Augos Factory / Proof / Converting plant
Case study · Manufacturing
The monthly total said the line was fine. One unit was wearing out.
Downtime on the line fell from 208 to 185 hours. Hidden inside that number, one unit's breakdowns had gone up almost five times.
The problem
Nothing to see in the total
Compare two months, five months apart, and the line looked better. Total downtime had fallen from 208 hours 19 minutes to 184 hours 33 minutes.
On a monthly report that is good news, and nobody goes looking for trouble in good news.
What the record showed
One unit on its way to a failure
Every stop was tied to a unit and a reason, and one unit stood out. Mechanical stops on the final cutting unit had climbed from 3.6 hours to 16.2 hours a month.
A timing belt failed twice and cost 8.1 hours. Bearings stopped the unit six times and cost another 6.8 hours.
Counting process stops too, the unit lost 26.4 hours over 99 stops that month: 5.4% of the line's 488.6 paid hours.
The suggestion
This is what a unit looks like on its way to a bigger failure. Losses elsewhere had fallen just enough to hide it. Act on the cutting unit now, while it still runs.
The fix
Warned while it was still running
The plant was warned while the unit was still running, and acted on it before it failed outright.
Without a stop record tied to each unit, the first sign would have been the breakdown itself.
Holding the standard
Back to where it started
Over months 10 to 12, the unit's mechanical stops averaged 5.2 hours a month. In month 13 they were 3.0 hours over 7 stops, back where they started.
All stops at the unit, mechanical and process together, fell from 26.4 hours over 99 stops to 9.9 hours over 61.
A monthly total can go down while a unit goes bad. The plant saw this one early because every stop was tied to a unit and a cause, month after month.
Questions
This case, answered
How did the record show a unit wearing out?
Its mechanical stops climbed month after month, from 3.6 hours to 16.2, while the line total fell. A timing belt and the bearings were behind most of it.
Why did total line downtime look fine?
Losses elsewhere on the line fell by more than this unit rose. The monthly total averaged the problem away.
What does this case leave out?
A rand value: the plant has not shared its sales values, so the case reports hours. Plant and product names are withheld.
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