What tools can be used for reducing maintenance downtime and unplanned shutdown times?

A Shutdown is the stoppage of a plant or an application, generally due to a problem and maintenance reasons.

Unplanned shutdown times can cost companies thousands or even millions of euros in productivity losses.

Shutdown times are different from breakdowns. A shutdown is considered to be less restrictive as its analysis covers both maintenance and production management (design and planning of material, financial and human resources).

 Several types of shutdown exist.

Shutdowns due to external causes:

These are episodes when means of production are inactive. The causes of these stoppages are outside the company: Lack of supplies, lack of personnel, lack of energy, etc. In this category, production shutdowns are very often due to organisation problems.

Shutdowns due to internal causes:

These stoppages can be attributed to the means of production themselves. We can make a more accurate analysis of internal cause downtime by discerning:

• Breakdown times : caused by a mechanical or motor stoppage, a dysfunction, etc.

• Downtimes : caused by human error or a quality problem.

• Functional downtimes : for the most part, they are planned: controls, tool-changes, adjustments or maintenance of the means of production.

For the sake of simplicity, we can also classify them as follows: Emergency stoppages and planned stoppages.

Emergency stoppages are expensive:

At first sight, it would seem that so-called "emergency" stops mostly affect production line performance and, therefore, the plant’s productivity. This type of event mobilizes part of your maintenance team, which must find the cause of the stoppage and get the equipment back in running order as quickly as possible. During this time, productivity drops, which may affect the plant’s profitability.

The consequences of the stoppage for manufacturers are mainly linked to productivity and can lead to significant losses.  All plants can calculate the hourly cost of an equipment stoppage.

The losses caused by downtime can be assessed by the loss of production, data, reputation and even service life. The most commonly used technique consists of calculating the monetary value of downtimes. How much money does your business lose on account of equipment downtime per minute, per hour, per day or even longer?

Other than financial risks, the difficulty in delivering finished good-quality products on time can also be problematic and create losses of confidence amongst customers.

The main effects of production disruptions are:

• Reductions in operational performance: Repeated micro-stops and increases in production times,
• Increases in waste due to non-compliant products and products without any added value,
• Operator stress, etc.

Even so, many companies still do not calculate their downtime costs. In other words, few companies rely on quantifiable data and are aware of a dysfunction’s cost.  And this continues until they are confronted with this type of problem too late to be able to react as they should.

What tools help to reduce planned shutdown times?

Even planned stoppages are complex and highly expensive projects.  No industrial site is safe from unpleasant surprises that disrupt plans and delay production restarts. Millions of euros can be lost in just a single day.

For reducing, optimising and simplifying installation downtime, increasing safety and reducing related costs:  we propose to companies in all business sectors where handwheels, valves and even shafts need to be turned, a totally adaptable and highly reliable range of top-quality equipment -  our Portable Valve Actuators.

Our main customers are in the following industries: Oil and gas, chemical, nuclear power, energy production, waste and water, food processing, automobile, the navy, shipyards and many others. 

We offer a range of portable valve actuators that run on three different forms of energy for use in all environments:

• Pneumatic portable valve actuators that run on compressed air (which can be ATEX certified on request),
• Battery-driven electrical portable valve actuators
• GAS portable valve actuators.

The choice of energy depends on your environment (indoor/outdoor, the availability of compressed air, ATEX certification requirements, etc.).

Our portable valve actuators meet five main requirements:

• Time-saving:  Improved productivity, especially at the time of shut-downs. Instead of actuating valves by hand, operators save time on account of the speed of our actuators. Installation is easy and intuitive.
• Operator safety: The risks of occupational accidents and occupational diseases are reduced, and better working conditions improve employee satisfaction, which may also increase their productivity when managing with downtimes.
• Protection of materials and items of equipment: Operators are willing and able to carry out good, regular servicing on their installations by on-going maintenance, even on valves that are difficult to access, or which are not easy to operate manually. Torque can be adjusted or limited smoothly, without using “dangerous” methods such as crow-bars pushed through handwheels.
• Cost: Equipment service life can be increased by applying the exact torque required by each element, and precious time can be saved during maintenance operations or line stoppages during shutdowns.
• The inclusion of women: Our actuators enable female labour to be used for tasks reserved to men until now, because opening, rotation and closing forces are generated entirely by the portable valve actuator.