Good Habits Pay off

Good Habits Pay off.

By Bill O’Connor

Preventive maintenance (PM) should be a major part of your operation - because, in a down economy, the last thing you can afford is down time.

PM extends the life on all your equipment. It enables your machines to run at optimum levels. And, it'll prevent most situations that would stop or slow production in your facility.

PM isn't necessarily the actual maintenance of anything, but a set of rules and tasks designed to avoid large problems. Let me explain further.

For instance, if you have a garbage can, throw your garbage in the can, instead of on the floor in front of the can. You avoid having to clean up later.

This might seen a bit simplistic (if not inane), but let's apply the same procedure in the shop. Do you throw your scrap material on the floor, and clean it up at night - or do you take care of it during production, and avoid an end-of-shift cleanup (plus other problems) every day?

When I was five years old, I was helping my grandpa on the farm clean out the chicken coop. I wasn't able to carry the heavy shovelfuls of chicken manure, so I just tossed it ahead of me with the shovel, scooped it up again, and tossed it 'till it flew out of the coop.

Grandpa saw this and told me, "Son, never shovel chicken manure twice." (Well, the exact wording was just a little bit different, but you get my drift.) There is no point in making more work for yourself.

Why make a mess for yourself that you just have to r::1 around and clean up again? Jut handle your garbage or scrap once and then be done with it.

HOW FAR TO GO?

I've seen shops "'here I - honestly - could eat off the floors; they were immaculate, with no dust whatsoever on them. Create a mess in that shop, and you'd see your last paycheck before the end of the day.

I know what you're thinking: does Mr. Clean actually produce anything? As a matter of fact, he's extremely profitable and successful.

Is this extreme? Maybe, to some; to others, it's a goal. Dust is tl1e main killer in this trade, affecting machinery, office equipment, showrooms and, yes, people. The reduction of dust is a major plus in reducing any maintenance.

I've also seen shops with so much dust that I couldn't work in them until everybody went home. There was a quarter-inch of dust covering everything in the shop on a daily basis. No wonder the machines failed on a regular basis, almost like I clockwork.

This was great for me; I think I was the only one malcing a profit, though. And all I did was clean a machine to get it working again.

There was so much dust, mixed with oil and grease, in the machine that it made a dirt clod so thick that it bound the gears and bearings like glue! The company paid me well for this because they were too busy to do d10se themselves; basically, I billed them to clean the machines, but also for the last-minute airline tickets, hotel, rental car, per-diem, and other expenses because their machines were down, and they waited until the last second to call me.

If they had just hired a college kid to come in on Saturday to clean the shop, like I told them every time I showed up, they would've saved a fortune.

THE BARE MINIMUM

Check what the manufacturer says in whatever manual they provide with the machine. Then, look at the internal parts; you can determine what will wear the quickest if you just use a little common sense. Start adding a little stone dust to the equation, along with a lack of lubrication, and you can figure out what's going to fail in a hurry.

If you think that grease or a light spray lube will solve all the problems, you're probably wrong. Grease is usually too heavy; it attracts dust and creates a grinding compound on part edges. A light spray lube washes all the other lubrication away, swells the bearings, and leaves everything dry.

Find something that works for the part and the environment. Quality oil is cheap; it's not rocket science.

THE COST OF INACTION

If your machine goes down, you're at the mercy of others. Let's take a close, real-time look at that: I recently visited a shop in California for a second time - for a machine repair that included three weeks of downtime to get a part.

The spindle shaft failed in the shop's CNC machine; the three detent balls that held the tang on the 40mm machine taper in the spindle corroded to the point where they fell through the holes in the spindle. (The spindle had oval holes in it as well.)

We decided to send the unit to a spindle-rebuilding company that offered a 72-hour turnaround for an additional fee. We sent them the part air express and waited ... and waited . .. and waited until the part came back after almost three weeks, and it wasn't repaired to our liking.

This kind of tl1ing can kill a stone shop. That CNC machine was producing more than $3,500 worth of product a shift. Take that, double it for two weeks, and then treble it for tl1e three-week interval.

I'm not saying that it's the stone shop's fault that the spindle-repair service dallied; but, you need to realize that you're at the beck and call of others when you're desperate to get your machine running. It's like that old saying of, "Pay me now or pay me later."

Incidentally, we looked at getting a new spindle from the OEM manufacturer overseas and tl1ey finally responded after a week. They said they could get us one in four to five months for a very high price.

A couple drops of oil on a regular basis could've prevented this whole mess. This was even stated in the CNC manual.

COST MORE THAN DOWNTIME?

And, there's the matter of the actual repair costs. When your machine goes down because of something worn out because you haven't taken the time for upkeep and maintenance, you'll call somebody like myself to get it running again. You want me there yesterday, so your machine can be up and running ASAP.

So, I'll make flight arrangements (if I'm available of course, or else I'll contact someone I trust) and pay the most-expensive fare, since the tickets are less than seven-days advance purchase. Then, I'll stay in a hotel for at least three nights because getting there is one day, diagnostics and ordering parts is another day, and installation is a third day.

Hopefully, that takes care of all the problems. If not, it's two more days of work and hotel and rental car and per diem and labor rates. Add that all up, and I (or any technician) become quite expensive.

It's not that I'm not worth it, mind you, but a couple of drops of oil could have prevented thousands of dollars of repair and hundreds of hours of down time.

THINK AHEAD

The longevity of your machines really depends on how well you take care of them. For instance, if you have a C-arm polisher and you let the gear rack and C-arm wear out prematurely (or go out of adjustment) because you didn't have the time to properly take care of it, it'll cost you in the area of $10,000 to repair it in an expedient fashion.

But if you'd taken a little time over the last six months and just do the manufacturer's recommended daily maintenance, it takes very little time and precious little money. (I hate telling you this because it digs into my business, but it's true.)

REDUCE PM BY CHANGING

This is probably the most important question you could ask yourself:

Look around your shop and see what's the most-destructive thing, and what causes you the most trouble?

Usually, it's dust or dust-related. If you can try reducing or eliminating the dust altogether, it will also help reduce the wear and tear on all your machinery, not to mention your computers, fax machines, printers and all other office hardware.

How about the crap on the floor that the guys throw there? I've seen piles of garbage on the floor, right in front of the can, that employees would leave and pick up later, and all that time they were on the clock. Try to encourage trash going in the can the first-time around.

If the floor underneath some of your equipment is pitched the wrong way from the drain, dry-pack the floor to slope to the drain. That way, you don't have to spend time cleaning the floor and worrying about rust.

When cutting on the saw, what do you do with your bones? Throw them on the floor? These types of practices cost time and money; if you were to get a self-dumping hopper and put it right next to the saw, you could eliminate many man-hours of wasted time in cleanup and reduce the chance of an accident of somebody tripping over junk on the floor.

WHEN TO START

The best time to start a PM program is when you're in the planning stage for a new building or a move to different quarters. You can hire a consultant; not necessarily me, but someone that's been in the real world of fabrication - someone that has dirty boots, can pick up a grinder, gets on their knees and floats cement, knows a few tricks of the trade, and gets a meter out and checks out the electrical panel.

You want somebody looking out for your best interests. You don't need a guy that will give you a book; you need someone who'll give advice after seeing hundreds of stone shops and learning the good from the bad - and showing you what's really in your best interest, and not just what's cool to have in your shop this week.

AND THE FIRST STEPS?

• Make up your mind - today that you're going to start a PM program.

• Start by getting the shop fully clean.

• Organize tools, fix or replace broken items, and purchase proper lubricants

and filters.

• Make a PM schedule for all machines, based on manufacturers'

recommendations, and stick to it.

• Set a regular cleaning time and reward your guys for doing a good and clean

job.

• Encourage clean housekeeping practices on a daily basis.

Your employees will like it better, your customers will be more impressed (along with an OSHA inspector), and you'll see better results ... on the bottom line.