Here Are Quick Tips to Follow During Machine Breakdown

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Machines are not absolute. They do have errors and sometimes they break down during operation/ working. Unlike humans, they cannot heal themselves and need extra helping hands for repair.

When your machine breaks down, you should not panic or bailout. Rather, you should follow some basic steps to handle the situation. Machines as complicated as CNC machines for quick turnaround machining, construction site machines, and caterpillars come with lots of complex parts. You cannot solve them in a rush. It may ultimately worsen the damage. 

So here are some quick tips to follow if such a scenario ever arrives.

Tips to Follow During Machine Breakdown

A machine breaking down during mid-operation can be very upsetting, especially if you are running a 24-hour machine shop. Then you might have to stop the operation of your shop for repair and maintenance of the machinery. It will cost money but the biggest cost is the time.

Repairing can take much time and it will push your schedule behind by a lot. This can cause heavy losses for businesses like same-day machining services. But you will have to accept the fact that your machines will break down eventually and thus prepare yourself for it. Now here are some quick tips if the machine breaks down.

1. Make sure that there is a breakdown

Repairing a machine is quite costly and time-consuming. If you start the repairing procedure, it will take a lot of time and push your work schedule behind which is unacceptable for fast machining services. So as you know the consequences, you should first make sure that there is actually a breakdown.

So, if any particular part of your machinery isn’t working, take it out and put it back in place again in the proper method. Run it again and see if it is still problematic. Try lubrication and other methods to see if the problem can be solved. If not, then there is an actual breakdown in the machine.

2. Stop all operation

If one part of your machinery is broken, the other parts have a high chance of breaking down due to its effects. If you are running a quick turnaround machining like CNC turning, then this can have heavy consequences in the workpiece. So, to prevent any further loss and breakdown, stop all operations of that particular machine.

3. Call in for repair

Your shop may have some repairing tools ready but they may not be enough for a machinery part repairing. So, call in a repair agency to repair the machine properly so you don’t waste your time with any failed repair attempts.

4. Notify your client about the situation

In a business, honesty and transparency are very important. It helps in creating trust and loyalty between you and your client.

As you have called in for repairs, you will likely be late for delivering the order for your client. Timely delivery of orders is very crucial for businesses like fast machining services.

Late delivery of the product may create some trust issues. So, call your client and explain the whale scenario with honesty. Then you sound like asking if it will be okay to deliver the product late. Mention how many days you may be late to deliver.

5. Hire alternative service for the moment

If your client needs their order to be delivered urgently and cannot tolerate any delay, then it is time for you to take full responsibility and come up with solutions to finish that order.

The best solution is to hire local fast machining services as an alternative solution. The benefit of hiring a local service is that you can place the order instantly and see things to the end. There will be no latency for delivery as it will be in your neighborhood. Also, it will create a good relationship between your business and that local business which will serve in future scenarios.

6. Prepare a protocol for future breakdown scenarios

As you are dealing with the current scenario of your machine breaking down, you should learn as much as you can from it. As it is an inevitable part of a machining business, you should prepare for similar scenarios in the future.

So, gather all the experience and contacts you can from it and prepare a protocol for similar scenarios in the future. Prepare multiple protocols so if one fails, the other can be followed.

Following these scenarios will be good enough to handle any kind of machine breakdown scenario.

Conclusion

Machines will break down. They perform heavy tasks which are impossible to do by humans. They are a crucial part of machining businesses.

As it is the main element of your machining business, you should not compromise anything for their repair. So be prepared for such types of scenarios and handle them with a calm and open mind.