Ultap

About me. 30 years in saw milling industry. Production management, consultant, maintenance and project management. In today’s world where you cannot, don’t want to or it’s very difficult to borrow for major expansions or improvements.

My opinion at no time has your maintenance department been more important. Today you cannot afford a small part to break causing disaster to major components. Poorly maintained machines cost you in loss of quality, lumber recovery,production volumes and moral. Now is the time for preventive/predictive maintenance.

Machinery alignment, vibration analysis, infa-red scanning and oil analysis. Effective week end shifts for majority of your maintenance crew. Now is when time must be utilized to the maximum. A well organized maintenance crew will produce twice as much as poorly organized. All parts and tools required must be ready at the job site.

No time to be wasted looking for parts or tools. A good coordinator is like gold. If you do machinery alignment once per year. Twice per year would be a benefit. Spring and fall. I believe laser alignment is best. A well aligned machine will run smoother, produce more, better quality lumber with less wear and tear on parts and bearings. Vibration analysis must be analysis not just a vibration level. Infa-red scanning can be replace with your own “good” hand held infa-red thermometer.

When you do infa-red scanning, take and record your own reading with your thermometer. Now you can do checks more often. First time you do checks without scanning your thermometer is paid for. Another advantage is you can check after a repair is made which almost never happens with scanning. This infa-red thermometer will also become one of your most valuable trouble shooting tool for bearings and hydraulics. Oil analysis on major gear boxes etc.

Which would put you down for a long time. Being shut down might seem positive today. Wouldn’t you rather make the choice of when you shut down and for how long.