6 Tips to Keep Your Machines Running Better for Longer
If your business uses a lot of machine shop and engineering services, you rely on on your machines to get your work done. Any down time costs you money. Additionally machine shop repair costs are often high when work on your equipment needs to be done. There are things you can do to keep those machine shop repair costs to a minimum. The key to that is to perform routine maintenance.
- Put maintenance on the schedule. It is harder to delay doing the maintenance you need to do when you have it on the calendar. Your equipment and tools need to be properly maintained and cared for if you want to make sure they stay working in the correct manner and to prevent them from needing service. If your business uses a lathe, you need to schedule maintenance for it to avoid needing to have lathe repair services done. The more you use a machine, the more often it will need care and feeding. If you use your power tools a lot, they will get a lot more wear and tear than the tools and equipment you may not use as frequently. Many tools and machines need to be looked at twice a year. If you have people using a tool 24 hours a day, that tool or piece of equipment might need to be maintained more often, say every 30 to 90 days.
- Appoint workers to handle maintaining your tools and equipment. When everyone is responsible for a task, no one really is. You should assign the role of managing the maintenance of your tools and equipment to a specific staff member. You might want to make this a rotating position so one person or a few people do not get burned out and because that will bring home the point the the proper maintenance of equipment and the reduction in machine shop repair costs is something everyone who works for your should care about.
- Get your management team on board with your maintenance schedule. Your management team needs to set the example for the rest of your workers. If they are not committed to keeping your machine shop repair costs down, you can bet that no one else in your company is going to take this seriously. If they start to set production goals that interfere with the maintenance of your tools and equipment, you will have problems getting that maintenance done the way it needs to be done. You need them to understand that if any machinery breaks down, it will cost a lot to repair but also that can shut production down completely and that just adds to your costs and does nothing good for your bottom line.
- Develop a system to monitor the maintenance. You can use a software application to keep track of all maintenance work that is done on your tools and equipment or you can keep written records. This will help you manage both the maintenance but help you keep track of what tools and equipment need repairs and when they are done. You can then run periodic audits of the state of your tools and equipment and know where you stand on this front. If you have to have power tool repair service done or precision machine repairs, you need to keep track of that.
- Make sure you are doing the right maintenance on your tools and equipment. If you are doing the wrong kind of maintenance or are doing things to you tools and equipment that are not helpful, you can do more harm than good and end up increasing rather than decreasing your machine shop repair costs. Look to the manufacturers recommendations for the tools and equipment you have in your shop. If you are not sure how to properly care for some of your tools and equipment, you can contact the manufacturer for guidance.
- Have spare parts on hand. There are items and parts that you know need to be replaced more often than others. Have some of those on hand so when they need to be replaced, your workers can do that.
By doing the right preventative maintenance, you can cut your machine shop costs.
