Maintenance Technology September 2016 - 7

UPTIME reports from the company, the improvement team found the most frequently listed reasons for the plant performance losses to be: ■ ran out of work in process (WIP) to meet an order. ■ ran out of raw materials to produce to plan. ■ inaccurate inventory: WIP and raw materials. ■ schedule change: materials delayed upstream. The improvement team also learned that material cost was the highest cost of manufacturing and labor cost was the lowest. Asking 'why' Drilling down another level into the most-frequently listed reasons for plantperformance losses was the improvement team's next step: For example, answers to Why did we run out of WIP to meet an order? included: ■ no reason ■ system quantity was different than what actually existed ■ some named items were defective and could not be used. ■ items needed were on quality control hold. Asking Why did we run out of raw materials to produce to plan at the upstream production processes? revealed some similarities: ■ not enough materials on skid, wrong count. ■ some materials were defective, damaged. Team members soon recognized that they were discovering why production flow was being interrupted in the plant. In turn, they began wondering if equipment issues, i.e., breakdowns, might also be leading to performance losses. Digging into machine-downtime-tracking information, they found documentation that stated: Machine down for repairs, no operator, no reason listed. To learn more about the nature of repairs in the plant's critical-constraint production department, members of the improvement team began discussing machine downtime issues with personnel in the maintenance and operations SEPTEMBER 2016 c. Planned downtime: not scheduled (breaks, shift change) 3. Planned utilization: time that machine Tapping into a plant's hidden capacity can help cut manufacturing costs and position the business for higher earnings. groups. It was learned that the losses were not so much about equipment breakdowns, but rather: ■ setup problems ■ equipment damage ■ adjustments. By asking why, the improvement team discovered that machine problems interrupted flow and were possibly linked to inventory and quality issues that had a direct effect on plant performance and the top KPIs (key performance indicators). Unfortunately, other than through maintenance requests, very few machinerelated losses were being reported, tracked, or systematically analyzed. This situation had to change if plant reliability was to improve. Tracking major equipment losses What equipment-related losses should be tracked to improve plant reliability? The improvement team identified the types of losses that would most likely have a strategic impact on the business: equipment-utilization losses. Here's how team members agreed to formally collect and categorize equipment performance data for the 17 most critical assets in the plant: 1. Equipment capacity (designed or historical best) 2. Planned capacity losses: a. Planned shutdown: not scheduled/ no demand b. Planned shutdown: maintenance was scheduled to produce something a. Utilization losses (during scheduled operating time, i.e., the hidden factory): ■ planned downtime: setup/ changeover ■ unplanned downtime: no or defective WIP/material ■ unplanned downtime: breakdown ■ unplanned downtime: no operator ■ unplanned downtime: production schedule change and/or interruption ■ efficiency loss: slow-speed or throughput rate ■ efficiency loss: minor stops/ startup/adjustment. b. Yield loss: defects/damaged/scrap output c. Yield loss: defects/rework d. Yield loss: startup/adjustment. 4. Actual asset utilization: the bottom line; what the equipment actually delivers). The reliability mindset In this case, the improvement team recognized that improving plant reliability is not as much about maintenance as it is about identifying and eliminating equipment-performance losses and interruptions to flow. And, to do that, it's crucial to have equipment performance data that are accurate and timely. The good news so far is that top-level executives and other plant leaders have agreed to identify and address the most significant equipment-utilization losses in the manufacturing-flow constraints. Stay tuned for more as this story unfolds. MT Bob Williamson, CMRP, CPMM, and a member of the Institute of Asset Management, is in his fourth decade of focusing on the people side of world-class maintenance and reliability in plants and facilities across North America. Contact him at RobertMW2@cs.com. MAINTENANCETECHNOLOGY.COM | 7 http://www.MAINTENANCETECHNOLOGY.COM

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Maintenance Technology September 2016