Your plant is hit with unexpected machine breakdowns. How do you maintain inventory levels amidst the chaos?

Machine breakdowns are a nightmare for inventory levels. To stay afloat, we need a multi-pronged approach. First, prioritize repairs, focusing on critical equipment. Next, leverage existing stockpiles and explore emergency procurement options. Finally, analyze the root cause of breakdowns to prevent future occurrences. This strategy minimizes disruption, protects inventory, and ensures our production lines stay running.

To maintain inventory levels during unexpected machine breakdowns, initiate immediate contingency planning. Activate backup production lines or shift workloads to other facilities, if possible. Communicate with key suppliers and customers about potential delays, adjusting delivery schedules to minimize impact. Leverage safety stock and buffer inventory to fulfill short-term demand. Implement a maintenance schedule review to prevent further breakdowns and expedite repairs. Enhance collaboration between production and inventory teams to prioritize critical orders and realign production schedules. Consider outsourcing part of production temporarily to maintain supply continuity.

To run any production pipeline you have to map out processes. In a 3d printing farm, some pieces are more consumed than others. hotends, thermistors , heatbreaks in fdm printing, FEP and ACF film in resin printing. All moving parts need to be properly checked and maintained. Still, critical failures do occur, so keeping a surplus of the most critical parts for your machine is one way to keep production flowing, specially during important deliveries. Another way to mitigate failures is having redundancies , keeping a stock of machines superior to the actual needs. This is sadly not possible for most small operations but just going for that extra machine can be the guarantee of success in critical scenarios.