Equipment troubleshooting efficiency is a priority of maintenance service providers and their customers. As part of a robust continuous improvement program, ATS identified the most problematic equipment across its customer base and developed a solution set that is increasing troubleshooting efficiency and reducing costs for a long-time customer.
Challenges
The power technology manufacturer counts on ATS to ensure optimal reliability across more than two dozen of its plants. The biggest risk to reliability is unexpected equipment failures that require reactive maintenance. When such failures occur, rapid troubleshooting and corrective actions are essential to minimize the consequences of the unplanned downtime. Accelerating the response to its most challenging equipment would produce cost savings and improve operational performance.
Solution
Leveraging the visibility provided by Reliability 360®, ATS determined that CNC machines are easily the most troublesome equipment across its customer base. The remote monitoring and analytics solution also revealed that the power technology provider, an early adopter of Reliability 360® and user of eFactory Pro CMMS software, had Mazak CNC machines at nine of its plants supported by ATS.
A Mazak Special Project Team was established consisting of all the Mazak equipment experts within ATS to identify the reactive labor required to troubleshoot the most common failures of Mazak CNC machines. Next, the team began developing a content library of troubleshooting guides, documents, and videos about how to identify and correct potential problems, such as siltation of an actuator or worn seals. Now, any ATS technician serving any customer or site can use the internal library for guidance in getting Mazak CNC machines back up and running, rather than calling Mazak or a subcontractor for assistance.
The new, fully searchable technology knowledge hub will be continuously improved to reflect ATS’s ongoing experience with the machine, and so will its maintenance strategies and recommendations – such as upgrading a machine or installing a condition sensor for remote monitoring and predictive maintenance. Furthermore, customers can apply the learnings through Alpha Strike rapid improvement events.
Results
With the new technology library, the hours spent on reactive maintenance of Mazak CNC equipment at the manufacturer’s nine sites fell by approximately 40 percent YoY, representing roughly $35,000 in labor savings for ATS. Total downtime hours for the manufacturer also fell by about 39 percent, yielding an estimated $172,900 in cost savings to the customer.
In addition, ATS is well on track to hit the customer’s guaranteed cost savings goal for continuous improvement, and the successful use case has piqued the manufacturer’s interest in deploying Reliability 360® to more of its plant sites.
Today, the success with Mazak CNCs is being replicated with other reactive-prone brands and equipment types, such as Okuma CNC machines and punch presses in general. Reliability 360® is helping to ensure that the selection of assets for troubleshooting improvements is strategic and data driven.
