Machine Maintenance : Part-1

Maintenance Objectives

•  Maintenance is an important factor in quality assurance, which is another basis for the successful competitive edge.

•    Inconsistencies in equipment lead to variability in product characteristics and result in defective parts that fail to meet the established specifications.

•   Beyond just preventing break downs, it is necessary to keep equipment operating within specifications (i.e. process capability) that will produce high level of quality.

•      Unnecessary breakdown also leads to the increase in cost of the production.

Impact of Poor Maintenance

1. Production capacity: Machines idled by breakdowns cannot produce, thus the capacity of the system is reduced.
2. Production costs: Labor costs per unit rise because of idle labor due to machine breakdowns. When machine malfunctions result in scrap, unit labor and material costs increase. Besides, cost of maintenance which includes such costs as costs of providing repair facilities, repair crews, preventive maintenance inspections, spare parts and stand by machines will increase as machines break down frequently.
3. Product and service quality: Poorly maintained equipment produce low quality products. Equipment that have not been properly maintained have frequent break downs and cannot provide adequate service to customers. For example, winding and unwinding rollers of Jigger machine are not maintained properly, they may results uneven dyeing or uneven colour pick up due to tension variation in the fabric across the width.
4. Employee or customer safety: Worn-out equipment is likely to fail at any moment and these failures can cause injuries to the workers, working on those equipments. For example, boiler used in process house, if not maintain properly (removing of scale), it may burst and cause injuries to the boiler attendants.
5. Customer satisfaction: When production equipments break down, products often can not be produced according to the master production schedules, due to work stoppages. This will lead to delayed deliveries of products to the customers.