Redlist: Increasing Your Equipment Uptime
Simply put, uptime is the amount of time a machine is running. This implies that an asset can provide output, or in the case of most enterprises, activities that generate money, while it is in operation. Many businesses are currently having trouble maintaining their equipment operating at peak efficiency so that production meets management’s objectives. To achieve these objectives, it is crucial to maximizing asset uptime. And as you might expect, lowering downtime is the best method to boost uptime.
By integrating and optimizing processes, adopting well-thought-out maintenance programs, and monitoring equipment to identify and address underlying causes of failure, you can increase the uptime of your equipment. Despite the fact that these activities could be unique to your organization, market, or industry, there are some overarching guidelines to follow.
The advantages of increasing equipment uptime are clear:
if your equipment isn’t running, it can’t produce. If it’s not producing, your income and earnings are on hold. The cost of planned maintenance increases when equipment is left idle, but there is also a long-term advantage to keeping everything running as efficiently as possible. However, unplanned downtime is more detrimental and generally costs 1.5 times as much as scheduled downtime. When anything goes terribly, catastrophically wrong, emergency downtime can be five times more expensive than downtime for planned maintenance.
The Consequences of Unplanned Downtime
We’ll examine how unplanned downtime impacts a business’ production workflows and bottom line and how smart, well-targeted planning may increase equipment uptime rates for businesses and their customers. Unscheduled downtime can incur enormous expenses for production, consumers, and shareholders, and, depending on the business, can have severe legal repercussions.
The oil and gas sector is particularly vulnerable to the disastrous financial effects of a shutdown. Each day that a refinery is idle costs a literal fortune because they produce 150,000 barrels per day at a price of $58 per barrel. Oil extraction continues even when machinery is off; it doesn’t stop just because there’s an issue with the refinery. Any oil that cannot be transferred to other facilities will continue to accumulate during a stoppage, increasing the economic burden on the affected refineries.
It’s obvious that events like these come at a very high cost. A cash flow model is used by businesses and manufacturers, where raw materials are brought in and finished goods are produced. The cash flow is halted when that principle is violated or shut off, putting these businesses’ quarterly and possibly annual profitability in jeopardy.
All industrial industries run the risk of experiencing unplanned downtime and the financial consequences of being unable to serve the market. For instance, an unplanned shutdown can cost a high-volume semiconductor company $1,000,000 in one hour.
Therefore, everything manufacturing engineers can do to increase the uptime of their machinery and processes or ensure that their systems continue to operate at peak efficiency is undoubtedly worthwhile.
Here Are the Ways You Can Increase Your Equipment Uptime
Innovative Systems
Moving toward smarter systems to manage and monitor particular jobs and processes is a well-liked, more recent invention. For instance, there is a lot of interest in a system that monitors estimated quantities of lubricant supplied by the multiport injection manifolds. Due to the fact that much modern mining occurs in inaccessible, distant places, equipment managers place a premium on remote monitoring systems.
Companies operating in remote areas can drastically cut expenses by utilizing systems that monitor their own output and provide early warnings when something might be about to go wrong. It is incredibly beneficial for these businesses to use smart systems to reduce the need for human inspections or to have repairs made before something disastrous happens.
Preventive Maintenance
If you want to prevent unplanned downtime, you must do preventive maintenance on your equipment on a regular basis and be aware of its life cycle. Too frequently, businesses must decide whether to shut down equipment for upkeep and repairs or to keep it running to maintain output levels. Only skilled maintenance and electrical engineering workers should attempt this delicate balancing.
The true solution is to improve your system, and if you can make it smarter, you should. An efficient preventive maintenance program is crucial, and your manufacturing strategy must be improved. It looks like a difficult task to create a program to do routine maintenance, or at the very least inspections, on hundreds of different components. If you have spare parts on hand, it might be simpler to just let it run until it breaks down, at least on the surface.
However, it is now much simpler to carry out large-scale maintenance procedures. Monitoring hundreds or even thousands of components is now a practical option for businesses of all sizes thanks to advancements in maintenance technology. The environmental effects of industrial complex operations and state and federal emission restrictions need daily monitoring and analysis of plant emission levels.
Supply Chain Optimization
The supply chain itself is a component in managing equipment uptime as well. Success depends on the accessibility of essential components; a company is doomed to failure if parts are not readily available. For instance, your equipment might depend on a certain component, but it might only be available after a 17-week lead time. If you’re in charge of a company’s supply chain and those units are outdated or legacy, you need to make sure that replacement components are readily available in your area, either through a maintenance partner or on your own shelves. Then, you must ensure that you have the right personnel in place who have received the requisite training to perform the essential part replacements.
Stockouts of inventory and sluggish deliveries can account for a large portion of a manufacturer’s downtime. For instance, automakers, which are under constant pressure to save costs, have tightened their supply chains to the point where the final assembly facility often has less than a day’s worth of parts on hand. If the business needs more parts than that, there may be a potentially costly delay as equipment and personnel would be idle while they wait for the supplies to arrive.
Utilizing the Expertise
Maintenance workers in oil field operations inevitably become experts in getting to very remote locations that are frequently washed out and difficult to access. They also develop a deep awareness of everything that is likely to go wrong in oil field facilities around the world.
When equipment worth millions of dollars is burning in the middle of a field, you need employees with the specialized expertise necessary to get there as quickly and safely as possible.
Here, specialization is crucial. It’s always best to contact a field service specialist that is knowledgeable about the situation because he or she has previously handled comparable issues on several occasions. Utilizing field service experts that are seasoned and knowledgeable with a certain application in that specific location has incalculable advantages. When you specialize in these services and work with a company that has that fundamental understanding of technology, they can go out and troubleshoot more quickly, solve problems more quickly, and get out of the way faster, allowing you to get back up more quickly than you could have otherwise.
Maintenance Evaluations
An evaluation will assist you in making an efficient plan that accommodates the lengthy turnaround times we previously mentioned. Concentrate on particular areas and make sure you have a plan in place to handle all potential outcomes.
The questions for supply chain concerns would be:
- How would your organization want to handle the supply chain?
- Would you manage the process yourself or should an outside partner?
- What kind of partnership would you choose with an outside party?
Creating a successful maintenance plan for each site in your company is a very beneficial activity. The greatest way to prepare for an emergency is to make sure that, in the event of a potentially catastrophic event, there won’t even be an emergency—just the start of a well-planned recovery process.
A Trustworthy Partner
As we’ve seen, the expenses of equipment downtime can be extremely high. Industrial producers must put out a lot of effort to guarantee that their equipment continues to operate effectively and that their personnel possesses the knowledge and expertise needed to contribute to the equipment’s sustained peak performance.
Equipment downtime is influenced by routine maintenance, accident prevention, training, and the supply chain. There is no doubt that it is a laborious job, but you don’t have to do it alone. Maintaining equipment may be a relatively stress-free task with the right partner.
When it comes to maximizing the uptime of your equipment, Redlist wants to be the company you can rely on. We pledge to support you in achieving your objectives by first listening to your concerns and then tailoring a solution to meet the particular requirements of your business. Redlist ought to be your first pick if you’re worried about equipment downtime and need lubrication management software to support you.
In Conclusion
There are various ways for you to increase the uptime of your equipment. You may boost the uptime of your equipment by integrating and optimizing processes, implementing well-thought-out maintenance programs, and monitoring equipment to detect and resolve underlying reasons for failure.
There are some general rules to follow even though these actions may be particular to your business, sector, or market. The lubrication management software of Redlist has the ability to also increase your uptime. You can install Redlist yourself in order to experience the quality of their software. Request a demo today!
