7 Tips To Reduce Manufacturing Downtime

Manufacturing downtime is the biggest nightmare of the manufacturing industry. Undoubtedly, it is one of the biggest financial risks in manufacturing and calculating its exact cost is difficult. However, Downtime Tracking and understanding its root cause is very essential in manufacturing. Mostly poor maintenance, an operator error, or a hardware or software error cause unplanned downtime.

When any equipment fails without notice, the production costs skyrocket, safety risks increase and most importantly - order deliveries are delayed. To satisfy your financial goals, you need to understand the cost of unplanned downtime and how you can reduce it. Here are some tips to reduce unscheduled downtime in your manufacturing plant:

Cross- Train and Empower Your Employee: Cross training your employee ensures that more employees can come to the rescue and solve a problem. Employee education and training is an ongoing process and every manufacturing industry must invest in it.

Upgrade your manufacturing equipment: Outdated machinery can slow down the manufacturing process. Installation of new equipment allows your plant floor to stay up-to-date on the latest technologies and it helps manufacturing managers to suggest some updates to improve productivity.

Conduct Regular Manufacturing Equipment Maintenance: Regular maintenance of the machinery also helps in minimizing the frequency of unplanned downtime. Businesses that inspect, monitor, update, and repair their machinery in a timely manner, create the right atmosphere for meeting the productivity goals as well as reducing unplanned downtime. So, regular maintenance is critical to keeping machines operating at their best for the longest stretches of time possible.

Calculate The Cost of Downtime: Not calculating the true cost is one of the biggest errors that manufacturing managers make. Across every industry, downtime happens and it can be very expensive. Ignoring the financial cost of downtime isn’t an option and one must focus on reducing the frequency of downtime.

Track Manufacturing Downtime Carefully: Knowing the root cause of downtime helps in preventing it as soon as possible. Manual manufacturing downtime tracking always leaves space for errors of judgment based on subjective analysis and delays. Today, many downtime tracking software options are available that will cater to this exact requirement precisely and simply.

Collect and Study Data: A Large number of manufacturers still collect the data manually which is totally a wrong approach. One must evaluate their current data collection system and invest in the latest technologies, if required.

Set Specific Manufacturing Plant Goals: With motivated and inspired staff, downtime can be minimized. Setting up daily and quarterly incentive goal can help in increasing productivity as well as decreasing the downtime of a manufacturing plant.

Putting it All Together: In the world of manufacturing, the downtime is really a nightmare and it is something manufacturers can't afford to overlook. It’s not only about the direct cost of the downtime, but your professional reputation and employee morale are on the line, too. Downtime tracking helps to keep the system oiled and greased which is good for both the employee and the company. Gone are the days of manual tracking, one must leverage the power of downtime software to maximize their manufacturing line efficiency, reduce waste and meet production goals.

In the world of manufacturing, the downtime is really a nightmare and it is something manufacturers can't afford to overlook.