Suppose you’ve happened to stumble upon this article. In that case, there’s a good chance you’re looking to cut out some unexpected downtime in production from your manufacturing business. Downtime is when unforeseen problems cause the overall production to come to a halt that ends up costing you valuable money. Poor inventory planning, mismatched worker efficiencies, or breakdown of any manufacturing equipment are all reasons that can cause your business some serious downtime. Fortunately, as the saying goes – precaution is better than cure; there are a series of steps you can take to reduce your downtime to the bare minimum. Of course, the bare minimum only stands for some preventative measures such as software and hardware upgrades that are necessary for all manufacturing plants.
Have fixed targets for your manufacturing business
Without an end goal to work towards, your team will always lack clarity on their daily targets. However, give them set quarterly and daily targets, paired with an incentive – if they surpass those targets, watch them churn your manufacturing plants productivity like never before!
Nonetheless, stay clear about setting targets that are achievable. Furthermore, having your employees participate in the goal-setting process will produce even better results. Because when they feel included and valued, they can reveal much more about the production line and its capabilities in a given set of time. Since they’re the ones that deal with the production of your goods hands-on, they can offer valuable ideas on how to reduce downtime.
Keep your staff members in check.
A hard-working, well-correlated working staff can make the most significant difference in reducing some of that dreaded downtime. So when we recommend you keep your staff members in check, we mean in check of:
Communication Systems
In order to minimize downtime, staff members need to be able to address issues and communicate them to other departments so that the appropriate members of the team can take care of them just as quickly.
In this case, UptimeAI’s fault diagnosis and recommended actions will allow your employees to understand the symptoms, failures, and fixes in no time. This is due to its ability to understand 120+ equipment types, built-in failure modes, recommendations, & self-learning workflows. It also consolidates the need for multiple tools (or solutions), has 5X fewer alarms, no manual rules, & has virtual expert capabilities. So your staff can focus on fixing issues rather than finding them.
The relationship between downtime and business profits
Your employees should understand the direct effect of downtime in reducing the margins of your business and inevitably resulting in loss of money. So, having a supervisor explain this relationship and making them feel as though they’re a part of the business’s overall success can lead to a highly-motivated set of staff members.
The Expected Results
Many companies keep their staff members in check by reviewing their performance on a quarterly level. However, instead of it being a review of just their performance, inculcate a health discussion of the overall team’s performance as part of the review. This will allow better evaluation of the inconsistencies present and for a better way for employees to receive feedback and understand the areas that need improvement. A good understanding of their strength and weaknesses helps employees direct their focus to where it’s needed most.
Perform Preventive Maintenance
As stated at the very start of the blog, maintenance may seem like downtime from afar. Nonetheless, scheduling it can save you from unexpected machinery breakdown, which can, in turn, lead to monetary, material, or reputational loss.
Since the time needed for maintenance depends entirely on the bunch of assets that are present on the shop floor, building your own data-based maintenance plan is crucial. This plan will help you take a look at the time taken to maintain a particular asset and which steps of the maintenance took the longest. You can also log how much time it costs if one specific asset breaks down. These numbers will reveal how preventive maintenance is key to reducing manufacturing downtime.
Record manufacturing downtime effectively.
Speaking of assets breaking down, being aware of when, where, and how likely downtime might occur is critical to preventing it. Tracking when and where the production line encounters undue errors and inconsistencies can help predict its patterns and shortcomings. You can enhance your manufacturing plant with automatic trackers which detect downtime and enable floor managers to view it in real-time. These alerts can also uncover the faults’ exact locations before the supervisor. This lets floor managers prioritize which area needs changes and upgrading first and which areas can wait before undergoing any kind of up-gradation.
Upgrade your manufacturing equipment from time to time
It shouldn’t come as much of a surprise, but old equipment or technology can slow down your manufacturing production line. Old and outdated machines are more susceptible to breakdowns, minor stoppages, start-up issues, and so forth.
Installing new equipment from time to time can help your shop floor stay up to date. If you’re unsure of where to start your upgrades, your shop floor manager or supervisor would be the best advisor for it.
Equip your manufacturing plant with the finest technology
Reducing downtime in your manufacturing plant is crucial to maintaining your business profits and your company repertoire. Although reducing downtime involves a ton of effort, you don’t have to do it alone. Harness the power of Artificial Intelligence (AI), and find yourself closer to your goals. With exceptional research paired with 200+ years of combined industry experience, UptimeAI can turn you into the Modern Equipment Operator you’ve always envisioned yourself to be. Book a demo now!