Introduction:
The efficiency & effectiveness of Dairy Equipment at all essential points of the process is to have a maintenance system in place which is fundamental to achieving optimal performance in any milk plant. One of the real situations I faced in my career describes the importance of a maintenance system.
My cell phone start ringing, I was a bit nervous then, who is this calling at midnight? I pick up my phone and the call was from one of my customers. I get up from my bed, took my phone, and went out of the bedroom as I do not want to disturb my family members who were sleeping peacefully.
There is an issue with the milk pasteurizer, the flow rate is much low, and the customer is not able to process the milk. The shift-in-charge who called me was under tremendous pressure. We had a long conversation to understand the issue. The whole intention was to see if they can do something to manage the issue for the time being. They will process the milk and send it to market early morning. It will be an embracing situation if they will not be able to send milk pouches in time.
Even after a long conversation, we were not able to resolve the issue. The customer requested to start immediately hiring a private taxi and agreed to make the payment. The equipment was out of warranty and not under the Annual Maintenance Contract too. The situation was critical and after all, it is my customer, so I book a taxi and left for the site which is almost 110 Km from my residence.
I reached around 1:30 in the night, inspect the equipment, identified the issue with the Pump Seal, and replaced the same. The pasteurizer started working, they managed to deliver milk to the market three hours late.
The Plant Manager requested me to stay back for the day for a discussion with their General Manager to explain the cause of the failure. We had a meeting with the GM in presence of their technical staff.
The question raised by the GM was why this happened. I explained the issue with the Pump Seal. The Pump Seal failed due to normal wear & tear of the carbon bush. This could have been identified if inspected at regular intervals.
What happened today is only because the equipment is not maintained properly. There is no Annual Maintenance Contract, and your team is not maintaining essential spare parts too. We are lucky that I have the spares with me and with good faith I replaced the same.
Now you will have to pay me the cost of spares, my traveling expenses, service charges and the hassles and pain we took is extra to this. The General Manager understood the importance and entered into an Annual Maintenance Contract immediately.
This could happen with any Dairy Equipment to anyone. Most of the time we consider AMC and Spare Stock as an additional expense that can be managed. Then we come across a situation when we spend a lot more. Sometimes we become unable to save the product and our established market.
In this blog, I am going to describe 06 (Six) Tips that will save us from unwanted situations, spoilage of products, downtime of the machinery, and loss of faith in the market.
01. Create a Maintenance Schedule
Maintenance is a set of organized activities that are carried out to keep the equipment in its best operational condition with minimum cost acquired. They are of mainly three types.
- Preventive Maintenance
- Predictive Maintenance
- Break-Down Maintenance
Preventative maintenance is carried out at predetermined intervals or according to prescribed criteria to reduce the probability of failure or the degradation of the functioning of individual components in the machine or system.
The advantages of preventative maintenance are,
- Keeps equipment in good condition and prevent a bigger problem.
- Extends the useful life of the equipment.
- Helps to identify a small problem before it became a big one.
- It is an excellent training tool for new technicians.
- It keeps equipment safer.
- Assists in optimizing Spare Parts stock.
- Reduces unplanned downtime.
To make preventative maintenance effective we must have a Preventative Maintenance Plan and Schedule. The steps given below are key factors to create a Preventative Maintenance Schedule.
- Take inventory of the machinery and prioritize equipment by Maintenance needs. Calculate the Risk Priority Number (RPN).
RPN = Severity x Occurrence x Detection
- Collect historical data on each piece of equipment to identify what types of problems each asset presented and how often.
- Make projections about equipment maintenance needs based on equipment manufacturer recommendations.
- Determine ideal preventive maintenance intervals based on a dating frequency, running hours, or measures that will provide insight into the condition of the equipment.
- Allocate workers or contractors including the estimated working hours. Maintain spare parts.
- Monitor the progress and adjust intervals as required and expand your preventive maintenance program.
The following two factors need to be understood to overcome the challenges in implementing Preventive Maintenance.
Social Factor:
- Organizations are frequently structured in ways that promote local optimums such as cost, output goals, etc.
- The benefits of Preventative Maintenance are not always understood
- The focus on minimizing maintenance costs must shift to maximizing overall organizational performance
Technical Factor:
- Crisis/Emergency Maintenance is typically cheaper than Preventative Maintenance in the short term.
- Under-Trained technicians can cause more damage than they prevent
The following elements play an important role in successfully scheduling and executing Preventive Maintenance.
- Leader & Trained Technical Force
- Training & Facilities
- Spares & Consumables
- Tools & Tackles
02. Keep the Dairy Equipment Clean
Father of our nation Mahatma Gandhi has said “Cleanliness is next to Godliness”, which itself implies the importance of cleaning.
Cleaning means the removal of residues deposited both at the internal and external surfaces of the equipment. The dart & dust stick to the outer surface and moving parts of the equipment causes breakage or loss of movement. Many times, when dust & dirt comes in contact with moisture and other chemicals, causes rusting/oxidation of many components of the equipment.
Further, when the equipment is cleaned equipment, it becomes easy to inspect the equipment during any fault or breakdown and to identify the components for any physical damage.
Cleaning becomes more vital when it comes to Dairy Industries. When components and surfaces come into contact with milk and are not cleaned properly the bacteria/ microorganisms grow faster. This cause deteriorates the quality of milk and sometimes spoils the whole milk.
The following factors affect the cleaning. Balancing these factors will produce the best possible results.
- Cleaning Methods
- Soils Present
- Type of Equipment
- Surfaces to Clean
- Detergent
- Temperature
- Mechanical Force
Once decided which cleaning techniques to use, it is required to implement regular cleaning practices, making the equipment safer for use.
Equipment cleaned with the right products and methods will help ensure fewer breakdowns of machinery parts.
03. Have an AMC for the Dairy Equipment
Annual Maintenance Contract or simply AMC is another point that should be considered to keep the equipment safe. AMC is the most advantageous for equipment owners who do not have the necessary manpower to maintain the equipment on their own.
The term AMC is defined as a contract between the owner of the equipment and the service provider where the service provider maintains the equipment as per the mutually agreed terms and conditions.
It is always preferred to enter into an AMC with the equipment supplier as they know their equipment well and, they provide/supply required spare parts and consumables during maintenance.
AMC can be done with other service providers apart from the manufacturer depending on the criticality of the equipment and availability of spare & consumables locally.
The 05 reasons given below that explain the advantages of entering into an AMC.
- Expert & Trained Technician attend to the equipment.
- Emergency Support is provided as and when required.
- It Saves Money and provision can be made for budget easily.
- Not much fluctuation/variation in maintenance expenses.
- No worry about maintenance, so the focus can be made on other things.
There is an argument that paying for AMC is a waste, as sometimes, payment is made for maintenance when no real work is required. But until those maintenance checks have been carried out, there’s no way of knowing whether there’s a problem that needs to be addressed or not.
AMC gives peace of mind knowing that an expert & trained service team is taking care of the equipment and they are within reach for any emergency. It is not a waste of money for all.
After all experience peace of mind and other advantages knowing that your technology is working when it matters most with an Annual Maintenance Contract
04. Maintain Recommended Spare Parts
Keeping stock of spare parts is highly recommended regardless of whether the equipment is within warranty or out of warranty and within AMC or maintained by your own maintenance team.
When a part is found defective it can mitigate the downtime of the equipment by having a spare available for a replacement right away.
Even though the maintenance technician/engineer takes time to travel to the site still he can guide the operator / technical person present near the equipment over the phone/video call to replace the defective component to run the equipment till he reaches the site for a thorough checkup.
Recommended Spare Parts stock always leads to
- High Service Level
- Reduction of unwanted Expenses
- Proper Repairs – no adjustments (jugad)
- Enhanced Equipment Uptime
With all the above advantages, there is always a cost associated with maintaining the stock of spares. That is why it is essential for managing the inventory to ensure the lowest overall cost of spare parts possible without compromising availability.
These are a few tips to help manage spare parts stocks.
- Analyze the Operating Strategy
- Understand the Need for Spare Parts
- Lead Time & Streamline of the Work Order Process
- Classification and systematic Identification of all Spare Parts
- Risk Factor & Adopt Security Measures
- Give every part a stock location so employees can easily locate
- Use an Automated Inventory Control System
05. Keep the Maintenance Record Book Up to Date
A maintenance Record Book or Maintenance Register is a document that records each maintenance and repair work carried out on a particular piece of equipment. It is a health report card of that equipment.
In its simper format, the register must have the following information,
- Date & Time of Maintenance.
- Type of Maintenance – Preventive or Breakdown.
- Equipment Details such as Name, Model, and Serial Number.
- Spare Parts or Consumable Used during said Maintenance.
- Name of the person attending the Machine for Maintenance.
- Any recommendation before the next Schedule Maintenance
- Standard Performance Parameter vs actual Performance Parameters.
There are several benefits of keeping maintenance records. Some of them are given below.
- Prevent Expensive Repairs
- Elevates the safety of machine operators
- Simplify Budgeting and Capital Expenditures
- Prevent problems regarding Warranty Claims
- It increases the resale value of the equipment
- Reduce Labor Workload thus increasing productivity
- Enhance the health visibility of each piece of equipment
- It identifies trends across makes, models, or components
- Helps to create individualized/specialized maintenance programs
- Make it easy to track who is accountable for a piece of equipment
- Narrow down spare parts requirement thus simplifying Inventory
06. Have a Good Relationship with the Equipment Provider
A healthy relationship with the equipment provider is one of the important essential factors to keep the efficiency of the equipment at its peak and thus bring profitability to the business.
Both the equipment supplier and the end users are mutually dependent. A strong relationship with suppliers is considered the foundation of a company’s overall success.
All though may have a mindset that building meaningful customer relationships is more beneficial to the supplier, the fact is that by establishing a mutually valuable relationship with key suppliers, an organization achieves long-term cost savings.
It is not that because you’re paying out money to your supplier doesn’t mean that you’re always on the upper hand and the power is with you. It needs to be a two-way street.
The benefits of a good relationship with the suppliers are,
- Lower Procurement Cost
- Improved Efficiency & Supplier Quality
- Improve stability and reduce the risk of pricing volatility
- Reduce costs by consolidating Supply Chain
- Continual Improvement with the exchange of ideas & feedback
Knowing the benefits of a healthy relationship with the supplier now it is important to know how to maintain that relationship that is beneficial to the organization. Here are some tips to have better Supplier Relationship Management.
- Be aware of cultural differences while dealing with international suppliers.
- Setting a channel for Effective Communication is to maintain transparency.
- Set the tone to have a better first impression and start in the right way.
- Understand your suppliers, be familiar with their business positions, their purpose, and how they operate
- Pay them promptly, if it isn’t possible sometimes, give them an honest reason and stick to your promise.
- Meet your suppliers in person to strengthen your relationship
- Be as honest as possible in case of exceptions to a normal procedure to find a solution amicably.
- Ensure everyone in your business is on the same page
A strong and healthy relationship with suppliers helps to mitigate disagreement, make it easier to negotiate, and can have a longer deal. Being a favorite customer many times the supplier gives priority and helps by going out of the way too. So it is in your best interest, then, to develop a trusting, human relationship with the equipment provider.
Conclusion:
I have spent a quite reasonable tenure of my career in customer service dealing with installation and after-sales services. I have come across many situations where the machine breaks down mainly due to no or poor maintenance. Non-availability of spares & consumables always leads to long breaks down, loss of production, and losing consumers due to interrupted supply.
The growing demand for dairy products has forced dairies to be flexible in their production procedure and this has raised more expectations on the maintenance team to ensure better working conditions for the equipment.
Reputed organizations understand the importance of maintenance. Either they have their exclusive maintenance team, or they enter into an Annual Maintenance Contract.