Finding the Hidden Factory

All manufacturers are always eager to be able to produce high-quality products or services. Maintaining or even improving standards and at the same time reducing the rework process is the target to be achieved by companies in general. Several factors are used to assess a company in its efforts to achieve and maintain this standard, those are Availability, Performance, and Quality assessment.

I. Availability

Availability can be elaborated as factories or their tools (equipment, engines, assets) have their own limited operational time. All tools in factories are surely not operated all day long. Obviously, in one week, the equipment cannot operate for more than 7x 24 hours this is the case when the needed equipment is endlessly operated during that period.

There is also equipment in factories according to its normal usage do not need to be operated 24x7, i.e. HVAC is needed in daylight/office hours only.

If a machine is requested and able to operate for 24 hours every day, it can be said that the machine's availability is 100%. For the Air Conditioner case above, if the Air Conditioner needs to be operated for 8 hours, but because it also needs maintenance for two hours the availability rate of the Air Conditioner on that day is 6/8 or 75%. In brief, the availability factor is related to operational time.

Factors that can reduce availability rate:

• Breakdown (No 1 in Picture 1) and
• Setup (No 2 in Picture 1)

Breakdown means obstruction or damage. If there is a breakdown, it obviously reduces the operational time of the machine. The second factor is setup, which is the installation of the equipment for the first time, which includes starting the machine (also for the first time). The setup time obviously reduces the operational time. This implies that the activity of changing and replacing a machine will reduce the machine's availability.

Maintenance and asset management are aimed to reduce breakdowns and the setup process, which will improve the availability rate. With a high availability rate, a higher number of products will be produced as well as earn more income.

II. Performance

The second factor is Performance. The phrase "operational engine" and "operational engine in full speed" are two phrases that have different meanings. Operational machines with maximum speed will produce products as much as they can. The maximum speed cannot be achieved if there is a breakdown or wear and tear in the machine. On the other side, there is a tactic to extend/prolong the machine lifetime by maintaining the machine's speed to medium speed.

The other case that can interfere with the machine's speed is when the machine is often experiencing a "cough" or can be represented in the picture as idle/minor stop.

III. Quality

The third factor is quality. A machine's breakdown can also cause low-quality products or damaged products. Having damaged products can initiate the rework process the rework activity to fix the damages. The more damaged products, the higher the cost that must be burdened to a factory. Repeated machine replacement often can make products that are produced at the machine setup for the first time become low-quality products or below the expected specifications.