Reducing machine downtime – tackle the low hanging fruit first
You have two types of machine downtime on the shop floor – the low hanging fruit that can be plucked easily, and the high hanging fruit that require some time and money to pluck. The low hanging fruit is downtime caused by poor work ethics, while the high hanging fruit is system and process issues (that’s a litchi tree in the picture, by the way).
Machine downtime – low hanging fruit
To reduce downtime, attack the low hanging fruit first. Examples:
– Operator starts the machine late at the start of the shift. E.g., shift starts at 6 AM, machine starts at 6:30 AM.
– Lunch and tea breaks extend beyond the allotted time.
– When there’s a machine breakdown, the maintenance guy arrives aram se after half an hour.
– Operator stops the machine early at the end of the shift. E.g., shift ends at 2 PM, machine stops at 1:30 PM.
These can add up to 1 hour per shift on a lot of shop floors – that’s a crazy 12 % of available time, accounting for 12 % reduction in the Availability part of the OEE. Over time, all these become accepted practices and nobody even thinks that they are wrong. So to increase machining capacity by 12 %, instead of reducing this downtime you go and invest 12 % more on new machines. And we all know how competitive manufacturing has become, and what this 12 % can do to our bottom line.
Action point
Pluck those low hanging fruit, ASAP !
