What is equipment downtime
Equipment downtime refers to any instance of equipment failure arising out of a faulty or broken part or stopping the production process for a planned preventive maintenance. Typically, it refers to unexpected downtime that accumulates any time the production process stops. Unplanned downtime arises due to repeated tool and job changeover, lack of skilled personnel/operator and any instance of unplanned machine maintenance. Most companies are unaware of losses that arise due to downtime and majority of the companies are unable to calculate the downtime costs accurately.
Downtime –largest source of rising losses
Unexpected equipment failures can cause costly interruptions in the process flow, damage to other equipment and product losses. Downtime may also divert personnel from their preventive maintenance duties. These consequences may result in expensive overtime hours and reduced preventive maintenance completion rates. In extreme cases, this can eventually lead to a chaotic "run-to-fail" cycle
How to track machine downtime?
Collecting data manually or automatically is not sufficient. The data needs to be compiled into reports in order to be analyzed. Operators who are closest to production machine/ equipment have deep visibility into the status of production, whereas other stakeholders have challenges in gaining visibility into understanding how efficiently equipment and resources are being used. Fortunately, asset tracking software provides data, analytics, reports, and communication tools to shine a light on production problems found in traditional manufacturing.
Faciliteasy develops tracking, analytics, user-friendly reporting, and interactive tools to track downtime and ensure everyone knows what is happening on the shop floor
Data that helps in Calculating Machine Downtime
When collecting data for downtime it is important to determine how the downtime is logged. A descriptive failure reason will be helpful to arrive at an accurate analysis. A good downtime tracking system will be able to calculate the actual time the equipment was down as well as other losses that outweighs the direct loss.
Benefits of tracking equipment downtime
Tracking Downtime is valuable to prioritize and implement corrective action to prevent additional equipment failure. A report populated from the tracking software helps in prioritizing preventive maintenance and parts replacement. Usage of maintenance resources can be justified with the help of downtime reports generated by the tracking software. Corrective maintenance tasks can be implemented accurately. The larger benefit is it facilitates higher machine uptime , efficiency and reliability.
Downtime is the single largest source of loss that arises due to non-production. Faciliteasy develops tracking, analytics, user-friendly reporting, and interactive tools to track downtime and ensure everyone has basic as well as deep insights on the performance of the equipment.