How can you improve manufacturing reliability?

Manufacturing reliability is all about people. Engineers can ensure the best optimized parameter windows are specified and equipment maintenance can ensure a good reliable equipment to produce. But without the rightly trained operators, thinks can still go wrong. Training is not just how to use the machine correctly, but to instill to the team the importance of their job and the product their building and implications that could go wrong if we produce wrongly……eg. a faulty airbag system can cause life loss.

Identify team members with a passion for reliability and precision maintenance best practices. Not everyone has the same passions. Prioritize - create a criticality equipment list as they relate to manufacturers uptime expectations. Develop specific teams to support different reliability and precision maintenance best practices. i.e. Vibration analysis, Lubrication, Precision alignment etc. Educate! Educate! Educate! Execute! Execute! Execute! Finally, recognize and incentivize support teams for innovation, implementation and meeting or exceeding expectations!

Final product reliability basically relies on quality materials, efficient processes , and an effective quality control and measures. Manufacturing companies should keep up to the demands and requirements of the client, product applications and emerging product trends. Thus, they should continually improve by strengthening their manufacturing capabilities; manpower skills and competencies; research and development; and further improving and developing new ways to enhance product reliability.

Reliability goals must align with the mission and vision statements of the business. One of such is to build a high reliability organisation where everyone knows how he contributes to overall success of the business by establishing a reliability culture. Reliability metrics must be carefully selected to align with the culture of the team and help the business realise its long term objectives. People respond to metrics differently. This tends to shape how work is done. Often times, wrong responses to metrics do not yield desired business outcomes. Getting people to understand how they contribute and how their contributions are measured helps people and business performance.

Reliability in the rubber industry translates to consistent product quality, minimized downtime, and efficient production. To achieve this, it's crucial to set clear goals and track them using relevant metrics. Product Quality: Aim for zero defects, consistent properties like tensile strength, elasticity, and tear resistance, and adherence to desired specifications. Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE): Combines availability, performance, and quality into a single metric to assess equipment effectiveness. A high OEE signifies less downtime, efficient operation, and minimal defects. Downtime Rate: Tracks the percentage of time equipment is unavailable due to breakdowns, maintenance, or other issues.

In rubber industry we have the following points: Material selection: Analyze stress, wear, and chemical exposure. Choose durable, consistent compounds. Process optimization: Control temperature, pressure, and cure times for consistent quality. Automate key steps. Robust design: Minimize failure points. Use redundancy for critical functions. Consider fatigue and aging. Predictive maintenance: Monitor equipment health with sensors. Schedule maintenance proactively. Testing and validation: Thoroughly test prototypes and final products for functionality and durability. Continuous improvement: Analyze data, learn from failures, and iterate designs. Build reliability into your culture.

The important points to be considered in the selection of material is : Function: Identify the product's primary function and required properties like strength, elasticity, tear resistance, heat tolerance, and chemical resistance. Operating conditions: Consider temperature extremes, exposure to chemicals, UV radiation, and mechanical stresses. Cost and availability: Balance performance with cost and material availability.

Equipment maintenance: Implement a rigorous preventive maintenance program for rubber processing equipment like mixers, calenders, and curing presses. Regular lubrication, cleaning, and calibration are essential for reliable operation and consistent product quality. Process control: Use advanced process control systems with sensors and real-time monitoring to track key parameters like temperature, pressure, and curing time. This allows for adjustments to maintain optimal conditions and prevent defects. Molding and finishing: Implement robust mold design and maintenance practices to minimize flash formation and ensure consistent product dimensions and surface quality.

On the job training with the right people involved in my opinion is much more valuable than taking employees to an off site location and train in mass. Not always suitable but in situations where a facility is already in operation a knowledgeable person in one week can train/discuss/update the things 30+ employees need to know to do their job in the most cost/safety effective manner. This can be accomplished without interrupting the work schedule or unnecessary overtime which adds to the cost of training in the first place. My background is primarily in the paper industry with new and up and running facilities.

Our employees are the greatest advantage to achieving a successful reliability improvement. In my personal experience getting the employees involved and working with them to understand how their performance and workmanship affects the operational process, and allow them to see how they can help production uptime, quality, and cost control. Most employees want to be successful, so with including them and giving them decision rights we achieve greater results.

My experience as both an operator as well as a manager, has been employees need the classroom time before the OJT time. They need a basic understanding of the processes and equipment. To make sure the classroom training is effective, it has to be delivered effectively with a mixture of written explanations of the equipment and processes, but maybe even more important is visual aids such as pictures, videos, etc. Once this classroom training has been given, then it is equally important to have the OJT training as soon as possible after the classroom training, maybe even during the classroom training. This increases the chances the operators will have a better understanding of the processes or equipment once they complete the training.

Training is required and essential part: In-process testing: Implement non-destructive testing methods at various stages of production to monitor product quality and identify potential issues early. Final product testing: Conduct rigorous final product testing to ensure adherence to specifications and regulatory requirements. This may involve tensile strength tests, tear resistance tests, aging tests, and other relevant tests depending on the product. Data analysis and continuous improvement: Collect and analyze data from all stages of production to identify trends, track progress, and implement continuous improvement initiatives. This can involve statistical process control methods, root cause analysis, and lean manufacturing principles.

Selection of preventive and predictive maintenance is essentially based on the strategic management plan of the business with key consideration to available human resources and capital. Predictive maintenance helps early detection of failure, provides room for quick intervention, eliminates unnecessary intervention, and saves resources. Preventive maintenance implementation are more common in systems with redundancy. This helps to manage unavailability due to maintenance activities without impacting business outcomes. Even though, it is not all preventive maintenance activities that requires equipment outage but planning efforts and resources devoted to preventive maintenance can be overwhelming.

Perform precision installation during facilities construction and effective maintenance and operational readiness. The future plant key personnel should be strongly involved in operational readiness and equipment commissioning

Close the loop. Learn from your customer returns and your process incidents, not only by fixing the issue, but look wider: why did we miss it, can similar things happen on other products / in other processes. Use quality tools like 3x5Why. Update your FMEA.

Standardize procedures, workflows, and even equipment configurations. This reduces human error and fosters consistent, reliable production. Use real-time data from sensors, machines, and your people. Use it to optimize processes, predict failures, and make data-driven decisions that bolster reliability. Invest in your workforce. Train them on proper procedures, equip them with problem-solving skills, and empower them to take ownership of quality and reliability. Strategically automate tasks prone to human error or inconsistencies. This frees up your workforce for higher-level tasks and enhances overall production reliability.

Here is something to ponder. Safety should always be the priority. Safety and Reliability go hand in hand. The more reliable the equipment, the fewer human interactions that will be required. The fewer human interactions the lower the risks.

Encourage a culture of experimentation, rapid prototyping, & iterative design. I remember a team hesitant to try a new welding technique. We ran small pilot projects, tweaking & learning with each iteration, finally perfecting the technique & boosting product quality – continuous improvement became our workshop culture. Implement machine learning, robotics, & automated testing to eliminate human error & improve consistency. I collaborated with engineers to automate a laborious quality control process using AI-powered vision systems. This not only improved accuracy but also freed up inspectors for more strategic tasks – humans & machines worked in harmony, not conflict.