In any production or manufacturing environment, the most critical and fundamental thing is to make sure you continuously send finished product down the line.
Given that many modern production lines are a combination of lots of iterative processes, it stands to reason there are also lots of potential points of failure. And in the case of a production line, failure means stopping the line, which means downtime and sleepless nights for all but the most reckless Production Managers!
So how do you mitigate against points of failure in your production environment?
Key to overcoming downtime is proactivity. Monitoring when things go wrong and on what part of the line can be enormously beneficial in spotting patterns and allows you to divert resources to preventative maintenance or to change your routines to accommodate issues before they occur.
How you go about this depends on the complexity of your line. In a smaller environment, manually keeping a log of issues and times might be sufficient to help develop a preventative maintenance plan.
Whereas a large 24/7 continuous setup might employ AI or machine learning tools to take multiple feeds of data. From split-second throughput rates to voltage levels providing sufficient insight to build up highly accurate models capable of determining the optimal predictive maintenance plan.
Training is also vital to ensure that operators and engineers interacting with machinery on the line are adequately trained. Having heard stories of production line equipment being jet washed (yes…jet washed…!!), it’s safe to say that common sense doesn’t always prevail. Investing in regular training and adopting standard operating procedures goes a long way towards removing human risk.
Procurement processes have a part to play too, as not all machines or suppliers are born equal. Consideration should be given to a range of factors depending on your circumstances. Is machine size or access for servicing an issue? What warranty is on offer, and is that on-site or return to base? Can your own engineering team handle maintenance, or will a service engineer call-out be required?
Arguably, if you get the last part right, then the level of risk mitigation is reduced from the word go.
In the barcoding, labelling and automation world, the solutions we provide are at the end of the production line. As such, if things go wrong and product starts to back up, the entire line is affected.
To reassure our customers that our print and apply labelling systems won’t be the point of failure, we take warranty, servicing and reliability of our machinery very seriously.
- We offer an industry-leading three-year warranty on all our Print and Apply Systems
- We offer a fixed price three-year service pack which includes:
- Year 1 – healthcheck with all parts reviewed, checked and replaced if necessary
- Year 2 – overhaul, where springs, rollers and moving parts are routinely replaced
- Year 3 – healthcheck with all parts reviewed, checked and replaced if necessary
- Our service pack also includes replacement of ALL print heads for the duration of the service pack.
- Training is provided at the outset when one of our solutions is commissioned and installed for both engineers and operators. We are also happy to offer ad-hoc or refresher training for new starters when required.
- Spare parts kits are available for all our systems which include common parts which can be easily replaced by your own engineering teams
- Our print engines can be ‘hot swapped’ on the line in under five minutes and your own engineering team can do this, so we also offer spare hot swap print engines for absolute peace of mind.
- Print engines all come with a three year return to base warranty so if you do need to hot swap an engine, simply send it back to us and we’ll refurbish it to new standard and return it within five days.
If reliability or maintenance with your existing barcode label print and apply solution has caused you downtime or production headaches, we can help.
