Unplanned Downtime: And How to Avoid Those Things That Go Bump in The Night!
For most manufacturers, downtime is often the largest source of lost production time. While downtime can help in identifying machine performance patterns, most companies underestimate their real downtime. Almost 80% of companies are unable to correctly calculate their downtime.
Why Unplanned Downtime Affects Your Bottom Line
There’s a myth in component manufacturing related to unplanned downtime. It’s a phenomenon that occurs, but many of us prefer not to admit it. However, when manufacturers fail to acknowledge downtime and its repercussions, it can result in an inability to deal with the root causes of the problem.
During unplanned downtime, even though no value is being produced, the cost of operations continues to rise. This directly affects the company’s bottom line. As per research, 82% of companies experienced unplanned downtime over the last three years. The losses incurred are as much as $260,000 per hour.
Unplanned downtime doesn’t just affect your productivity, but also customer trust. Many companies can’t deliver on-time to their customers, lose production time on critical assets and are also unable to service or support desired equipment.
What Exactly is Unplanned Downtime?
When a manufacturing process stops due to an unforeseen event (for example, a motor failure), it results in downtime. Though downtime is often associated with equipment failure, it encompasses any unscheduled event that can cause your manufacturing process to come to a halt.
Despite all the best efforts and intentions of the company, there is some level of uncertainty and unreliability in every manufacturing process. There are some variables that are beyond our control and unpredictable.
For example, the alloying process affects the machinability of a material. But in most instances, we may not know when it will occur or to what degree.
As a leading manufacturer, you’d hope to resolve such issues quickly and proactively. The operator should be using the following checklist:
- I see and recognize it is happening
- I know and understand why it is happening
- I know how to resolve this
But what if the operator doesn’t have the requisite skills, knowledge or equipment to resolve the issues? Then it becomes a problem.
Reactive vs. Proactive Approach
While it is important to know what to do in case of downtime, it’s better to have the motivation and mindset to look out for issues even before they arise. Preventive maintenance is one of the best ways to reduce unplanned downtime tremendously. That’s why it should be an integral part of your plant’s routine. Did you know that more than 70% of respondents did not know when their equipment was due for maintenance, upgrade or replacement? Even though manufacturers are aware of the costly consequences of unplanned downtime, they don’t know the right preventive approach to avoid it as far as possible.
As a manufacturer, you should do everything you can to eliminate uncertainty and unpredictability for unplanned downtime from your machining processes. This is one of the most assured ways to maintain your profitability.
With technological advances and incredible data insights and analytics, it has become possible to manage a preventive maintenance program.
Making your machining processes more reliable is a key issue that is addressed in Seco Consultancy’s two-day NEXT STEP MasterClass Training Courses.
Let’s learn all about manufacturing excellence, to reduce unplanned downtime and boost profitability. The time is now to invest in the knowledge and tools that will transform your business and drive continuous improvements for the next generation of manufacturing success.
