Generic Manufacturing Company
Baltimore Plant
Date: November 25, 20**
To: Maintenance Manager
From: Andrew Pettie, Process Technician
Subject: Equipment Failure Analysis and
Recommendations
Forward
Problem
Recently
the plant has been plagued with a lot of downtime. A series of equipment failures, (many of
which are still ongoing or were for long periods of time before we resolved
them) on different types of machines and components, has negatively affected
productivity.
Assignment
I
was asked by the Maintenance Manager at the Baltimore Plant,
to:
•
Investigate
the equipment failure issues we have been facing.
•
Identify
the root cause/s of the equipment failures.
•
Recommend
possible solutions and appropriate action to improve equipment reliability.
Communication
Purpose
The
purpose of this report is to inform management as to the nature of the downtime
associated to the (equipment) failures, as well as their causes, that we have
been experiencing lately. And to
recommend possible the solutions, practices and/or methods of reducing future
costly incidents. Therefore, improving overall equipment reliability plant
wide.
Summary
After
investigating I not only found that much of the most serious and most costly
downtime to be electrical/electronic in nature, but also that many were
compounded by human error. PLC
programming, communications, software and instrumentation setup seem to give us
extreme difficulty. We just don't have
the knowledge and/or expertise for many of the systems that we run. We also don't take any precautionary,
preventive or predictive measures to ensure our equipment functions properly on
regular basis. Even though the cost of my conclusion may seem high, the cost of
downtime, outsourcing, labor and parts far out way the recommendation I suggest
here because they are simply unknown until after the fact. That's why my
recommendations are:
•
to
increase employee knowledge and skill through training, for long term success.
•
to
hire an experienced electronics expert with a high degree of training and
knowledge for an immediate impact (Electronics Engineering degree or related
field)
•
and
better preventive and predictive maintenance practices. (P.M.,calibration and
diagnostics)
Discussion
Problem
A
rash of recent equipment failures has often crippled the plant and had serious
effects on plant productivity. Some
issues persist for long periods of time before, if ever, a solution is found,
and the problem resolved.
Investigation
I
was asked to investigate the plant wide phenomena and give my full report with
recommendations. I began making a categorized
list of the plants electronics systems and components and then a table, categorized
by machine, of the most significant electronics problems we have faced over the
past 18 months and the components associated with each. Because we track downtime differently, keep
in mind that a complete survey of all electronics related downtime would have
been an overwhelming task in such a short amount of time. So it's important to realize that many electronics
issues in the plant have been left out of this report. However, they are not forgotten. We deal with
a vast amount of minor problems, as well as the major ones listed, but they too
would be addressed by the recommendations given in the conclusion of this
report. List 1 below shows a
broad overview of electronics systems in the plant and the components,
knowledge and skills required for each.
ELECTRONICS OVERVIEW
SPECIFIC COMPONENTS,
SKILL
MAIN CATEGORY
AND/OR KNOWLEDGE ASSOCIATED WITH
COMMUNICATIONS
|
PROFIBUS, PROFINET,
ETHERNET, FIBEROPTICS AND PRODUCT/MANUFACTURER PROGRAMS & SOFTWARE
INCLUDING THIER SETUP, MAINTENANCE & SECURITY
|
INFORMATION SYSTEMS
|
ALL OPERATING
SYSTEMS, INTERFACES, ARCHITECTURE, PLATFORMS AND NETWORKS-INCLUDING THIER
SETUP, MAINTENANCE & SECURITY
|
INSTRUMENTATION
|
COMPUTERS,
TOUCHPANELS, VARIABLE FREQUENCY DRIVES (VFD), PROGRAMMABLE LOGIC CONTROLLERS
(PLC), RESOLVERS & ENCODERS, VISION SYSTEMS, SENSORS & PHOTOEYES AND
THE SOFTWARE THERE OF
|
SOFTWARE
|
EQUIPMENT SPECIFIC
APPLICATIONS, INTEGRATION, NAVIGATION, FAMILIARIZATION, UPDATING, CONFIGURING
& OPTIMIZATION, INSTALLATION & SETUP, NETWORKS, TROUBLESHOOTING,
DIAGNOSTICS, MAINTENANCE & SECURITY
|
HARDWARE
|
ALL PARTS ASSOCIATED
WITH ELECTRONICS, INSTALLATION & SETUP, PARTS INVENTORY, PROPER
REPLACEMENT & REPAIR, UPDATING OF OBSOLETE PARTS, CALIBRATION,
DIAGNOSTICS AND TROUBLESHOOTING
|
LIST 1.
As
you can see from LIST 1 the knowledge requirement of our plants
electronics systems is quite extensive.
As is the skills required to perform and complete the necessary tasks
involved for each system. And do so
efficiently.
That
said, I decided to make a table showing, by machine number, the downtime
associated with electronics equipment (over the last 18 months) that
could/should/would have been reduced if not avoided entirely by combining an
industry proven maintenance system with more knowledgeable and skilled
maintenance technicians. See TABLE
1. in appendix.
Reviewing
the information in the table, it's easy to see that many of our issues lie in
our ability to properly maintain and troubleshoot the electronics systems in
the plant. As a maintenance technician,
and member of the maintenance department, I have been involved with many of the
equipment issues listed and privy to information on the things I have not. I have seen firsthand how we, our
technicians, and indeed our maintenance department as a whole, struggles with
electronics in general. From
installation to maintenance we lack the necessary knowledge, experience and
skillset to be efficient! I personally
have been stumped by what turned out to be elementary issues for trained, knowledgeable,
and seasoned professionals.
Another
factor is our maintenance practices and system.
We have been aware of this for some time. In fact, over the past few years, we have
tried three different consulting agencies to assist us in improving our
program. With one of those still working
with us to this day. Being a production
facility, we often skip planned maintenance to keep up with customer
demand.
Apparently,
a common practice in manufacturing but definitely proven to be the wrong
approach in terms keeping machine efficiency and reliability at acceptable
levels.
A
proper and routine maintenance program is essential to keeping machines
operating at their peak. World class
facilities know this, and they stick to it!
However, they also spare no expense when it comes to the continuous
training of employees and the hiring of highly qualified professionals -
because a great maintenance program is worthless if you don't have the
technicians to perform the work required in an acceptable time frame. We do try to implement better maintenance
practices already, unfortunately we neglect the other half of the
equation. The need for experienced,
educated electronics experts is paramount for any maintenance program to be
effective and to continue automating, upgrading and advancing technology in any
plant.
Cost
Although
lean manufacturing techniques were already enforced by U.S. company’s, today’s
economic times has only stressed the need for factories to become even more
efficient. Traditionally this meant
downsizing the workforce and putting maintenance and training second to
production. A proven mistake many a
manufacturer has made.
My
investigation continued with a cost analysis and research on how other
manufacturers have overcome these maintenance obstacles.
Successful
major international companies like HONDA and TOYOTA have already set great
examples for solving these problems that other companies often try to
duplicate. Learning from other companies’
success in these areas is a good business strategy. Although their approaches may differ, key
elements remain the same. They are able
to balance keeping the workforce low and the reduced outsourcing of labor with
maintaining their highly automated and complex computerized equipment at peak
efficiency by increasing employee skillsets through training and creating world
class maintenance programs. Subsequently
resulting in high employee retention rates and increased moral. Two other important factors which directly
correlate to a company’s efficiency.
Where we have done the opposite by both reducing the maintenance staff
and preventive maintenance time. A
serious hinderance to effectively maintaining complex automated equipment.
We
are currently forced to outsource work, at a high rate, when we get stumped on
these electronic problems as well as eating the cost of parts and repair of
parts (that could have not failed at all with the proper maintenance and
training). Even though the cost of
hiring an experienced professional might be higher than the average salary for
the electronics technician fields reported on Indeed.com
of $50k - $71k per year, I believe the benefits would be far greater and have
an immediate impact. Getting to the
bottom of some nagging issues would free up technicians to work on other
projects and operators of the equipment to focus on other things like quality
and housekeeping.
In
addition, to hiring an expert electronics technician, the hiring of an IT
professional would be of great benefit and an excellent compliment to the
electronics technician. One can help the
other in the hardware and software aspects of each others job. Keeping our internal systems, servers,
software, data, networks and security up to date is a full time job and should
be a top priority. An IT professional is
an expert in this area.
However
the training of existing employees is still the most obvious avenue for
improving our lack of knowledge and skill.
Yet training at our facility has been almost completely abandoned due to
cost associated with it. Only OSHA and
intial job posting required training remains.
There is a skills gap in manufacturing.
Not only in our company but apparently nationwide.
A
simple web search proved that over the last year, or so, many major
publications and blogs have ran articles on this very subject. In Feb. 2012 for example the Washington
Post reported that “Driving this shortage [skills
gap] is the way automation is transforming U.S. Manufacturing.” and that “... automation has transformed factories
and altered the skills needed to operate and maintain factory equipment.” (The very problem I believe we have.) It goes on to state that “...automated factories demand workers
who can operate, program and maintain the new computerized equipment.” A statement we all must agree with.
I
argue that, with the internet, training has become much more affordable and
convenient.
Why? Because there are over 4000 colleges in the
U.S. Today. Many of which offer online
courses that are fully accredited, rigorous and affordable. There are even some online courses that are
free! Companies like PROFIBUS/PROFINET
offer free online training courses, webinars and siminars around the
country every year.
Conclusion
In
conclusion, my investigation shows that we suffer from a nationwide skills gap
(especially in electronics) in the manufacturing sector. As well as making
maintenance and training too low a priority.
My
recommendation is to not only learn from other manufacturers success in
overcoming these issues but to implement similar practices and systems into our
own maintenance plan. Up to and
including a continuous training program for current employees.
Secondly,
for more immediate results, I suggest the hiring of two experienced and highly
trained professionals. One in the IT
field and the other in the electronics field.
_________________________
Andrew
Pettie
Process
Technician, Baltimore Plant
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