A Systematic Approach to Material Handling Maintenance
Maintenance
is essential to business success.
by Roland Newhouse, project manager, Tompkins Associates
The term material
handling equipment refers
to conveyors, sorters, spirals, carousels, and a wide assortment of electrical
and mechanical devices. Proper maintenance of this equipment is essential,
because it prevents the loss of business or production caused by mechanical
failure. This article introduces a systematic approach to material handling
maintenance based on these lessons, and includes important tips to prevent
common material handling maintenance mistakes.
The approach
The first step in
material handling equipment maintenance is to list all material handling
equipment. This step is important because it creates a starting point from
which a company can develop ways to improve its physical assets. Within
manufacturing operations, the list should include all physical assets,
production equipment and processes as well as facility assets. For large
distribution centers (DCs), this should include all major areas: mobile
equipment, conveyor systems, sorter systems and facility-related assets, as
well as bar code scanners, printers and other devices that keep a DC
functioning.
Because maintenance
depends on more than just knowing what equipment is in place, companies should
take into account other factors that could affect how the equipment runs while
an equipment list is being compiled. For example, equipment operating in the
desert of Nevada with blowing sand requires more maintenance than in a mild
climate on the East Coast.
Other factors
include terrain, border regulations and the implications of schedules,
calendars, cycles and peaks. Some questions to answer are:
• Is my
facility’s material handling equipment running three shifts and on
weekends?
• Is it
indoors or outside?
• Is there
moisture or harsh operating conditions?
After the list is
made, the company should evaluate the current state of maintenance, determining
its strengths and weaknesses, as well as potential results from improvement
opportunities.
The next step is to
develop and implement a strategic maintenance plan. This plan must include a
customized preventive maintenance (PM) program to ensure that the equipment
runs with high reliability. PM is a continuous process, the objective of which
is to minimize future maintenance problems. A PM program costs extra on the
front end, but savings come quickly. Studies have shown that operations with PM
spend less for maintenance than reactive run-to-failure operations.
The best approach
to customizing PM is to let the craftsmen generate the PM program from the
ground up. What do they think? They are the ones who will be inspecting the
equipment, and if they think it should be looked at daily instead of weekly,
this should be the approach to take. It gives them ownership of the equipment
and the empowerment to make it work more reliably. When this comes together,
look out. The results are significant gains in equipment uptime.
The form on page 62
(July issue of MHM) illustrates
what is needed for the major equipment systems of the material handling
operation.
All equipment
should be organized in this fashion according to what type of material handling
equipment it is. Even the racks should be a part of this (the air-operated
flow-through systems will need PM attention.) The air compressor will always be
a part of a PM program.
The final steps in
the systematic approach to material handling maintenance are validating results
and return on investment. Companies should also identify priority areas for
improvement based upon a total benchmark evaluation of the maintenance
operation. They should also take note of the common mistakes made by those
charged with maintaining material handling equipment and make sure that they
are eliminated from the process. Of course, the ultimate success will be
determined by whether the customer is satisfied.
Avoiding common mistakes
The most common and
most obvious material handling maintenance mistake is to operate in a reactive,
firefighting mode without effective planning. This creates unnecessary crises
and downtime that may be costly to the company. The following are tips for
avoiding other maintenance mistakes:
• Do not
overlubricate and always be certain to use the correct lubricant.
• Do not
assume that your craftsmen can automatically handle the new high-tech
equipment. They may need additional training and refresher courses from time to
time. Develop an individual training plan for each craftsperson based on his or
her level of expertise.
• Use
manufacturers’ recommendations as a starting point for a PM program, but
be sure that the craftspeople themselves drive the program because they are
most familiar with the demands on the equipment and the inspection processes.
In some cases, strictly adhering to manufacturers’ recommendations is
counterproductive.
• How many
spares should I have on hand? Make a concentrated effort to identify critical
spares. Be critical, look at downtime cost and long lead times. If 100 people
are scheduled to work on an operation, then it must have spares to keep it in
operations. Paint and plumbing supplies that are 10 minutes away are not
critical spares.
• Keep
manuals, documents, PM procedures and other inventories near the machines where
they can be used. This is valuable information and an effort should be made to
organize it at the machines. Successful organizations do this seriously,
calling the process “facilitated assets.”
Conclusion
With a systematic
material handling maintenance approach that includes PM, a company obtains a
proactive planned maintenance operation. This operation can prevent common
maintenance mistakes and provide greater levels of service. Best of all, it
eliminates the firefighting mode that wastes scarce maintenance resources. MHM
