Annual Shutdowns for Manufacturing Plant

alive15

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Good afternoon all,

What are your thoughts on having an annual shutdown vs not having an annual shutdown for a plant with big, heavy machinery? Have you experienced working at a facility that skipped annual shutdown, and if so what were the repercussions?

Our company is discussing whether or not to have an annual shutdown in the upcoming year. Usually, this is when we clean machines out really well, replace any worn parts, etc. Recently, we have been changing parts at the moment they break, and not doing too much preventative maintenance, in order to increase production and doing general PMs and cleaning only when necessary or if time allows, not on a routine basis. Obviously, this is not good for the health of the machine, but risk vs reward. The thought process here is despite having an annual shutdown, our machines still have major issues throughout the year; catastrophes happen because they can, so why waste two weeks for a shutdown when we can run all year and just deal with the problems as they occur?

Thanks,
 
It always depends on the facility and the processes. Some things can only be done during a cold iron shutdown, but that doesn't necessarily mean the entire facility needs to shut down. I've heard of places that shut down for the opening of deer season because they know the bulk of the workforce wouldn't show up if they tried to stay open.
But I will say that cancelling a shutdown simply because "stuff breaks down whether or not we schedule downtime" doesn't sound like the smartest strategy I've ever heard.
 
I worked in a factory that had exactly this discussion.

"The machines haven't been running that great lately so we're a few days behind on our production schedule. We're going to push the annual maintenance shut back by two months to try and catch up"

~Two months later~

"Wow, the machines have for some strange reason continued to not run terribly well and now we're over a week behind on our schedule. We're going to push the shutdown back to the end of the year,"

~Two months later, halfway to the end of the year~

"Geez, these machines are just running worse and worse. I wonder why? Well, one thing is for sure. With all these frequent breakdowns we definitely can't afford the downtime for an annual shut this year. We'll just skip this one and do it next year as scheduled."

~Early the following year~

"Our production is the worst it's been in years. Why are our machines constantly breaking down? I know! It must be the maintenance crew's fault! Let's shout at them all and tell them to do a better job of keeping the machines running!"

I left that job shortly afterward. Leaving that place was one of the best decisions I ever made, even if it was partially made for me*

*because they kept missing production deadlines, they lost a major contract, so to cut costs they decided to make some of their maintenance staff redundant. Since I was the most annoying maintenance electrician (i.e. the one that kept calling them out on their poor maintenance decisions) I was target #1. I have no regrets.
 
24/7 operations that don't take regular shutdowns for maintenance are run into the ground by the bean counters. Note the keyword "regular". If catastrophes keep happening between annual shutdowns, it means annual isn't often enough. Or nobody is analyzing the entire operation to determine what parts and how often to preemptively replace.
 
the 2 week shut down is planned for the usual big item stuff and the other odds and ends. plus what ever you find doing the big maintenance items.

yes, the equipment will still break down, but not for the big maintenance items.
i was in a steel mill for 8 years with 2 weeks in july and 2 in december.

those 2 weeks were a blessing.
james
 
It really does depend on the plant and process.

I work in the water industry. We operate 24/7. There are annual shutdowns, but we typically have sufficient redundancy that one train or process can be taken off line most times of the year. So equipment is generally maintained at regular intervals outside of peak seasons.

One of the most interesting exercises I was involved in was implementing RCM (Reliability Centred Maintenance) at a large wastewater plant. We completely revised our approach to maintenance, and some items we'd been wasting time and effort on became run to fail. Others we had completely overlooked end up on regular inspection rounds. If i remember correctly there was one solenoid valve on the odour scrubber that no one had ever paid much attention to. Turns out after assessment, that if that valve failed, we'd end up non compliant with our odor discharge consent within a few hours, potentially facing a large fine. Needless to say that valve then got tested every 3 months and we made sure we always had a spare.

In short: get someone in who is a specialist in RCM. Review your plant and processes. Adjust your maintenance accordingly. If there's a significant cost to down time that gets factored in. Its time consuming but it's worth the effort.
 
Yes, my company is probably headed that way unfortunately. I think best for me is to get the cleaning and parts replacing done when something else unrelated breaks down. Maybe just set whatever parts need replacing by the machine, so when something else breaks down, I can say "hey, go ahead and replace this too since your in there already".

Thanks for the experiences.
 
I have in the past worked for a large company that performed annual shutdowns. A lot of project work and major maintenance got done during that week. A lot of machinery ran better if you never shut it down. I agree with others that it very much depends on the process and the machinery. The details are so very important to any sort of planned or predictive maintenance program.

It takes a lot of wisdom and expertise to get the best value from any maintenance program. There will always be things that go wrong because you failed to stop and perform maintenance. There will be a nearly equal number of things that go wrong because you did if the folks doing the planning as well as those turning the tools haven't thoroughly thought things through.
 
Yes, experience with the machines is very important. A lot of the same problems happen year after year, so having the know-a-about is crucial.

@JeremyM I work in a machining department, so our customer is the main assembly department. Some weeks are good, others are bad. If the main assembly department has issues, that gives us time to increase our inventory. I don't have a definition for "reliable"; I guess if we meet the demands of the assembly line, then the machines would be considered reliable, despite the minor and major breakdowns, no?
 
Sort of related - had a single speed stamping press that ran at a slow RPM. increasing the motor drive pulley size & larger drive belts would increase the RPM we figured 25%

The scheduled morning we were told the press had to run & we couldn't shut it down the anticipated 45 minutes. We kept getting pushed back hour by hour until 1 hour before 1st shift ended.


Turned out it ran about 33% faster than before and the production rate for 2nd shift was terrific. I pointed out if we had the 45 minutes that downtime would have been made up in less than 3 hours and then 1st shift would have produced more.


BTW - at that plant ALL breakdowns were the maintenance dept's fault for not keeping the machines running at the scheduled 120% productivity
 
I think the best place I worked with regards to annual shutdowns was a batch manufacturing facility with about 20 mixers and reactors. Each was scheduled to be taken out of production at a given month so we never had to stop, we'd simply shift production to another reactor or make stock to cover the two weeks and be done with.

There was one reactor that was tied to the annual shutdown of the customer (but then again, the reactor was useless without that customer) so we lined up the opportunity.

The utilities were maintained in... well, this weekend, the August bank holiday weekend, where the entire site stops and work is done from Saturday until completion.

I left that place and now envy that environment as it was pretty laid back.

Where I am now we do have an annual shutdown and although it's required, it's **** as everyone is trampling all over each other, jobs are rushed and tensions run high since a lot of people take the opportunity to be the big man and throw tantrums or make decisions that affect the overall ability of starting the plant, despite being told repeatedly what's a priority job. Couple that with million pound projects that have to be delivered over 2 weeks and it's a nightmare. I'm sure that when I leave, the reason will be the annual shutdowns.
 
I think mini shut downs are better than "Annual Shutdowns" unless your working at a nuclear plant... they have major down time for months a year but they need to.

I am in favor of pushing the limit for production, thats why we are there to make product not to do maintenance, the mini worked best from what I saw, but it also takes good planning and not just some stupid check list that was done sitting at a table.

ASF said:
I have no regrets.

The only regret I had was that I did not leaving sooner.

I hated that I was so frustrated at the lack of understanding of the process... we had a new supervisor come in and decided to shut the fans off on the AC units unless the units were calling for cooling or heating, I tried to explain to him that the ONLY way a clean room stays clean is if you keep positive pressure in the rooms, about 4 weeks later we started to see a huge spike in rejects, they turned the fans back on and the rejects went back down, but it cost the company a few hundred thousand, I told him 4 hours after he did it. I told the plant management about after a day and they just brushed me off but by that time I could not stand them and they hated me, I should of left years before.

I only had one person come to my retirement party.... and he did quit about a year before I did :)
 

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