Published on October 9, 2024
Discover how connected worker apps empower production and maintenance workers to improve asset performance.
One of the biggest challenges in manufacturing is ensuring equipment is running optimally and to schedule. Maintenance is key, but requires support from operators working on the line to maximize its effectiveness.
A connected worker app empowers production and maintenance workers to improve asset performance through easy access to critical machine information, and improved communication, while offering managers visibility into daily operations.
Increase Productivity by Reducing Unplanned Downtime
Unplanned downtime can take the form of a complete breakdown or repeated microstoppages throughout a shift. Idle machines and people both represent waste, but arguably, the cumulative effect of micro-stoppages (frequent, but quickly rectified halts) is the bigger and more challenging problem.
The job of the Maintenance team is to prevent these kinds of problems. That’s usually done by taking equipment out of service periodically (planned downtime) for checks, lubrication and replacement of consumables like filters or worn parts.
The challenge is to optimize the frequency and the work done. Do too much and you’re eating into valuable production capacity. Do too little, or the wrong type, and breakdowns and stoppages will remain a problem. This is where a connected worker app like Poka can help. First though, we need to understand the various maintenance strategies manufacturers employ and why they do so.
Understanding Maintenance Needs in Manufacturing
Most manufacturers use a preventive maintenance (PM) strategy for essential equipment. In an effort to reduce downtime, some are turning to predictive maintenance (PdM). Let’s take a look at each of these.
Preventive maintenance refers to carrying out work that will prevent accelerated wear and breakdowns. It’s done on a calendar time or running hours basis and involves stopping the line or machine while a technician goes through a list of tasks.
This rarely prevents every type of failure, (if it did, we might argue that too much work is being done), so corrective maintenance is often needed later to address problems as they arise.
PdM is different. Rather than trying to prevent problems, it involves sensing aspects of the equipment that can indicate when problems are about to occur. This condition monitoring activity requires instrumenting machinery with sensors for characteristics like temperature, vibration, flow rates and pressures and even oil condition.
Signals from condition monitoring sensors are logged and trends identified. Maintenance work is carried out when changes indicate an increasing probability of failure. Advanced predictive maintenance systems use AI to identify patterns indicating future failures. The goal is to reduce both planned and unplanned downtime, but results depend on the level of instrumentation implemented.
This data can then be used to create digital work instructions, log issues and create tasks within a connected worker platform like Poka to ensure frontline workers are performing autonomous maintenance tasks to standard, and let managers know if and when the work is completed.
Measuring Maintenance Performance in Manufacturing
Manufacturers who are serious about improving asset availability use a number of metrics to measure performance and identify improvement opportunities. The most widely used are:
- OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness): Indicates how well a manufacturer is using productive assets. Losses due to quality, poor utilization and low performance are measured. While none are explicit maintenance measures, effective maintenance is key to achieving consistently high OEE.
- Asset Utilization: Similar to OEE, this can provide a clearer view of when poor maintenance is reducing equipment utilization.
- MTBF (Mean Time Between Failures): Measures the reliability of a specific item or machine. Increasing MTBF indicates PM is effective, while a falling number can mean the wrong repair work is being done or the machine is wearing out.
- MTTR (Mean Time to Repair): This indicates the average time needed for each repair. A low number suggests the problems are minor. A high number implies a need for technician training or machine improvements.
- PMP (Planned Maintenance Percentage): Calculated by dividing planned maintenance hours by total maintenance hours. A high number suggests PM is effective in terms of reducing breakdowns, while a low number indicates a maintenance team struggling to fight “fires”.
Role of a Connected Worker App in Manufacturing Maintenance
Two keys to effective manufacturing maintenance are: identifying problems early, while they are still small, and doing every task to standard. Poka’s connected worker app helps with both.
Poka runs across web, iOS and Android platforms on computers, tablets and smartphones. Linked to core systems like ERP, the QMS and the CMMS, Poka’s connected worker app supports operators by providing on-the-floor access to digital work instructions, troubleshooting solutions, forms and checklists and communication features. It helps these operators perform operations, inspections and autonomous maintenance tasks to standard, and collaborate with subject matter experts to solve problems faster.
Personnel can use the app to track issues that include photos, videos and tags to equipment. This history of issues organized by machine becomes a goldmine of insights for maintenance and process engineers looking to understand the root cause of downtime and micro-stoppages. Issues that require maintenance attention can automatically trigger a work order in a separate CMMS. As the work order status gets updated in the CMMS, frontline workers can see an update in Poka and have confidence that the issue is being addressed. With the Factory Feed, maintenance can let everyone know when the breakdown is fixed and production is resuming.
Key Use Cases for Improving Maintenance Performance
Five common use cases illustrate some of the ways Poka’s connected worker app supports manufacturing maintenance.
Lock-Out-Tag-Out (LOTO)
LOTO ensures equipment is safely de-energized before maintenance work is carried out.
Machine-specific LOTO instructions can be stored along with all other machine documentation in a connected worker app and links can be included in maintenance work orders. This helps those working on the equipment complete work to standard, keeps them safe from any unintended or unexpected machine movements and improves LOTO compliance.
Autonomous Maintenance
Engaging the frontline operators to perform frequent, smaller maintenance tasks is a key strategy in TPM. But making sure tasks like CIL are performed on time and to standard is critical.. A connected worker app can ensure CIL training is effective, that assigned CIL tasks are completed properly, and that any deviations identified are quickly flagged and escalated.
Preventive Maintenance Rounds
A large part of PM work comprises visiting machines to perform inspections, make adjustments and attend to lubrication and greasing. This helps identify future work needs, reducing breakdowns and prolonging asset life.
For efficiency, rounds are often planned as a route, letting a technician visit the machines in a logical order. A connected worker app can store the route map, and provide a digital checklist to ensure every step is covered and data consistently captured. Photos can be captured and used to compare current conditions, and information can be recorded for evidence that the inspections were performed.
Condition Monitoring
Machine condition monitoring tracks a machine’s health over time by assessing factors like efficiency, wear and tear, performance (e.g., temperature, pressure) and usage or maintenance data. This helps identify potential issues early.
A connected worker app like Poka offers comprehensive tools for effective condition monitoring management. Users can easily create and share customized forms and checklists, utilizing mobile technology to monitor conditions on-site and flag abnormalities for quick resolution. Operators can log issues with detailed visuals, triggering automated notifications to ensure prompt action and accountability.
A centralized digital hub provides access to work instructions and troubleshooting resources, while training programs standardize skills and track competencies. Users can also generate dashboards to analyze trends, deviations and common issues, fostering continuous improvement. Finally, the system enhances communication by notifying relevant personnel of abnormalities, sharing best practices and celebrating team successes to boost morale and engagement.
Equipment Outages
Stoppages reduce output and OEE. Effective PM and PdM play an important role in reducing machine downtime, but so too can empowered frontline workers.
Waiting for maintenance technicians to come to the shop floor to address downtime wastes precious moments. By building a library of troubleshooting solutions to common problems, frontline workers can quickly and autonomously solve problems. And if they can’t find the answer themselves, taking a photo or video or the problem, and creating an issue in Poka with a tag to the equipment will automatically trigger notifications to subject-matter experts. The team can then collaborate in real-time, remotely helping to solve the problem faster, often without needing a technician to come to the floor.
Benefits of a Connected Worker App for Manufacturing Maintenance
The use cases presented here show just a few of the ways a connected worker app like Poka improves maintenance reporting and asset availability. To recap, some of the benefits are:
- Identify and resolve issues faster
- Provide easy access to all equipment information in a single platform
- Streamline and standardize maintenance training and certifications
- Empower collaboration for optimal team performance
- Ensure maintenance processes are followed to standard
- Capture, analyze and gain insight on downtime issues to help with RCA
Improve Asset Performance with Poka
Manufacturing maintenance reduces business expenses, prolongs asset life and gives operators and managers the resources necessary to satisfy customer orders. A connected worker app improves maintenance effectiveness by empowering workers, standardizing how work is done and giving everyone access to the information they need to do their jobs better and quicker.
If you’re looking for ways to improve maintenance and increase asset availability, perhaps it’s time to learn more about Poka. Contact us to discuss how our connected worker app helps optimize maintenance activities.
