Deming's 'plan, do, check, act' is best revised as 'check, act, plan, do' for maintenance professionals. Brian Tinham looks at the role of CMMS/EAM systems in making that happen.
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With Maintec 2013 just a few short weeks away, Brian Tinham previews this show, specifically designed for maintenance technicians and engineering managers
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Every manufacturer wants to achieve maintenance best practice. But with so many priorities all jostling for attention, how do you strike the right balance?
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OEE data can add real value to the maintenance process – enabling managers to glean information they might otherwise overlook
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Enlightened manufacturers are increasingly turning to maintenance for more than mere cost cutting – with improved efficiency, product quality, uptime and even customer service on the agenda. Brian Tinham reports
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Maintenance management might not have top billing on the business agenda, but manufacturers are sheltering their plants from unplanned downtime by combining computerised maintenance management systems, OEE and operational excellence to excellent effect. Brian Tinham reports
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Shopfloor data is increasingly being recognised as key to everything, from continuous improvement to business agility. Brian Tinham looks at how to get your assets talking
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Inventory reductions of up to 20% in a vital but oft-neglected part of the business? Sounds too good to be true? Granted, typical savings are more likely to be in the region of 6%, but that’s still well worth having, so how can it be done? The answer is that while manufacturers have pared down raw material and work-in-progress inventories to a minimum, the spares they keep for maintenance, repair and operations (MRO) are almost always far less well managed. This is where these additional potential savings lie.
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We’re used to seeing simulation and modelling saving small fortunes on new factories by avoiding unnecessary capital expenditure. And we also know how these techniques can be used to maximise productivity on new sites. But there is more to this: existing sites can also benefit at several levels in much the same ways for what turns out to be relatively small expenditure.
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When Heinz acquired the company that became Heinz Single Service, it also acquired an entrepreneurial culture. And that shows in its ready adoption of an automated downtime analysis system that has been instrumental in reducing set-up and changeover times, cutting costs and significantly increasing productivity.
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Flooring manufacturer Amtico, which has two near identical sites in Coventry and another in Atlanta, merited our judges’ commendation for its transition from poor to excellent maintenance and production operations in one fell swoop, all on the back of a new plant data capture and analysis system. Not only did that system pay for itself in solving the very first long term plant problem it revealed, but since then it has opened the door to business understanding that no-one imagined.
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Yorkshire plastics mouldings firm Fourfold Precision Mouldings’ use of Delmia Quest factory simulation software won it the coveted first prize for the huge results delivered just weeks after relocation to its new premises. Fourfold managing director Martin Wilson says that, for example, with a robot on the machines, production on each shift was increased by more than 40% while scrap levels reduced to less than 0.5%.
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When Allied Bakeries wanted to improve its manufacturing
performance and customer service across its 13 bakeries it had first to tackle its lack of reliable performance measures in order to identify real hotspots.
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With the world's most demanding requirements for maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO), digital design collaboration and track-and-trace, the aerospace and defence sector has it all. Brian Tinham looks at the issues and their solutions
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Better on-time, in-full delivery performance is almost a given from advanced planning and scheduling (APS) software, able to quickly and dynamically schedule and reschedule production jobs to take into account not only real-world capacity limits, but unexpected events. For many, however, APS has also yielded benefits far beyond. In fact, although projects have traditionally been started to solve planning problems, the results can be so great that APS is ultimately viewed as pivotal both to the business and its supply chain
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Manufacturers have improved productivity immensely – in one case here by 54% – by collecting very simple data from their shop floors. Some have even recorded significant productivity hikes without actually doing anything with the data they collected! However, shop floor data capture (SFDC) projects can be as long as a piece of string, so the key to achieving improvements is judging exactly what information is likely to be useful, and how often it needs to be collected. Often, simple is best, as soft and freeze drinks manufacturer Calypso Soft Drinks found out
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Whether retailers’ Tier One suppliers face delisting or a strong revenue stream depends very much on their ability to comply with customers’ production, quality and audit standards. That, in turn, is a function of how well they maintain their manufacturing assets – machines, equipment, tooling etc. “Maintenance isn’t an afterthought,” says Hallam. “It’s a foundation, it’s being able to do what you do.”
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A full 35% increase in productivity, some 200% improvement in OTIF (on-time, infull) customer deliveries and significantly better responsiveness to market demand changes: those are excellent achievements by any measure at James Walker. And not only are they part of the company’s ongoing lean shopfloor initiatives but they’re linked to its Oracle ERP system
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Sony Manufacturing’s auto-insertion PCB production facility at Pencoed, South Wales cut materials and work in progress (WIP) inventory from £1.2m to just £150,000 and annual scrap from £1m to £70,000, dramatically improved stock accuracy and usage prediction, slashed machine downtime and improved velocity of production. Much of that was due to real-time materials and machine management systems – and going even further with shopfloor advanced planning and scheduling (APS) linked to the site’s Oracle ERP
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Companies that record machine downtime and the reasons in real time, and then expose that to analysis, are reaping dividends greater than you might think – and more than they expected. Brian Tinham explains
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Was the time when asset management systems were for plant engineering departments, not for production. No more, says Andrew Ward
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Digital cinema provider Arts Alliance Media is using web-based maintenance management software to help streamline remote operations and ensure smooth-running of its film distribution and running equipment.
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AAutomation systems developer Hoerbiger-Origa attributes last year's revenue growth to the success of its online interactive catalogue. That's led to a 75% cut in printing costs – and part searches and configuration times of two minutes instead of two days.
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Pacific Cycle in the US, which makes Schwinn, GT, Roadmaster and Mongoose bicycles, reckons it's cutting costs and enhancing service and product availability following implementation of RFID.
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Downtime and costs reduced, and output up 40% – those are among top line benefits at Telford-based automotive plastic components maker TP Moulding since installing electronic production monitoring.
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