Downtime is Inevitable. Unplanned Downtime does not have to be.
Downtime is an Inevitable Aspect, but Unplanned Downtime Can Be Prevented. Downtime and production losses are something every manufacturer experiences. The good news is technology solutions like MERLIN are available that dramatically reduce the main sources of revenue loss: Unplanned Downtime, Minor Stoppages, and Changeover Time.
When solutions like MERLIN are implemented, manufacturers quickly realize how much time and revenue is lost with traditional strategies that are manual, time-consuming, and ineffective.
Based on more than 25 years of experience in manufacturing, we’ve outlined the top 3 profit killers in the industry and how they can be avoided.
- Minor Stoppages
Minor stoppages are typically the most hidden factors of profit loss, with dramatically more impact on downtime and revenue than manufacturers realize.
Traditional manual, paper-based systems rarely capture minor stoppages, and the data is often unreliable.
MERLIN, along with its IIOT technology solutions, captures every downtime event and the root cause of each stoppage.
Example: A packaging manufacturer manually tracked stoppages but only captured unplanned downtime lasting 5 minutes or more.
The manufacturer implemented MERLIN’s Tempus Enterprise Edition platform to gain real-time visibility into machine-level performance, including all stoppages.
MERLIN identified micro stops in just one week, totalling 7 hours. These were unplanned stops that were previously not recorded. The platform also alerted operators at the time of each stoppage so problems could be fixed as they happened.
- Unplanned Downtime
Downtime is the largest source of lost production time and revenue. Yet, it’s estimated that 80% of manufacturers cannot accurately calculate their downtime or understand the costs associated with lost production.
MERLIN Tempus provides real-time insight into the source of unplanned downtime, including which machines have the most occurring faults and the most aggregated downtime.
- Changeover Time
Changeover time accounts for the largest source of overall downtime. Yet, most manufacturers have little insight into how long changeovers take or what they can do to reduce changeover time.
A SMED initiative (Single Minute Exchange of Dies) is the standard technique for analyzing and reducing the time it takes to complete equipment changeovers. Most SMED initiatives are manual projects using Excel spreadsheets and stopwatches.
MERLIN Tempus accurately compares estimated changeovers vs actual and accelerates cost savings.
Are you ready to stop the profit killers in your manufacturing organization? It’s easier than you think. Rapid implementation of MERLIN Tempus means you’ll have visibility into your plant, line, and machine data in just days! Contact an expert from Memex today to learn more.