The Importance of Spare Parts Management in Production and Maintenance

Handling Concepts' Spare Parts Management Box

In 2018, Oneserve commissioned a survey that found most manufacturers experienced machinery downtime every 2.5 months, costing on average £12,042 each time. Over a year, this means your business could lose over £60,000 because of machinery breakdowns. The impact of this is not only costly but can also result in delivery delays, which can reduce customer satisfaction.

You can ensure that you minimise the risk of breakdown by adopting a strategy for managing spare parts and machinery maintenance.

1. Reactive Maintenance

Some organisations adopt the approach of ‘if it isn’t broken, don’t fix it’ but when things do break, you have to react quickly and quickly is not always possible. If you choose this reactive approach to machinery maintenance, you are in the hands of your contractor to be available at short notice and on your supplier to have the necessary parts available. If this is not possible, you are immediately forced into a production line shut down and resuming operations is out of your hands. This results in production time lost, causing a knock-on effect to your product throughput and sales. When spare parts are needed urgently, you are likely to have to pay a premium cost for expedited shipping, if the parts are available.

2. Preventive or Scheduled Maintenance

A preventative maintenance plan will help you keep ahead of the game. Scheduled maintenance, at regular intervals, enables you to plan your machine downtime to avoid production disruption. By performing regular thorough examinations on lifting equipment, this should be every 6 months, you can keep an accurate record of your machine’s condition, and worn parts can be identified and replaced before they break and cause an issue.

To fully optimise your production equipment, preventative maintenance strategies include setting up a dedicated spare parts system that should include all components that wear easily, are critical to the performance of the machine or are difficult to source. By collaborating with a material handling equipment supplier like Handling Concepts, you can remove the burden of managing your service, maintenance, and spares activities. Handling Concepts offers all customers a critical spares package, tailored to every piece of equipment. It is provided in an easy to store box and features an itemised list, so that you are confident that you always have the right spares and if a part is damaged or worn, it can be replaced quickly.

You can learn more about critical spares packages by visiting the dedicated page on the Handling Concepts website.

3. Predictive Maintenance

With the rise of Industry 4.0, predictive maintenance is a strategy that is becoming more desirable. This technology uses machine learning algorithms and data collected from various automated sensors to monitor performance of your machine around the clock. This enables you to easily assess your equipment and predict which components will break before and failure takes place.

Predictive maintenance has had a slow uptake from businesses because of the additional cost, but it is a worthwhile investment that can help you avoid a run-to-failure system and remove the need to replace a part while it still has life. This means that in the long-term, you will save costs. When considering your next materials handling investment, ask your supplier about the cost and benefits that you could achieve by choosing to implement predictive maintenance features for your machine.

Which Strategy is Best?

Most businesses rely on a mix and match of all three strategies for spare parts management so that they can fairly balance cost with the impact of unplanned downtime. Creating a risk analysis of your critical components considering, which parts see everyday use, which parts have long lead times, and which parts can be easily stored are all considerations during this analysis.

Using a material handling supplier like Handling Concepts enables you to spend more time doing what you do best, rather than worrying about your equipment’s condition and spare parts management. You can protect your valuable assets with a high-quality spares packages, tailored service plans and LOLER inspections.

Take the burden of equipment maintenance of your shoulders by contacting Handling Concept today.

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