Preventive maintenance is a great way for a business to eliminate unnecessary waste. However, preventive maintenance only works if the process itself is streamlined.
In order to keep your prevention program from hurting your overall workflow, you need to watch for process waste and five other signs of a sluggish maintenance department.
HOW BEARING FAILURE HURTS PRODUCTION
Process waste can be a major problem for preventive maintenance. For example, bearing failure stops production every 54 seconds. That’s a lot of work, and maintenance personnel are under a lot of pressure to make sure that fixes don’t take too long.
Rushed fixes can lead to improperly-installed bearings. In fact, the bearing might have failed because it wasn’t the right fit for that application. However, maintenance personnel don’t always have the time to analyze why something broke and need to focus on replacing it, even if that means swapping in the same ill-fitting bearing.
When it comes to getting high-quality bearings made to fit your specific application, Ritbearing can offer you multiple options from a variety of manufacturers, as well as custom design capabilities. That way, you can limit future bearing failure by using bearings specifically designed for your application.
WHAT ELSE YOU CAN DO TO HELP PRODUCTION
While process waste is a key factor in preventive maintenance inefficiency, it’s not the only cause for lost value. Other reasons include:
• Overproduction, in which your maintenance personnel do more work than is needed
• Waiting during unnecessary downtime
• Unnecessary transportation that leads to wasted time
• Defects that leave assets in unreliable condition
• A spare parts inventory with out-of-date wares, such as ill-fitting or contaminated bearings
Paying attention to even small parts of a whole process can make your business much more efficient. Give us a call at 1-800-431-1980 or fill out our quote form to get bearings that will help prevent future issues and add extra value for your business.