Prevention is better than cure – A real-life example

At one of its facilities, a major German mineral water and soft drinks producer operates four Krones blow-moulding machines from different series, built between 1999 and 2003. Over the course of years, the machines’ susceptibility to malfunctions beganto rise, causing increased maintenance costs for theclient, who accordingly sought for ways to reduce these costs and minimise his downtimes for a calculable outlay. In order to reduce the overall costs involved, Krones adopted what at first glance would seem the unusual approach of increasing the amount of work concerned, and thus the costs for the scheduled maintenance routines. But simultaneously the incidence of unplanned maintenance work was thereby reduced to a minimum, as were the indirect costs entailed by a line standstill, which meant the total costs were substantially cut.

The client and Krones concluded a maintenance agreement covering the following scope of work:

• care and continual optimisation of spare parts inventories on site,
• performing minor repair jobs within the frame work of the inspection/maintenance visits,
• replacing wear parts within the framework of the inspection/maintenance visits,
• advance planning of the inspection/maintenance visits,
• planning and performing the annual overhaul.

All measures are planned and carried out in consultations with the staff on site.

Preventive and condition-responsive maintenance
Eleven times a year, each machine is given a one-day inspection. These inspection/maintenance visits also cover minor repair jobs and replacement of wear parts. Once a year, each machine is given a complete and thorough four-day overhaul. The scheduling here, of course, is fine-tuned in close consultations with the operator. Krones’ fitters carry out these preventive and condition-responsive maintenance routines. Krones also provides a spare parts stock on site, with important spares and wear parts for assuring line availability. Consultations are held with the client to decide which parts are to be stored on site in what quantities. The inventories are continually optimised, to suit the current situation. Repairs are included in the lump-sum price, unless of course they are attributable to inappropriate handling.

Costs swiftly recouped
The shared goal of saving costs overall was quickly achieved. The agreement enabled the incidence of unplanned jobs to be minimised, with lengthy unplanned standstills being eliminated almost entirely. This objective was accomplished by having the machines continually cared for by the same Krones personnel, who possess accurate knowledge of the progress of wear, the machines’ “idiosyncrasies” and the duty conditions involved, and can thus carry out purposefully preventive, condition-responsive maintenance. Sensible planning enables the fitters’ deployment to be efficiently managed, with concomitant savings in costs. The carefully chosen stocks of spare parts on site minimise the downtimes due to technical failures.

For the operator of the four blow-moulding machines, the maintenance agreement has paid off very quickly.