Mac Davis

A messy powder filler is fed by a pair of pneumatic indexing cylinders. They gate bottles into the filler one at a time. But there is a problem: When you start the line it runs perfectly. Crisp, fast index strokes. About two minutes in, the cylinders start getting lazy. Strokes slow down. Bottles start arriving late. Then the indexers barely move and the filler starves. Stop the line for a bit. Restart. Perfect again... for about two minutes. Over and over. All shift. You have a peek a the...

Maintenance turnarounds can be a lot of work, but they're even more work if you do them the hard way. There are 3 clear pieces that need to work well in order to make the turnaround go fast. 1. A roadmap built on what's actually constraining you. Most plants don't know their maintenance constraints or maintenance goals such that they can communicate them cleanly. When leading a turnaround, I always recommend that the department aim to "return every machine to standard." How does one do that? ...

Most manufacturers think they're short on maintenance techs, parts budget, and machine availability. But it's almost impossible to be short on all 3. In every situation only one of these is your actual constraint. You need to know which one it is and here's how you figure it out. Maintenance techs: You need 1 to 2 techs per shift who can respond immediately to whatever might break on the floor. These techs should only be assigned to work that can be quickly set down like building parts...