Downtime is the time from the first equipment breakdown to full running production. Clearly any time production is not producing quality product profits are being lost. That alone is good reason to address the issues that cause downtime and it's not difficult to do. Simply exposing downtime when it occurs is a great start. The following strategies will help you get a grip on downtime:
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Expose Downtime and Set Goals for Reducing It
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Reduce Downtime Through Team Awareness
• Find Out With OEE
The strategies below depict a few of the many problems our customers ask us to solve and the solutions we provide. Always feel free to call us if you'd like to discuss a specific problem or idea. We encourage you to use our application experience to help you reduce your downtime.
Strategies to Reduce Downtime
| Expose Downtime and Set Goals for Reducing It | |
|---|---|
| PROBLEM | Downtime continues to be the single greatest loss of production efficiency in our plant. |
| STRATEGY | Expose downtime. Set goals for reducing or eliminating unplanned downtime. |
| SOLUTION | A key principle of manufacturing states that if you don't measure it, you can't correct it. Downtime is a great example of a significant loss that must be measured in order to correct the problems that cause it. By exposing downtime in real-time you enable those closest to the problem the swiftest opportunity to fix it. Exposing downtime also creates a sense of urgency that is not felt in a downtime report a day or week later. 87 Series 4" to 12" large digital displays and XL Series Production Monitor displays can expose event and accumulated downtime. Use color and/or audible annunciation to add impact to the displayed information. |
| Reduce Downtime Through Team Awareness | |
| PROBLEM | Unplanned downtime is making it impossible to meet production goals. |
| STRATEGY | Reduce downtime through team awareness of downtime events when they occur. Display event downtime and total accumulated downtime. Once the information is available to those responsible, set goals for reducing it. |
| SOLUTION | Automatically display downtime when the line stops. Use color and context sensitive variable changes to further enhance the awareness. Display the real-time run rate in green when running and downtime in red when the line has stopped. 87 Series 4" to 12" large digital displays can automatically detect and display accumulated downtime when the line has stopped and the real-time run rate or event when the line is running. XL Series Production Monitors can do all of this and more. For example, show simultaneously the last event and accumulated downtime or play a “Call for Supervisor” message when the downtime exceeds a programmable amount of time. |
| Find Out with OEE | |
| PROBLEM | We know that our efficiency is down but don't know why. |
| STRATEGY | Monitor OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness) to identify areas where efficiency losses occur. Focus on the Six Big Losses. |
| SOLUTION | Overall Equipment Effectiveness is a metric used to expose equipment-based losses in an easy to digest form. Attack the Six Big Losses by exposing downtime, speed and quality loss. Set goals for improvement and benchmark progress. XL Series Production Monitors are capable of showing real-time OEE as well as key associated variables such as event downtime, number of small stops and reduced speed cycles, rejects and reject percentage, percent run time and over 100 additional real-time variables. |
