World Grain - September 2022 - 46

MILLING OPERATIONS
accidents, frustration and dissatisfaction, which could lead
them to leave the position, resulting in the expense of hiring
and training a new maintenance employee.
The history of maintenance hiring, and onboarding cost
should be considered.
Cost of collateral damage
Additionally, the cost of required repairs should be evaluated
to assess maintenance practices. It is not simply a matter of
time and parts cost to make the repair and put the machine
in operation. A post-repair analysis conducted should identify
the root cause as well as measures that should be taken to
prevent potentially avoidable collateral damage that made up
the total cost of repair.
What was cause of failure and what additional costs were
incurred due to collateral damage resulting from initial failure?
For example, perhaps failure to monitor bearing status
resulted in shaft alignment issues damaging the drive or machine
housing.
Reduction of collateral damage repair costs associated with
equipment failure should be included in analysis and its reduction
considered in goal setting and maintenance program
justification.
Inventory
As indicated earlier, only when the detailed information is
available can a meaningful maintenance strategy be developed.
In addition to details of equipment in use on the floor,
consideration must be given to spare part and idle equipment
inventory.
Funds used to maintain spare parts inventory may be leveraged
to better company advantage elsewhere. Developing a
strategy to reduce the number of different drive components
required on site may be a useful strategy as well as having
suppliers maintaining an inventory with short lead times.
Idle equipment inventory should be maintained in a safe,
sanitary and orderly fashion with useful components removed
and placed into inventory to facilitate use without having to
be removed from the idle equipment when a repair is needed.
Idle equipment worn or damaged should be disposed to free
up space, improve site appearance, safety and sanitation.
Goal setting
Maintenance goal setting based on incident analysis and cost
to the organization is essential.
Incidences frequency and costs analysis provides direction
in separating the trivial many from the critical few considering
associated costs of failure. Impact of some equipment
failure may be an inconvenience overcome by a simple work
around, while failures idle the entire operation. For example,
a choke blend back system into the mill feed stream is a
minor issue while the failure of the conveying system for
dirty wheat to cleaning or tempered wheat to the mill is a
critical issue.
Every department will have systems of a critical nature
when it comes to moving incoming and outgoing materials,
which must be resolved within a specific time frame to limit
impact on the entire operation. Visit with those department
heads, supervisors, and operators to get a handle on their
needs and develop a better understanding of your maintenance
baseline.
Jeff Gwirtz, a milling industry consultant, is president of JAG Services, Inc.
He may be reached at jgwirtz@att.net.
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World Grain - September 2022

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