In the manufacturing industry, over a quarter of the total cost of  finished goods can be attributed to maintenance costs. Maintenance typically contributes to more than 25 per cent of the total cost of finished goods. Just a two per cent reduction in costs can equate to a 7.5 per cent gain in sales. Recent studies have shown that the majority of unplanned downtime is caused by mechanical assembly failure. Equipment analysis shows the following as the top reasons for the equipment repair such as fastener loosening, key wallow, PTFE tape fouling control valves, fitting leakage and spun bearings. The key to preventing these failures and reducing the maintenance cost is to implement proactive maintenance processes instead of relying on traditional reactive processes. A proactive solution to prevent these from happening is to employ proactive maintenance practices. Taught in Loctite Maintenance Reliability Workshops, implementation of proactive maintenance practices has helped companies to achieve tangible savings.
Maintenance Reliability Workshops teach a series of practices that provide maintenance personal with ways to increase the reliability of mechanical assemblies, and minimise maintenance costs.
This process begins with formalized "hands-on" training and the maintenance personnel transfer skills and knowledge they have learned in the classroom to the plant floor. The training objective is to promote a shift from reactive maintenance methods, techniques and procedures. This new approach should be integrated into the daily work routine. After going through the proactive maintenance training, the employees will begin to question the status quo, asking questions like, "How can we order to operate better?" Success is achieved as they look for more proactive ways to solve problems.
A good example of the success of proactive maintenance workshops involves a major lumber and plywood manufacturer. Like in a lot of plants, a leading cause of unscheduled downtime related to mechanical failures was typically due to fastener loosening. A lumber manufacturer, for example, was experiencing these "tap root" cause failures with their limit switch arms. Limit switches translate motion into switch actuation. The maintenance department found the screws were loosening in the arms, which allowed the want to fall out or become misaligned. A maintenance person was assigned to tighten all the screws. This task took about 5-10 minutes per occurrence with two occurrences per shift. Each time the task was completed, the equipment was "tagged out," tightened and brought back on line. In one year, it was found that over 91 hours had been spent on labour and downtime.
The company implemented a proactive maintenance process as a response to the labour and downtime problem. In just two months, the maintenance personnel identified 29 "tap root" (mechanical assemblies) that caused failures. If left uncorrected, these failures would have cost the company over $53,000.The corrective actions that they learned in the formalised training portion of the process were submitted during the Maintenance Reliability Workshop. Management approved the ideas, they were implemented and the failures ceased.
The workshop also provided product suggestions to employees to stop the screws from loosening proactively. Based on what they had learned in the workshop, the maintenance personnel of this manufacturer chose the appropriate threadlocker to remedy their limit switch situation. The threadlocker unitised the screws within the assembly and prevented them from vibrating loose. Since implementing this technique and product, the manufacturer had forecasted that in one year it would percent 91 hours of downtime and labour costs. This translated into a saving on maintenance costs of over $57,000.
Solving air leaks
Air leaks are one of the biggest contributors to needless costs in any facility. A leak is more than a minor inconvenience. It is a costly drain on overall operating costs. A single leak in a plant's air line can siphon off as much as $8,286 every year. This hole loses 35.73 cubic metre per minute (cmm) of air at a line pressure of 100 psi. Figures similar to this are why an automotive component manufacturer looked to a proactive maintenance workshop for ways to decrease costs associated with air leakage.
In a Loctite 'Stop Leaks' programme, state-of-the-art ultrasonic equipment is used to identify air leaks. Every identifiable leak, including fittings, valves, flanges and hoses are tagged with a number, its location, severity and cost. From this, total estimated savings are generated within a corresponding report. The report provides a detailed format for a targeted approach and allows monitoring of progress by cmm and dollars saved. Additionally, workshop information is incorporated to provide maintenance personnel with techniques and recommended chemical tools to overcome future leaks. Employees transfer skills and knowledge gained in the "hands-on" training from the classroom to the plant floor. The training objective is to promote a shift away from reactive maintenance to proactive maintenance practices.
The maintenance team of the automotive component manufacturer was trained to remedy the fittings and avoid problem reoccurrence. This saved the company over $37,000 in air leaks per year.
Give maintenance mechanics the know-how
Oil leaks are the biggest contributor to needless costs in any facility. A one-drop oil leak every 10 seconds produces 153-litres of fluid per year that must be recycled or disposed of. Multiply this number by several leaks in the facility, and it does not take long to realise that hundreds of thousands of litres of oil are lost every year. Disposal costs can range from $500 to $1,000 per 208-litre drum. In addition, safety hazards exist when oil leaks onto the shop floor.
A Midwestern paper mill that processes round wood operates four large log handlers in their yard that were prone to oil leakage.  The mechanic in charge found out that he was spending a substantial amount of time cleaning the oil and caked-on dirt from the vehicles before starting the actual maintenance work. Because the vehicles couldn't be shut down for long periods of time, this cleaning was taking time away from the normal preventive and proactive maintenance he was supposed to be doing. The mechanic started using a liquid anaerobic thread sealant on a proactive basis from what he learned in several modules of the Loctite Maintenance Reliability Workshop Program. Every time there was a broken fitting or flange surface on one of the vehicles, he would reassemble it using an anaerobic sealant. This stopped the oil leakage and so the vehicles remained dry and yard dirt did not cling onto the equipment. The mechanic found it was becoming less necessary to clean the vehicles prior to working on it. The vehicles now have higher productivity and maintenance is done more effectively. In addition, the mill management is happy because they no longer have to be concerned about safety and environmental problems due to oil in the yard.
Here is another story told by Brian Elliot, the Maintenance Manager of BFGoodrich Tire Manufacturing about one of their breakdowns: "We had a pump that recycled soap mix back to the machine tank that stopped working. We took the pump apart and found the key and keyway were worn and needed to be replaced. We had no spares and to rebuild the pump would have taken 3 days. The machine cannot function without this pump. My mechanic suggested taking the key and using Loctite to temp fix. We did the job and the pump worked until we were able to get a replacement pump on site (1 week). We took the pump apart later and the Loctite was still holding the key in… It costs about $55 a minunte to have this machine down."
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