Maintenance Management Resources Six sigma and lean manufacturing, it's all about money:
Business Industrial Network is your best resource when you need fast solutions. After you view this six sigma area dedicated to learning the true cost of equipment downtime
with time and motion study, please visit our company.
These are per downtime occurrence entries, but most can be exported from your CMMS. Your existing method of reporting need only meet the TDC recommendations below.
Under the main category "Equipment", sub category "Start up" is where you would place the percentage of reduced production from full capacity during a start up. This category is for time and percentage of full capacity equipment is running a reduced rate due to a malfunction.
This malfunction may have not been reported for some time, or scheduled for planned downtime repair, or other reason for running at a reduced production rate for an extended period of time. Malfunctions that only reduce production communally have the lowest priority, and sometimes the cost is never reported. After learning about OEE, you'll know everyone is running at a reduced rate. For now reduce rate will refer to running less than normal benchmarked production rate.
Common causes for reduced production rates...
Bottlenecks and other material shortages
Equipment failure, troubleshooting and waiting for repair
To maintain quality and low reject rates
A non-reported, or unscheduled for repair "annoyance" problem
Operating with band-aid
In-line production equipment installation
An undetected drop in production rate
Poor working conditions (human factor)
Run till failure policy
Some may think considering the human factor (HF&HE) to be pointing a finger at the machine operator. I remind you of a very common example in defense. Number of product out of the machine is the primary gauge for a supervisor's success in most facilities. (instead of quality product out the door.) This misdirected focus has caused some supervisors to bump machine speeds (Drive settings for example) up within the electrical control panels. Without the proper technical knowledge of a machines' operating parameters, this often results in shortened life, and increased unplanned downtime.
If you are not watching for and recording the above causes for reduced production, you're losing a lot of profits. There is only one sure way to monitor all these factors and that is with sound procedures that are strictly enforced.
Being able to assign a cost to these reductions in production will give you the cost justification to do productibility studies and analyses. As with all TDC methodologies, you will have the necessary information to make more sound management decisions on a proper coarse of action.
