Unexpected equipment failures can significantly disrupt your production schedule and impact your bottom line. Ensuring your machinery operates efficiently is crucial for maintaining productivity. Read on to discover three practical strategies to increase your machine uptime and keep your operations running smoothly.

What is Machine Uptime?

Machine uptime is the percentage of time that a machine is in a functional, usable condition for production. It is a metric used to determine how reliable a machine is, the higher the uptime the higher the reliability. Uptime is critical to maintain in a manufacturing or production facility to ensure optimal operation and efficiency.

How is Machine Uptime Calculated?

Machine uptime can be calculated by recording the number of minutes or hours that the machine is running and producing products. Machine uptime can be calculated using the following formula:

Uptime (%) = ([Time machine was producing] / [Total time in the period]) x 100

For example, if a machine was running and producing products for 40 hours during a 48-hour period, the uptime would be:

Uptime (%) = (40 hours / 48 hours) x 100 = 83.33%

Unplanned Downtime can be Costly?

One of the leading causes of machine downtime is unplanned downtime, where the machine suddenly stops operating and is not controllable. If a machine fails unexpectedly, it can be catastrophic to the production flow. A breakdown on the production line usually causes a bottleneck, where the disruption created will delay and interrupt the entire flow of products being made. This leads to loss in capital and efficiency.

Preventing unplanned downtime is highly dependent on an effective maintenance process in place. Ensuring all maintenance activities are done on schedule and up to standards will greatly minimize the chances of an unexpected machine breakdown.

It is estimated that unplanned downtime alone costs industrial manufacturers around $50 billion per year. Additionally, Garvey states that the average hourly cost of unplanned downtime for an industrial manufacturer is $260,000. These numbers are astonishingly high which makes maximizing machine uptime extremely important.

Advantages of High Equipment Uptime

Higher Productivity and Revenue

High machine uptime is vital to ensuring maximum productivity, revenue, and overall efficiency in a manufacturing or production facility. When machines are running reliably and downtime is kept to a minimum, production flows smoothly and efficiently with little to no delay that could interrupt the entire production line. A consistent and reliable machine uptime ensures products are being manufactured at the desired speed to meet customer demand. On-time deliveries increase as schedules are met, leading to higher productivity and revenue.

Technicians Can Be More Effective

When machine uptime is high, it greatly enhances the effectiveness of maintenance technicians. With less unexpected failures and emergency maintenance, maintenance teams can focus less time on breakdown maintenance and more on proactive preventive maintenance. This allows for any potential problems to be detected and corrected before they lead to a major and costly equipment failure, which extends the equipment’s life and contributes even further to higher machine availability and uptime. Additionally, the maintenance team can concentrate on repairing equipment more efficiently, ensuring all machines are operating at their desired optimum levels.

Higher Customer Satisfaction and Machine Availability

A higher machine availability is critical to ensure customer satisfaction. When machines are reliably available and running, manufacturers are capable of meeting their customer’s demand without any delay or disruption. Customer satisfaction increases as orders are delivered on time, maintaining a strong market reputation for the company.

There are many advantages to achieving high equipment uptime, including higher productivity and revenue, as well as technician effectiveness from preventive maintenance practices, and higher customer satisfaction from reliably available machines that don’t delay order fulfillment.

3 Effective Ways to Maximize Equipment Uptime

Ensuring equipment uptime is at its maximum is critical to maintain productivity in any operation. Predictive maintenance plays an important role in maximizing equipment uptime through condition-based maintenance and prediction of failure. Planning the management of both planned and unplanned downtime is essential to keep equipment uptime at its maximum. With the right strategies in place, you can effectively minimize machine breakdowns and ensure smooth continuous operation. Below are some effective ways that can help you achieve high equipment uptime.

1. Integrate Condition Monitoring and Predictive Maintenance

An effective way is through condition monitoring and predictive maintenance. Condition monitoring detects impending machine failures before they actually occur by monitoring equipment performance and health. Gathering equipment data is essential to this process. This allows for timely intervention that prevents problems from becoming bigger and more costly. Predictive maintenance uses data and analysis to predict when a machine is going to fail. Scheduling repairs before they are actually needed minimizes unexpected machine breakdowns and increases overall uptime. This approach can help improve overall equipment effectiveness by optimizing equipment performance and availability.

2. Invest in the Right Machines and Parts

The next critical element to maximizing uptime is the investment in the right machines and parts. Purchasing high-quality machines with reputable parts vendors ensures reliable equipment that is less likely to fail. When choosing these components, consider the maintenance requirements and reliability of each. Equipment that requires minimal operator and technician intervention and has a proven history of reliability will allow for continuous operation with little downtime.

3. Deploy a Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS)

Lastly, deploying a Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS) significantly improves maintenance practices. A CMMS coordinates and controls all maintenance activities in real-time with a centralized database for scheduling and tracking work. By ensuring maintenance is performed when needed, a CMMS minimizes the chance of unplanned downtime and keeps equipment running efficiently and effectively. Additionally, a CMMS streamlines maintenance practices ensuring all activities that affect machine uptime are done on schedule and up to standards.

By integrating all these elements – condition monitoring, predictive maintenance, investing in the right machines and parts, and deploying a CMMS – you can significantly enhance equipment uptime and maintain optimal operational efficiency.

How to Maintain Your Maintenance Practices for Maximum Efficiency

Besides the above elements, maintaining your maintenance practices is key to achieving maximum efficiency and extending your equipment’s longevity. Standard operating procedures (SOPs) are an important aspect in maintenance practices to avoid immediate equipment failure and ensure efficient operation. Additionally, maintenance practices can significantly impact machine availability by minimizing both planned and unplanned downtime through actionable insights and enabling condition-based maintenance. Here are some effective ways:

Daily Team Maintenance and Planned Maintenance

• Daily team maintenance encourages operator ownership of equipment and minimizes minor stops, breakdowns, and changeover time.
• Planned maintenance extends equipment life, improves availability, and preserves equipment.

Early Equipment Management and Problem-Failure-Action (PFA) Codes

• Early equipment management combines all required functions to plan, design, manufacture, and start up new equipment at expected costs and performance levels.
• PFA codes identify problems and take corrective action.

Use the Right Technology to Maximize Equipment Uptime

Advanced technology can further maximize equipment uptime by offering improved monitoring and management capabilities. Technology can significantly boost equipment effectiveness by optimizing equipment performance, minimizing breakdowns, and ensuring better equipment care. Additionally, predictive maintenance strategies play an important role in deploying technology to maximize equipment uptime and reliability.

IIoT Platforms and Equipment Redundancy Minimize Downtime

Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) platforms offer real-time monitoring of machines, enabling predictive maintenance and reducing unplanned downtime. IIoT platforms gather data from various sensors to provide accurate insights into the current health of equipment.

Equipment redundancy ensures machine availability and reliability. Backup systems are available in case a machine fails, allowing operations to continue despite the breakdown.One technology solution that encompasses all the above features is Shoplogix Smart Factory, offering extensive IIoT capabilities for real-time monitoring and analysis. Shoplogix enables businesses to maximize machine availability, optimize equipment performance, and reduce downtime through predictive maintenance and effective equipment management.

What You Should Do Next

Explore the Shoplogix Blog

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Machine Uptime FAQs

What is Machine Uptime and Downtime?

Uptime is the period when a machine is in a functional, usable condition for production use. It is the time when equipment is running efficiently and productively without any interruption to perform its intended function. Conversely, downtime includes all the time when a machine is not ready for use due to maintenance, breakdowns, or any other reasons. Minimizing downtime is critical to maintaining high productivity and efficiency in industrial operations.

What is Manufacturing Uptime?

Manufacturing uptime refers specifically to the time when manufacturing equipment and machinery are in a fully operational and usable condition for producing goods as planned. High manufacturing uptime indicates that machinery is operating efficiently with little interruption to perform its intended function in the continuous flow of the production process. This is essential to achieving production goals, maintaining quality standards, and optimizing overall manufacturing efficiency.