The Call
I am sure that most of you reading this article have received a call at 2 AM in the morning from an end user whose gearbox has failed. They don’t have a spare available and down time is costing them thousands of dollars. As you stumble to grab a pen and paper you ask yourself, over and over, how can a critical piece of equipment have no spares? Then you realize that in that 250,000 square foot facility there are thousands of conveyors with multiple gearboxes and a small maintenance staff to support all of them. You slowly remove the thought out of your mind and you jump into “can do” mode and make a mental note to keep the pen and paper closer to the night stand because, more than likely, this is going to happen again. Seriously? Isn’t there a smarter way to approach maintenance and repair?
The Challenge
Plant Maintenance Managers are challenged with keeping machines running 24/7. In today’s lean environment machine up time is critical. This requires a knowledgeable maintenance staff that is able to react quickly and a supply chain that is flawless. Having both of these only gets you to the “fire fighting” stage in the hierarchy of maintenance programs! Most manufacturers struggle to make the jump from reactive maintenance to preventative maintenance. A good preventative maintenance program requires a thorough understanding of your critical spares inventory and an extensive knowledge of gearbox failure modes.
The Steps
Manufacturers have taken strides to rationalize their spare parts inventory and implement preventative maintenance programs. These are positive steps towards improving critical machine up time but are they enough? What if you could reduce your critical spares inventory even further and not jeopardize machine up time? What if your maintenance staff could concentrate on making the leap to predictive maintenance and not worry about the day to day fire fighting?
The Solution
Master Power Transmission has taken steps to go beyond being a supplier of heavy duty AGMA rated gear boxes. In January of 2016 we opened up a full service repair facility in Greenville, SC and since then we have invested in putting in place key roles within the company to evaluate your repair needs and the performance of your Power Transmission products. We offer full service repair on Master Power Transmission products, critical spares inventory analysis, swap programs, and critical needs assessments.
Contact us today at 888-616-1094 or at customerservice@master-pt.com to learn more about our service offerings.
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