Industrial equipment, just like other equipment, can fail. However, this failure can cause serious problems related to safety, need for repair, and stalled production. If the equipment failure is extensive, it could cause serious losses and even closure of your facility.

If you are in the manufacturing sector, you need to ask one primary question and get the right answer: “What causes equipment failure?” In this post, we are going to outline the main causes of equipment failure and highlight solutions. 

Improper Machine Operation 

In most industries, some people who work with machines have little or no understanding of how they run. While machine operators are trained about the mechanics of each machine in a facility, things can get worse when they are absent. In such situations, the worker who had watched the machine operator run the system takes over. This is risky. Within a short time, such untrained personnel can easily damage the machine.  

To address this challenge, it is important to have many people trained on how to operate the machines. Besides, you should make it mandatory that only those with machine operation skills should run such machines. 

Not Performing Preventive Maintenance 

To operate optimally, industrial machines require timely maintenance. When the time for maintenance comes but the machines appear okay, it is easy to forgo them. After all, no problem has been noted. But the failure to do preventive maintenance is the first step to machine breakdown.

When you miss several maintenance schedules, some machine parts such as gears, rollers, sprockets and belts experience accelerated wear and tear resulting in failure. In most of the cases, poor maintenance ends up causing severe machine parts damages. Replacing these parts can be painfully expensive. 

Poor or Lack of Monitoring

Failure to carefully monitor your machine can also result in failure. Even if you have strictly followed the right maintenance schedule, a mistake/ situation can suddenly arise and cause the machine to fail. For example, a fan belt can slide out of the pulley groove unexpectedly or a boiler getting damaged resulting in overheating. If the equipment was not being monitored, the damage can become extensive, 

The best way to avoid damage to your manufacturing machines, as shown here, is to have sensors installed on your system.  The sensors can easily notify you when there is trouble so that you immediately turn off the system to prevent further damage. 

Equipment can fail unpredictably. To reduce the risk of failure, you need to maintain them properly, train staff and adopt a better-overall culture.