The number 1 thing any manufacturing company can do to cut down time is to invest in grease! I know that sounds obvious but it wasn't all that obvious to me at the time.
We were having downtime issues and our focus was on executing equipment pm's. As part of the pm routines the mechanics would grease every bearing on the line and we felt that we had things covered. Until we had a break room discussion with a few mechanics.
One of the more outspoken mechanics said that he hated all the time he spent greasing bearings and that it was taking time away from real maintenance. This rather benign but emphatic statement got us to thinking. Over the following few days, we flushed out a plan to get lubing done and give mechanics more focus. Hopefully the result would be improved performance.
So, we posted a job for a "Lube Technician", bought a cart and filled it with grease guns and all of the different lubes we used. Then we drew a plant map and planned a route and sent the new "Lube Technician" out on a mission, Start at line #1 and lube every bearing you see (some instruction is necessary), then move to line 2 and keep going until your done.
Results were wonderful! The "Lube Technician" came in at a pay rate far below what the mechanics were making and mechanics had more time to focus on the nuts and bolts of a real mechanical pm. Downtime began to drop, Mechanics were happy to not have to lube the equipment and the lube technician was getting a start on being a real mechanic.
Putting in a "Lube Technician" won't solve all your mechanical issues, but it is a great start to reducing unplanned downtime.
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