How to automate alerts when machines are down

Many manufacturers have told us about a similar story. It goes something along the lines of:

A regional VP of Ops gets a call saying a machine is down. They say ‘no problem, easy fix, I know that machine! You just jiggle it a couple of times and elbow it. That machine will get back up and running if you do that.’ So they do the jiggling and elbowing and it works. But then they realize that by the time the VP of Ops got the call, that machine had already been down for 24 hours. The operator didn’t notice at first, the shift changed over, the plant manager came in and tried to find the maintenance technician who knew that machine and then played phone tag for a few hours. Before they knew it, 24 hours of runtime were gone, that they could never get back, along with a 10th of the revenue from that plant. 

It really should have been a 30 second fix. So why is this type of firefighting still so common? 

Without automation and real-time alerts on what is happening with machines, these types of scenarios play out all too often. People don’t get the information they need, when they need it, to minimize downtime. Simple automation on your factory floor can help eliminate this unnecessary downtime. By tracking the runtime of your machines, and setting alerts to automatically go out to the right people, you can make sure fixes are implemented in minutes. 

Tools like Guidewheel allow you to create alerts that automatically send notifications as soon as a machine is down. Instead of waiting for a human to notice and alert the right people, the FactoryOps platform automatically detects when a machine is having issues and sends immediate notifications. If the first person notified isn’t able to respond in the right time frame, escalating alerts can then be triggered up the chain of command so that no issue is left unresolved. Operations leaders have confidence that the right people will respond, and staff are enabled to solve issues as fast as possible. Speed to resolution is critical for manufacturing plants. By creating an automated system, manufacturers can ensure that they are not losing valuable dollars on wasted downtime. The quicker the right people can respond, the more productive your plant will be.