A critical production line has had dozens of stoppages over the past 12 months. Late deliveries are now a big problem. The plant manager wants you to analyze the three most common repairs and cut their completion time by 25%.
You decide to discuss this with John, a mechanical engineer who’s been at the plant a long time. You have a list of all repairs done over the past two years; it shows the quantity and completion time for each one.
John looks at the list and tells you, “I would double the time for number two on the list. Maybe triple it.” That item is “Drive motor replacement”. What can John be thinking?
John is thinking that motors don’t routinely fail. When you have a high failure rate, it’s because something abnormal is causing them to fail.
By investing time into solving the root cause of one motor failure, you may solve the root cause of all those motor failures. Perhaps you’ve got voltage imbalance. Schedule downtime to fix that, and motor failures from that cause will cease. Suppose you find a motor isn’t properly bonded; fix that problem wherever it exists and soon your motor bearings will “magically” stop spinning in their races.
It’s not about how fast you fix things, but about how right you fix them.