The Need For Intelligent Production Maintenance Service

The importance of an effective maintenance program cannot be overlooked because it plays such an important role in the effectiveness of Lean manufacturing. As in personal health
care insurance, maintenance may be considered the heath care of our manufacturing machines and equipment. It is required to effectively reduce waste and run an efficient, continuous manufacturing operation, business, or service operation. The cost of regular maintenance is very small when it is compared to the cost of a major breakdown at which time there is no production.

The Purpose of Production Maintenance

The main purpose of regular maintenance is to ensure that all equipment required for production is operating at 100% efficiency at all times. Through short daily inspections, cleaning, lubricating, and making minor adjustments, minor problems can be detected and
corrected before they become a major problem that can shut down a production line. A good maintenance program requires company-wide participation and support by everyone ranging from the top executive to the shop floor personnel..

Breakdowns Challenges

A machine’s breakdown true cost is sometimes difficult to measure. A recent survey showed that the cost for a machine breakdown is more than just the maintenance labor and materials to make the repair. A recent survey showed the actual cost for a breakdown
between four to fifteen times the maintenance costs. When the breakdown causes production to stop, the costs are very high because no parts are being produced..

For years, maintenance has been treated as a dirty, boring and often overlooked job. It is very important to get the best productivity from a company’s equipment but it is not recognized as a part of the operation that produces revenue. The simple question is often,

"Why do we need to maintain things regularly?" The answer is, "To keep things as reliable as possible." But the real question is, "How much change or wear has occurred since the last round of maintenance?" Generally the answer is, "I do not know."

Today, machine field services depend on sensor-driven management systems that provide alerts, alarms and indicators. The moment the alarm sounds, it is already too late to prevent the failure. Most factory downtime is caused by these unexpected situations. There is no alert provided that looks at normal wear over time. If it were possible to monitor the normal wear, then it would be possible to forecast upcoming situations and perform maintenance tasks before breakdown occurs.

Vasilab & Co. Ltd is uniquely positioned to monitor even the most complex facilities our intelligent maintenance includes the use of embedded (software) and remote technologies - to monitor equipment performance. Then, if wear starts to occur, there is enough time to service the item before failure. A machine can self-assess its health and trigger its own service request as needed. If this model works, then we will have a product that can manage its own service performance and its own warranty-based contracts. It also can alert us on ways to keep it running in a high-performance manner.