Maintenance is a crucial part of the manufacturing industry. When machines are not running smoothly, or at all, you lose a lot of revenue. Poorly maintained machines also pose a health and safety risk to your employees. Unfortunately, there are some distinct challenges that maintenance teams face, and unless they can deal with them, they will be unable to keep the manufacturing operation running as it should. If you’re a business owner in this sector, you need to be aware of what the potential problems are. These are the biggest manufacturing maintenance challenges you face right now.
Lack of Coherent Standards
Often, maintenance procedures are built up over the years in bits and pieces. New machines are introduced, old ones are retired, and the procedures are updated. Ultimately, this leads to a patchwork of procedures that don’t necessarily work well together. There is also a lack of coherent standards about what condition machines should be in and how often they should be checked, etc.
If you want to create a maintenance process that works, you need to review it regularly and ensure that it is coherent across the board. Technicians need to know exactly what needs to be done, how, and why. That way, no time is wasted, and no important maintenance tasks are missed.
Excess Moisture
Moisture is terrible for complicated equipment. In the hot weather, when humidity is high, it can play havoc with machines and create more maintenance problems. Taking steps to deal with the moisture problem will make a huge difference to your maintenance routine. You can do this by installing an instrument air dryer packages on machines that use compressed air. These specialist instrument air dry packages remove moisture from compressed air as it moves into the machine, reducing the excess moisture that gets into the inner workings. You can also use an industrial dehumidifier to reduce humidity levels and improve the lifespan of components.
Moisture is an ongoing challenge for maintenance teams, and it can have a huge impact. You must take steps to reduce humidity.
Budgeting
Budgeting is a big challenge for maintenance teams because it’s all about balance. On the one hand, failing to carry out maintenance will cost you more in the long term, but on the other hand, you don’t want to spend too much in the short term and create financial issues. Usually, the maintenance team and the upper management have different ideas about what should be spent on maintenance and what work is essential. Opening lines of communication and considering the long-term cost savings of maintenance is key here. Managers tend to assume that cutting costs now is the best way to save but seeing the bigger picture will tell you otherwise.
Finding ways to make maintenance more efficient, like improving standards and managing moisture levels, will help you cut money from the budget and reduce conflict about maintenance spending.
Maintenance is a very important aspect of the manufacturing industry but it’s also one of the most difficult. If you can overcome these big challenges, you can save a lot of time and money for your business.
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