Beverage company achieved 19 percent annual cost savings from optimizing maintenance on bottle filler machine. It was done with a support from ARMS...
This beverage company produces and bottles carton upon carton of bottled drinks every day. Reaching the daily quota is imperative to keep retailers happy – and to keep the company in the black.
Yet, recently, the beverage company had been experiencing issues with one of its bottle filler machines. The result was lost downtime and litres of wasted juice.
To fix the costly problem, ARMS Reliability was engaged to perform a Reliability Centred Maintenance (RCM) study. The resulting optimized maintenance strategies reduced costs by 19 percent.
ARMS Reliability recommended building a Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) model.
Equipment data, and current maintenance strategies and tasks, were collated and a Failure Modes Effects and Criticality Analysis (FMECA) was performed in which all the likely and dominant failure modes were identified. Then, the consequences of each failure were added, in line with the company’s corporate risk matrix.
Next, the current maintenance practices were captured in the model so an ‘as is’ simulation of the maintenance strategy could be run for comparison.
The model was then used to simulate the behavior of the machine over its lifetime to determine the impact of the maintenance tasks on the equipment lifecycle costs and risk levels.
Four different scenarios were investigated: Run to Fail (no maintenance), Current Practice, OEM Recommendations and Optimized. The results were then compared.
Benefits of the RCM study
The RCM study delivered these benefits for the company:
- Optimized maintenance strategy
The new maintenance strategy has tasks to address specific failure modes at the appropriate frequency – thus eliminating over- or undermaintenance of equipment.
- Clear cost predictions
An annual maintenance budget (labor and spares cost predictions) over the lifetime of the bottle filler machine was created.
- Highlights cost/risk drivers
The study also identified the top 10 contributing component failure modes to cost, safety, environment and operation risk, enabling the company to focus on ongoing improvement activities.
- Comparison of different strategies
The study showed lifecycle cost comparisons for four different scenarios: Run to Fail (RTF),
Current Practice, OEM and Optimized.
- Identifies opportunities for redesign
The study also identified 11 opportunities for redesign of the system to further improve reliability and availability, and reduce costs.
Outcomes
Armed with the results of the study, the company can now confidently execute the appropriate maintenance tasks on the bottle filler machine, knowing that the maintenance plan has been designed to ensure safe, reliable and economical use of the machine throughout its life.
With 11 failure modes identified as areas for redesign, root cause analysis or investigation, the company can also take a proactive approach – with further opportunities for reliability improvements and risk reduction.
Above all, it’s the bottom line that benefits. The company now uses an optimized maintenance strategy that has reduced the average annual costs by 19 percent compared to current practice.
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