Maintenance strategies play a crucial role in ensuring smooth operations in the dynamic landscape of production. Reactive maintenance involves addressing equipment issues as they arise, often leading to costly downtime and unplanned disruptions. In contrast, preventive maintenance aims to anticipate and prevent failures through scheduled maintenance.
However, preventive approaches may encounter limitations when maintenance intervals adhere to generic schedules. Overlooking the crucial fact that each tool has individual maintenance needs can lead to significant operational challenges. This is where usage-based maintenance emerges as a transformative solution.
In this article, you will learn how to optimize the maintenance schedule and how real-time data can further optimize production.
What is usage-based maintenance?
The traditional way to determine service intervals typically relies on either a fixed period of time or a predetermined number of works carried out. However, the service life of a tool is very much dependent on how and where it is used. Not accounting for the diverse operational conditions, such as varying levels of utilization and the nature of the tasks performed, is problematic.
By contrast, adopting a usage-based maintenance strategy ensures that services occur at appropriate intervals based on the actual utilization of the tool, thereby optimizing maintenance schedules to neither precede nor exceed necessity.
What is usage-based maintenance?
The traditional way to determine service intervals typically relies on either a fixed period of time or a predetermined number of works carried out. However, the service life of a tool is very much dependent on how and where it is used. Not accounting for the diverse operational conditions, such as varying levels of utilization and the nature of the tasks performed, is problematic.
By contrast, usage-based maintenance is defined as one type of preventive maintenance in which a maintenance action is triggered based on the actual utilization of the tool. This approach considers not only the number of tasks performed but also the intensity and conditions of each task. Adopting a usage-based maintenance strategy ensures that services occur at appropriate intervals based on the actual utilization of the tool, thereby optimizing maintenance schedules to neither precede nor exceed necessity.
How can data make maintenance optimal?
Data plays a central role in enabling usage-based maintenance by providing the insights to make informed decisions about when maintenance should be performed. By collecting and analyzing real-time data, we gain comprehensive insights into how the tools are used. Therefore, we can tailor the maintenance schedules to the specific service requirements of each tool.
Leveraging such data-driven insights empowers manufacturers to precisely plan their maintenance activities, thereby reducing downtime and enhancing operational efficiency. Well-scheduled maintenance means that the tools will be available as needed and not causing disruptions in production.
Tool availability - Is having spare tools in inventory enough?
Tool availability means having a tool prepared for immediate use. It involves ensuring the tools’ physical presence and they are functional, calibrated, and maintained. It is a key aspect within manufacturing operations and directly impacts the production efficiency and quality. The goal is to prevent production delays and disruptions that arise from using tools that are below optimal conditions.
Effective management of tools can significantly enhance operational performance and productivity levels. This can be achieved through various measures such as inventory management, lifecycle monitoring, and most obviously, well-planned maintenance.
What are the consequences of tool breakdowns?
Tool breakdowns pose a significant threat to production processes, often leading to increased downtime and disruptions. Deloitte highlights that ineffective maintenance strategies can pull a plant's productivity down by 5 to 20%.
The financial impacts of such breakdowns vary across industries and production scales. For major automotive manufacturers, every minute of downtime in production can typically cost thousands of dollars. In addition to financial costs, disruptions in production lines will also increase unnecessary emissions, stemming from things like heating and ventilation of the facilities.
While addressing the concerns of tool breakdowns financially and environmentally, we should not neglect the impact on the well-being of operators. Even when tools remain operational despite poor maintenance, they may not perform optimally, causing undue stress on operators due to decreased efficiency.
💡Tips: Calculate your environmental impact with Atlas Copco CO2 Calculator and see how much prevententive maintenance can help you reduce your emissions!
How does Atlas Copco do maintenance differently?
We understand the complexity of evolving production requirements, characterized by the fluctuation of volumes, the introduction of new products, and the rotation of tools within manufacturing facilities. At Atlas Copco, our approach to maintenance is not solely based on the assumption from outdated historical usage but also dynamically adjusts to the specific needs of each tool through real-time usage data. Therefore, our ToolCover maintenance offering goes data-driven - ToolCover powered by data.
This innovation stems from the integration of ALTURE Maintain, our data-driven service product, into our ToolCover offering. Utilizing smart algorithms, we analyze tool usage and provide actionable insights into tool condition. As a result, maintenance is suggested proactively, minimizing the occurrence of tool failures during operations, to the benefit of our customers.
Watch the video and learn more about data-driven maintenance:
