The importance of machines maintenance
You should never undermine the importance of machine maintenance. You might ask yourself what is the importance of paying for service on your machine if there is nothing wrong with it. Believe it or not, certain factors attest to that. Machines are an investment that requires time and money to keep them in perfect shape.
Benefits for machines maintenance
Preventative equipment maintenance is very important in extending the life of your machine and eventually saves you money and time. You might think that paying for preventative maintenance is a waste of money the reality is that if you ignore it you are often left with very costly repairs. Preventative maintenance is very important. The following reasons will help you understand why maintenance for machines is important.
Effective running of machinery
New machinery is often in great shape. It runs without fault. However, the efficiency of every machine may differ but new machinery runs smoothly which is great for business. When machinery runs effectively projects are completed on time or before schedule. Maintaining such levels of equipment efficiency is very important. Efficiency suffers and so does maintenance.
Small problems grow gradually
You might have a machine that does not work sufficiently like it used to but does not interfere with our work in a big way. So you continue and sometimes even make some minor adjustments to get the job done. This might seem the most efficient way to get the job done in the short term but could cause you greater problems in the future. If equipment is not working as it used to no matter how minute the problem is it is going to grow into a bigger problem if not rectified immediately.
Fixing bigger problems is expensive.
It might not make sense to spend money to have your equipment repaired when you can do it yourself. The truth of the matter is that the more you wait the greater it will cost you. Bigger and more complex repairs are very expensive. Bigger problems like more downtime will leave you behind schedule and unable to take on a project. You will be forced to pay your employees despite the machine operating abnormally. When you reach this point you will have to do whatever it takes to bring your machinery back to its optimum performance. However, it will come with additional costs.
Promote your resale value
You may want to sell your machinery to buy a new one you would want the machine to produce the maximum amount of products. Detailed data on machine maintenance will benefit you for getting the most cash for your resale. You may ask yourself some questions about the machinery you bought such as, “is it dependable?”, “Was it maintained efficiently?”, “Has it ever had some damage that could limit its performance?”
Documentations and service records answer most of these questions and put the unknown concerns to rest. You can quote a price on the confidence of having the service records on second-hand machinery.
Reduce fatalities and injuries.
The majority of facility fatalities and injuries are caused by contact with equipment and objects. If your machinery is not receiving proper maintenance regularly chances are it is not working efficiently. If the machinery is not working properly you are increasing the chances of injury or even death due to machinery failure.
Regardless of the number of safety training you give your staff, they do not have control over machinery breakdown. There will be machinery breakdowns but you can reduce them by being proactive about the maintenance of your machinery.
How can you extend the life of your equipment?
You need to first realize the life of your equipment. The second part is finding out what you can do to extend your machinery’s life. Regardless of the kind of equipment you have, you can use several methods.
Monitor the equipment technology
Most machinery comes with sensors that alert you when the machine is not operating normally. You should ensure that someone is taking data on equipment and their performance together with monitoring the machinery’s technology. Someone has to bring to your attention when the sensor detects something is not working properly.
Train technicians and operators
Despite the available technologies machines need the human touch. The technology needs to be tested and monitored by qualified professionals. You need to educate your operators and technicians so that you can extend the life of the machine.
When you train your staff you will prevent repairs caused by overuse or misuse. The operators are required to be trained by the particular equipment model that they will be operating. If in-house training is not affordable you can have an operation manual to ensure that the operators are using the equipment accordingly.
Create accountability
You should give someone accountability for your equipment maintenance. When someone is held accountable for the maintenance of a machine, over a period, they will be able to see the impact of proactive maintenance and the mess reactive maintenance can make. Educating and empowering someone on this duty is very important to the achievement of proactive maintenance.
Make regular inspections
Maintenance schedules and inspections are not the same things.
Machinery should be inspected every time they are in use. Trained operators know what to listen to and look for to ensure machines are working properly. Checking simple things like wear and tear can help a big deal. The truth of the matter is that machines experience vibration, friction, and high temperatures. These activities contribute to the wear and tear of the machines’ movable parts.
To extend the life of the equipment is ensuring you add an operator visual inspection to the requirements of your machinery use. Noticing cracked or dry seals, warped belts and loose bolts may look small but these things must be fixed before causing a bigger problem.
In summary, in most production facilities from parts to food production, machine breakdown can lead to serious underproduction and loss. When equipment breaks down due to lack of maintenance it cannot manufacture the product that the organization sells. By making sure that regular equipment maintenance and cleaning are done you can minimize the chances of equipment failure.
