6 Ways Outsourced Maintenance Saves
Ron Hoffman
How Outsourced Maintenance Helps with Maintenance Cost
With today’s limited internal resources, it’s tough to transform machine maintenance from reactionary to preventive, and ultimately proactive, despite the obvious upsides in higher overall equipment efficiency (OEE), better process control and lower total cost. Outsourcing this requirement to a third-party specialist, however, is a cost-effective alternative, according to companies that have crunched the numbers.
Lockheed Martin offers a case in point. The company has contracted with MAG for global service and support of machining equipment and systems at all its major plant locations around the world. The comprehensive agreement provides interactive diagnostic help, preventive maintenance, field service, training, replacement and spare parts, productivity improvements, machine rebuilding, and even machine and system relocation and set-up.
Manufacturers of all sizes — from single plant to multi-plant and multi-national — can benefit from outsourced maintenance to achieve world-class productivity and competitiveness. There are six primary areas where a single-source maintenance partner can optimize the capital investment and provide cost savings through lower total cost of ownership and increased return on investment.
1. Application Support
Machine tool experts can analyze the tasks assigned to each machine and provide recommendations on process improvements, cycle-time reduction strategies, proper cutting tools and workholding configurations to optimize machine usage and performance, and reduce work in process, setup times and costs per part.
2. Training
Knowledge is power, and knowledgeable operators are key to maximizing the production power of your machines. Ensuring your personnel are trained on the latest operation and maintenance developments and techniques is critical to getting the most out of your machine tools. Training can be individualized and conducted on-line for further cost savings.
3. Service Support
When a machine goes down it immediately transforms from income generator to expense. Timely service support is the key to getting the machine back online and making parts. At times when on-site maintenance is cost- or time-prohibitive, interactive tech support, via video, voice and data communications over a standard phone line, can quickly diagnose problems remotely for faster service and less downtime.
4. Preventive Maintenance
Knowing what areas of the machine need preventive maintenance, and what level is cost-effective, are part of the support partner’s holistic services. A supplier that has wide experience with many makes and kinds of machine tools will know the typical service life of various components and potential weak spots or problem areas with certain designs. This enables closer monitoring, trend tracking, and appropriately scheduled maintenance to prevent costly downtime. Also, coordinated “ganging” of service to multiple machines can produce significant economies of scale.
5. Machine Monitoring
Trends in production monitoring are moving rapidly from machine-level to process-level intelligence, and real-time performance management (RPM) from a service/support partner can optimize equipment utilization for greater manufacturing efficiency, productivity and ROI. Computer-enabled data collection tools identify and resolve out-of-cycle events as they are happening, and provide interactive, on-demand reporting of production equipment availability, utilization and performance.
6. Spindle Replacement
For plants operating high-volume machining systems, such as automotive, the service/support partner can take complete responsibility for spindle inventory and replacement, often working with a third-party spindle re-conditioner for new or rebuilt units, reducing turn-around time to hours, instead of days. At the same time, small-volume, high-value part manufacturers can’t afford to let the huge overhead of a giant gantry machine (both physically and financially speaking) sit dormant, making fast response to spindle or gear box replacement needs, and other major repairs, critical.
Bonus: Machine Certifications and More
Service/support partners can also assist with machine certifications after a relocation or in-plant re-assignment. This may include inspection of axis alignment, coolant/lube systems, tool changers, and automation, as well as laser calibration, ball bar testing and axis alignment. The goal is to ensure the machine meets or exceeds OEM specs, and can make quality parts per the program/contract requirements and ISO 9000 or other standards.
A support partner can also provide consultation on control retrofits, mechanical rebuilds, and machine reassignments — analyzing the benefit to productivity and the impact on operations the changes may have. This allows you to see the “big picture” and thoroughly understand the condition of the equipment before investing in updating, rebuilding or relocating it.
Working with a single-source maintenance provider is an economical way to ensure you are getting the most from your machines, operating at your highest possible efficiency and poised to handle changes to, and adaptations for, future operations.
Ron Hoffman is vice-president and general manager of MAG Maintenance Technologies. For more information, visit www.mag-ias.com.
Related Articles
When you ask front line supervisors or team leaders if all people in their teams are performing to the same standards or if some are doing more work and achieving more results than others, you will often get the same answer. All over the world, the most common answer, after some analysis, verifies that about 30% of the people do 70% of the work.
When you ask front line supervisors or team leaders if all people in their teams are performing to the same standards or if some are doing more work and achieving more results than others, you will often get the same answer. All over the world, the most common answer, after some analysis, verifies that about 30% of the people do 70% of the work.
See More
Unfettered expression and spiritual satisfaction? How does this relate to managing a maintenance department, especially one in the U.S. Postal Service? Open your mind. Take a page from the Zen Buddhist monks who preach: When you are quiet and listen, you become aware of sounds not normally heard. USPS maintenance leaders are listening and beginning to understand that maintenance success doesn't come through closed minds and closed doors.
Unfettered expression and spiritual satisfaction? How does this relate to managing a maintenance department, especially one in the U.S. Postal Service? Open your mind. Take a page from the Zen Buddhist monks who preach: When you are quiet and listen, you become aware of sounds not normally heard. USPS maintenance leaders are listening and beginning to understand that maintenance success doesn't come through closed minds and closed doors.
See More
It is not uncommon that many reliability and maintenance improvement initiatives fail to deliver expected results. Why is it so? Some of the most common causes I have observed include:
It is not uncommon that many reliability and maintenance improvement initiatives fail to deliver expected results. Why is it so? Some of the most common causes I have observed include:
See More
Why do improvement efforts fail or perhaps not sustain the gains? There are many reasons, but those most often stated are “lack of commitment” and not “following the process”. But why is there lack of commitment, and why aren’t processes followed? Here are a few of the reasons that I’ve seen:
Why do improvement efforts fail or perhaps not sustain the gains? There are many reasons, but those most often stated are “lack of commitment” and not “following the process”. But why is there lack of commitment, and why aren’t processes followed? Here are a few of the reasons that I’ve seen:
See More
When a piece of production machinery broke down at the Whirlpool plant in Findlay, Ohio, several years back, it was accepted practice for the machine operator to call maintenance and then sit back and wait for the problem to be fixed. Critical information and knowledge was not shared between the operator and maintenance technician. Like many companies, these workers were stuck in traditional roles - operators run the machines, maintenance fixes the machines, and the two do not cross. As a result, productivity opportunities were missed.
When a piece of production machinery broke down at the Whirlpool plant in Findlay, Ohio, several years back, it was accepted practice for the machine operator to call maintenance and then sit back and wait for the problem to be fixed. Critical information and knowledge was not shared between the operator and maintenance technician. Like many companies, these workers were stuck in traditional roles - operators run the machines, maintenance fixes the machines, and the two do not cross. As a result, productivity opportunities were missed.
See More
Many managers are unaware that best-in-class companies routinely design-out maintenance at the inception of a project. That, clearly, is the first key to highest equipment reliability and plant profitability. Whenever maintenance events occur as time goes on, the real industry leaders see every one of these events as an opportunity to upgrade. Indeed, upgrading is the second key, and upgrading is the job of highly trained, well-organized, knowledgeable reliability professionals.
Many managers are unaware that best-in-class companies routinely design-out maintenance at the inception of a project. That, clearly, is the first key to highest equipment reliability and plant profitability. Whenever maintenance events occur as time goes on, the real industry leaders see every one of these events as an opportunity to upgrade. Indeed, upgrading is the second key, and upgrading is the job of highly trained, well-organized, knowledgeable reliability professionals.
See More
The true translation — might it be proper to say a new and improved translation? — is being used today by Cervecería Cuauhtemoc Moctezuma, one of the largest brewers of beer in Latin America. Known throughout this company as Mantenimiento Alto Desempeño (MAD), or translated as High-Performance Maintenance, the concept of TPM is alive and well at the company's six plants in Mexico. Perhaps the best example is at CCM's brewery in Tecate, located a short drive from the U.S.-Mexico border on the Baja California peninsula.
The true translation — might it be proper to say a new and improved translation? — is being used today by Cervecería Cuauhtemoc Moctezuma, one of the largest brewers of beer in Latin America. Known throughout this company as Mantenimiento Alto Desempeño (MAD), or translated as High-Performance Maintenance, the concept of TPM is alive and well at the company's six plants in Mexico. Perhaps the best example is at CCM's brewery in Tecate, located a short drive from the U.S.-Mexico border on the Baja California peninsula.
See More