equipment failure, power outages, accidents, and more.

Create A Troubleshooting Guide 

Troubleshooting guides reduce downtime by helping staff find the root cause of the problem quicker. They typically list common equipment problems, how to address them and what to do in case they need to be escalated. In many industries, help guides are standard practice, especially for plants working with hazardous materials.  

Guides can’t remedy all situations, but they can suggest ways to reduce the severity of the outage. Often, these guides will include strict instructions along with an escalation matrix and what to do in an emergency. Troubleshooting guides have developed considerably to include automated systems, redundancy mechanisms and hazard alerts that can shut off systems at certain points without human intervention. 

Managing effective troubleshooting and escalation of outages and safety concerns is critical in manufacturing environments. Guides and emergency procedures are often governed by strict occupational health and safety regulations, so operators should invest in them to reduce downtime and maintain standards.

Simulate Processes Offline 

Introducing new mechanisms such as robotics or automation to a system requires downtime to restructure systems and train staff. Simulating processes offline and training staff using models or robotics means that production can carry on without the need to disrupt systems for testing or training.

Prioritise Critical Processes And Invest In Quality Control

Prioritising key parts or equipment in the manufacturing process allows for better planning in the event of an outage. Components can be set aside for critical machinery to reduce downtime and the costs associated with sourcing quality components. 

Investing in quality control works to reduce downtime by evaluating production processes to find areas of improvement. Dedicated quality control can reduce rework areas that impact efficiency and help operators make informed decisions about which equipment to upgrade.

The Benefits Of Reducing Production Downtime 

System outages are a part of manufacturing cycles, but how they are addressed will determine if operators can find the root cause quickly to get systems back on track. Monitoring production metrics is a key strategy in reducing downtime because it gives operators insightful data that they can use to address specific areas.

Setting in place effective troubleshooting strategies and investing in quality control also go a long way in reducing downtime. Moreover, they bring together teams under a unified goal to inspect equipment and upgrade it regularly rather than relying solely on maintenance teams.