Preventive Maintenance Mold and Machine General Overview
Taking the time in order to keep process machinery and molds in prime condition is critical to a sustained business model. In this overview, we outline how a preventive maintenance program can help improve operational availability and mitigate unplanned down time.
Overall operational availability is a critical parameter to track in any manufacturing environment. In simple terms, we can consider this factor to represent "actual machine operating hours/total machine available hours". As an example, the actual machine operating hours are the value added hours in which the process is running; moreover, the lost production hours associated with down time, breaks, shift change, changeover, etc. cause the operational availability to decrease.
One of the most significant factors of reduced OA (operational availability) is unplanned down time. For simplicity, we can generalize down time into categories related to either mold or machinery issues. As many already know, it is the unplanned down time that kills productivity and reduces the bottom-line profitability of any corporation.
From a sampling of different molding operations we have determined that there are 2 different types of PM (preventive maintenance) programs: the ones you don't do and the ones you say you do (but most likely, don’t).
Establishing a culture targeting the prevention of down time vs run to failure (and fix ASAP) can make a considerable difference in the success of the business. In either case, many facilities lack discipline to take a machine down for 4-8 hours for planned maintenance in order to perform vital checks on system functionality. This planned down time is generally 4-5x less than the subsequent down time that could be avoided by having a simple system in place for machines and molds.
One of the most common examples is changing the oil in a machine every 1-2 years (depending on total machine hours run). It is highly likely that you know of someone that has allowed their personal vehicle to overheat due to not getting an oil change or checking coolant fluids for 100,000 miles… We would never think to treat our personal vehicles this way, and a molding machine should be no different!
It is highly recommended to follow your specific machine manufacturer’s PM routines, but at a minimum implementing some of the routines below will help maintain operational availability and reduce unplanned down time. As with any maintenance performed on industrial equipment, following OSHA standards for Lockout-Tagout should always be observed. Maintenance should only be performed on machinery by qualified personnel that are familiar with the process and have access to pneumatic, hydraulic, and electrical diagrams of the equipment.
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